Wow! What a Difference New Lighting Can Make–The Basement Is Almost Done Now

Welcome to the 745th Metamorphosis Monday! One week ago I shared an update on the storage/workroom part of my basement. I had just had flooring installed…the same type of epoxy flooring seen here in the garage.

Granite Garage Flooring, Garage Makeover

 

I was surprised and a little disappointed when I saw how it looked here in the basement. It seemed a lot darker in this room than it had in the garage.

Epoxy Flooring, Unfinished Basement

 

Ummm. I decided the reason it looked so much darker had to be due to the not-so-great lighting in this space. The only lighting in this room was two bare lightbulbs and the natural lighting that comes in through the two windows at the very end of the room. If there’s one thing I’ve learned during the recent renovations I’ve been doing is when you update or renovate one thing in a room, it opens up a giant can of worms!

Epoxy Flooring for an Unfinished Basement Storage Room

 

Quick reminder: This is how this space looked when I first started the renovations. We’ve come a long way, so why stop now with sub-par lighting?

 

On Friday, an electrician added 10 recessed lights to this space. Wow! What a difference!

New Flooring, New Lighting, Basement Storage Room

 

This was the flooring I was hoping to see!

Updated Lighting for Basement Storage Room

 

I’m so happy to be rid of those bare bulbs. They created so much glare in this space. The recessed lighting is such an improvement and now the flooring looks light and bright.

New Lighting for Basement Storage Work Room

 

But what about the storage room here at the end of the room? Did it get a lighting update, too?

 

This is how the lighting was in this space–again two bare bulbs. I’m 5’4″ tall, so I could easily walk underneath the lights without running into them, but the glare they created right in my face wasn’t too comfortable when moving around in this space.

 

The electrician added 4 recessed lights to this room and now it’s so much brighter! The height inside the crawl space storage room from the floor to the floor joists and the new lighting overhead is exactly 6 feet. So anyone under that height can now walk in and through this space without worrying about bumping into a light bulb.

New Lighting for Storage Room Basement

 

In less than 2 weeks, baseboard will be installed and all the walls will be painted. Right now, I’m leaning toward going with white for both the walls and the trim. I want to keep this room as bright and happy as I possibly can. I’ve purchased two white cabinets with doors to go along the wall on the right–I’ve realized I just don’t care for the open shelving in this room. The wreaths that are hanging on the ends of the current shelving are going into the crawl space storage room.

New Flooring, New Lighting, Basement Storage Room

 

I have the perfect spot to hang them here inside this storage room, but I wasn’t sure how to hang them since I didn’t want to drill into the concrete wall.

 

I ordered 4 of these hangers and two arrived today.

 

 

This hanger comes with adhesive strips on the underside, but so far I haven’t had to use them.

 

 

They are working great for holding the wreaths here on this foundation wall, and that’s without using the adhesive tabs on the underside.

 

Here’s a close-up showing how the hanger drapes over the top of the wall. (Hooks are available here: Wreath Hooks.)

 

I have enough space for at least two more wreaths along this wall. Update: I moved the ladders and will be able to hang all 5 wreaths along this wall.

 

I also had the electrician swap out my upstairs hall lights for recessed lighting. I’ll share that in a different post since this one is getting kind of long. This basement storage room project is at last winding down. Once the baseboard is installed and the walls are painted, I’ll move the freezer and my workbench back into the room, along with the new storage cabinets. So the next update for this space should be coming in just a couple of weeks and I think it will be a really nice one. Paint can make such a difference!

New Lighting for Basement Storage Work Room

 

I still need to have LVP flooring installed on the finished side of the basement. That will probably be a project for later in the summer. Thanks so much for coming along on this journey!

Basement After Painting

 

Looking forward to all the great Before and Afters linked for this week’s Met Monday! Pssst: Did you know Between Naps On The Porch is on Instagram? You’ll find me on Instagram here: Between Naps On The Porch. Like to know when a new blog post is up? Subscribe for email updates (it’s free) and your e-mail will never be shared. Subscribe for free post updates here: Subscribe.

