KC Chiefs Basement Makeover

Ben has wanted to paint the basement for quite a while. I happened to like the way it was painted, but I do want him to have his space and be happy, since the rest of the house is the way I like it. When he first started talking about it, he was determined to paint the lower part red, the top half black, and the chair rail yellow. I just couldn't get behind that idea. I tried to talk him into black on bottom and white on top with all of his red accessories, but we had to come to a compromise. Here are a few shots of the nice colors we had down there before.

Kara was happy to get to help me with the white coat. The paint we got was not what I'm used to working with. It took 3 coats of white, 4 coats of red, and at least 4 coats of black, and in some places, 5 coats of black. It took 3 entire days, but I did get it done eventually. I originally thought it would take maybe 7 hours. But I wasn't anticipating having to do so many coats.

All finished. Well, I still might paint the baseboard, but finished enough. This is Ben's favorite wall. That is a fathead arrowhead. I was not willing to try to freehand paint one myself.

A shot with his new TV. The old one stopped working a few weeks before Christmas, so he took the opportunity to upgrade. Since we no longer needed the base we were using for the old TV, he got that fireplace to put below. It actually does a pretty good job of warming the basement.

As soon as we get his Joe Montana poster in the correct size frame, everything will be perfect.

Now he's just dreaming of the day when the girls are done keeping their toys down there, so he can tear out the closets/play area and build out a bar. In the mean time, it's still a pretty fun place to hang out.

I was really concerned when I finished painting, before we put the furniture back. It looked so much like Mickey Mouse's clubhouse. I was horrified. I was ready to redo all of it, even though I was pretty tired from 3 days of painting all day. But now that the furniture is back and his accessories are up, it's not quite as bad as I thought.

For Christmas he got these red cubes for the shelves, so we can fit more toys and things, and you really don't have to see any toys when the girls aren't down there playing.

We didn't fill every inch of space, so if he gets new things here and there, it wont be too much trouble to find places for them.

Notice the yellow stripe on the column. He wants to do the same thing on the front/arrowhead/tv wall. But I just think it's too much. So that is still undecided.
He loves it, and that's the most important thing. I wouldn't want to spend my time and energy on a basement he didn't love spending time in. So mission accomplished.