When it comes to home renovation, I am always the one coming up with ideas. From the purpose of the place to furniture placement, from the vibe of the room to the paint color, I spent weeks contemplating every detail of the room before presenting them to Slav. Planning our basement renovation was no exception. As soon as we decided to make the north side a master suite, I kept feeling the large space we called “living room” should become our new media room.
Let me remind you this space we called “basement living room” for the past two years. It is the first room you walk into when entering the basement, and it is a large 22′ x 12′ common space that opens to all the bedrooms, the hall bath, and the laundry space.
During the first year we lived in the house, we combined the laundry room and the neighboring bedroom to create a big utility room. Last year, we removed the wall between the new utility room and the basement living room to create an open floor plan.
Most recently, we converted the remaining two bedrooms into one big master bedroom, and expanded the hall bath into a bigger master bath. The current floor plan looks like this:
As you can see, this 22′ x 12′ “living room” space has become a buffer zone between the basement entry and our master suite. It is still the first room you walk into when entering the basement, and the only room from which we access the most private space in the house. Functionally speaking, this space should have some characteristics of a sitting room, where we could curl up with a book, as well as those of a family room, where we could sprawl out for a movie. When we host guests, who will be sleeping on the main floor, this room should function as the second living room to which we could retreat and relax in private.
Therefore, we decided that this room functions the best as a media room, which will house a comfortable sofa, bookshelves, and our projector/home theater setup for late night movies. We also envision a dry kitchen/bar area so we can make hot and cold beverages without going up to the main floor.
This room is a long 22′ x 12′ space and could comfortably house everything we need for a media room. After getting Slav’s input on the home theater setup, we have decided to put a TV on the west wall neighboring the bedroom; the projector screen will be mounted on the ceiling right in front of the TV so we can get more cinema experience while watching movies.
A big sofa on which both of us and our dogs can sprawl out will be placed in the middle of the room, facing the TV/projector wall.
Behind the sofa will be a reading area. I imagine a big, comfortable chair surrounded by several small bookcases and a big electrical fireplace. It will be where I hibernate during Christmas.
The big opening to the utility room will not remain open, and the utility room will not stay as an unfinished laundry space. Our basement 2.0 plan includes finishing the utility room as a dry kitchen, with a big island on the right half of the opening facing the media room. We would like to be able to serve some drinks and make simple breakfast in the basement, which will be extremely helpful during the main kitchen renovation.
Despite of calling it a media room, I try not to let it become a mancave. Slav does not crave that vibe and I do not want to create a place meant for isolation. Aesthetically speaking, I would like the new media room to be just as cozy, calming, and breezy as a bedroom, which can be a challenge with all the media equipment such as TV, projector, and speakers. We are in the process of choosing the flooring, picking paint color and making furniture decisions while our contractor is still working on the bathroom. Below is a sneak peek and I cannot wait for the day when the bathroom finishes!
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