Metamorphosis Monday: Metamorphosis Monday is a party that’s all about Before and Afters. Please link up your Before and After projects like DIY projects, room makeovers, craft projects even recipes. Please do not link up Table Settings, save those for our Tablescape Thursday party on Thursday. If you are participating in Met Monday, you’ll need to link your post to the party using the “permalink” to your MM post and not your general blog address. To get your permalink, click on the name of your post, then copy and paste the address that shows in the address bar at the top of your blog, into the “url” box for InLinkz when prompted. NOTE: Please do not link up more than 3 posts from your blog. In order to link up, you’ll need to include a link in your post back to the party so visitors to your blog can find the other party participants.  When linking up to the party, give the InLinkz system time to find the link in your post to avoid having your link held for moderation/approval. Thanks!

 

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Comments

  1. You are inspiring me to organize our basement storage room. The epoxy floor looks great! I am checking out those wreath holders!

    Jill – Doused in Pink

  2. It looks fabulous! Such an inspiration- thanks for sharing. I have a dark upstairs hall and am looking forward to that post!

    • I hope to share it soon. I really, really need to have that hall painted now since you can see the “ring” left from the old light. lol

  3. As I’ve mentioned to you before, our house is almost identical to yours with the exception of decor styles. Why not have the heating/AC ducts moved to the areas between the floor joists which would look so much better and would certainly be a good selling point. Ours are completely between the joists and look very neat.

    • Laura, how old is your home? How tall are the ceilings in your basement? Mine are 8 feet tall. When my home was built in 1982, I don’t think finished basements were quite as popular as they are now, so I don’t think that would be possible. One of the ducts runs across to the laundry room which is located above the crawl space storage room. It’s the one you see going into that room. I’ll be having a new thermostat installed upstairs sometime soon, I’ll ask the HVAC guy but I don’t think it’s possible.

    • Laura, I was just looking at the duct work again and thinking back to discussions I’ve had with contractors. One said that I could move the large black sewer line in the middle of the room over to the wall and a soffit (or whatever it’s called) could be built around that. As for the ductwork, noone has suggested a better way to run it. Since we can’t cut through the floor joists that are all running horizontally across the room–the full length of the room, to reroute the ductwork would involve building soffits on the sides around the room (I guess) in order to get A/C and heat to the dining room, kitchen and laundry room overhead. I am concerned that would decrease the A/C and heat coming from those vents due to routing everything a much longer way with some sharp bends/turns, instead of the more direct route that they are running now. I’m guessing the floor joists may be running a different direction in your basement ceiling and/or you have higher ceilings in that area.

  4. Amy Byman says

    Need moderation. Thanks!

  5. Wow! What a great idea to update that area! One question, what do you use to cover your Christmas tree? We keep ours assembled in our basement as well but I just have a sheet over it. Just wondering if you’ve found something better.
    Re your wreaths. I’ve been in a friends storage room and she had a wall of leg board. Then got hooks similar to what you see in stores and has all her wreaths hanging from the hooks. I, myself, have bought inexpensive wreath hangers from Dollar Tree and Christmas Tree Shop. I then hung them over my storage cabinet doors in my basement, then hung my wreaths on them. I also have a portable hanging clothes rack in my basement. On my wreath, I added an extra loop over the hanger for the wreath , then put that loop over a clothes hanger and hang that on the rack. All my wreaths are hanging neatly just like clothing. Easy to see each one! I’m just realizing now, how many wreaths I have…… yikes!

    • Oh, I love those ideas for hanging wreaths! I may have to do that with one of my wreaths since I have 5 and I think I only have room for 4 along that storage room wall. This is the tree cover I purchased back in December: https://amzn.to/3pmUOeQ . It says currently unavailable. It’s sort of a weird shape, not really very Christmas tree-shaped. This one looks nice and has great reviews. Wish I had seen it when I ordered mine: https://amzn.to/3nJ1pjp

  6. You’ve done so much with those storage spaces–such upgrades! Bright and clean. Can’t wait to see the next update.

  7. Maureen says

    What a transformation! A great space you have created. No dungeon at your house!!!!

    • Thanks, Maureen! It felt like one before, that’s for sure. lol I’m kinda surprised the two previous owners never did anything to really improve that space. I guess we all expect more out of basements now than we did in the past.

  8. Beautiful Susan, you have unlimited storage space now! Thanks for the party~

  9. Susan You’ve added so much value to your home. It’s gorgeous and looks like a completely different world down there! Thanks for having us over.

  10. Oh, Susan, I love your basement improvement project so much. You are fine-tuning everything to the nth degree. You’re making your house so perfect, you’ll never want to leave, lol. Gosh, I really love what you’re doing down there.

    At first, I thought perhaps the floor looked darker than the garage because the workmen might have used more of the flecks you mentioned. But apparently not. It IS amazing how different it looks under the improved lighting. Well, all I can say is good for you for making these excellent improvements. If you ever do sell your house, you’ve already made it so much nicer for the new owners.

    • Thanks so much, Pam! I wondered about that too but the company told me they have a set formula, so it never changes. Plus, I had noticed before I had the new lighting added that where the light shone directly down on the floor, it was much brighter. So it was just a lack of good lighting. I’m glad the floor looked darker now because it gave me a good reason to update the lighting. Lighting makes such a difference in a space!

  11. Hi, I’ve been following your project…and your are correct –lighting makes all the difference. I think painting your shelving white helped in that storage room also!
    Great results!

  12. Susan, you have done such an amazing job. I love what you have done. I hope everyone appreciates the time and expense.

  13. Wow – what a transformation! The new lighting is really impressive, and it’s got me thinking how I can add some more light to my house! Thanks for the inspiration, as always, and for hosting the party! Have fun down in the basement!

  14. Tina W Reynolds says

    What a wonderful basement, made even more perfect. I love the epoxy floor! I will look forward to seeing the cabinets. I am with you: the older I get, the less I like open shelves to clean, unless they are truly meaningful in a decorative sense, which isn’t the case with storage. Your “can of worms” lament is all too true. It happens here each and every time we get going on “a conservative little project”! Recently I attended an open house at a nice home with a friend who is looking to buy. It was so pretty but all I could think of was, “well, I’d need a new sofa and my old chairs would really look bad…” LOL!

  15. Susan,
    Thanks so much for hosting this wonderful party each and every week!! I really appreciate the time and effort that goes into it! Thank You!! I hope you are having a great week!!
    Hugs,
    Deb

  16. Emma Johnson says

    You’ve transformed the storage spaces so much – such amazing upgrades! The area looks so bright and clean. I’m excited to see what you have in store for the next update.

  17. Looks fabulous….and I love the way you hang your wreathe. I used to do the same in our basement…not that it looked anything like yours! SO pretty. Now we have a storage cage in the basement garage of our building. I store the wreaths in clear plastic garbage bags and use hooks to hang them on the open fence material that surrounds the cage. Works for me…and keeps them clean. But….I am drooling over your gorgeous basement!

  18. Wow, what a difference good lighting makes, right?! The space looks so much lighter, brighter and airier. Love how the flooring looks and it looks equally beautiful as the garage! The lights in the crawl space is another “wow” because it sure makes a difference in how it feels in there. It’s the gorgeous floor in the outer storage area that has a huge impact on how it looks though. It really is a happy looking space now! Once painted and the baseboard is in, it will really rock Susan! Hugs, Brenda

  19. Hi Susan, just a thought. Maybe if you finished off the ceiling, painted it white, the floor may look brighter. I know you mentioned you were disappointed that it looked dark. The light would bounce off the ceiling and make everything appear brighter. How exciting to finish the basement!

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