How to Remodel a Dark Basement
Basements can represent a second or third floor in your home, but that space is only useful if people want to spend time there. Unfortunately, too many basements are nothing more than dungeons and bunkers, light-deprived and devoid of a sense of life. You can remedy this problem and add an entire floor to your house practically overnight with a few practical renovations, many of which you can do yourself. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Install windows. A below-ground window is not an easy project nor an inexpensive one, but the cost of having a window installed is well worth the money. There is just no substitute for natural light. Even one window, if strategically located in the center wall of the main basement room, will shed enough light to lift the space literally out of the dark ages. A basement with windows will also deliver a substantial return on investment if you sell your house.
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Consider building codes. Windows large enough to serve as exits in emergencies are required in most communities if anyone will sleep in the basement. If you are planning to remodel the basement to include a bedroom, an egress window will be mandatory.
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Renovate the electrical package. Since covering exposed rafters in a basement ceiling is usually a part of a good remodeling project, use the current open access to the rafters as an opportunity to install new wiring and lighting fixtures. Rooms without windows require double or triple the amount of artificial lighting that an upstairs room is normally equipped with, so do not scrimp on the junction boxes. Consider adding a new circuit to your household service box to handle the basement.
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Install recessed pot lights around the perimeter of the basement, on 30- to 36-inch centers. Pot lights will wash the walls with light in a very effective manner.
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Add plenty of smaller fixtures, including track lights, pendant lights over table and task areas, hockey puck lights, floor lamps in corners and plenty of traditional table lamps for activities like reading and studying. Do not use fluorescent fixtures or compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs in basement lighting fixtures. Fluorescent tubes and CFL bulbs both emit a light that is far too cool for a basement. Install incandescent or halogen bulbs in these lamps and fixtures instead. Halogen bulbs are energy hogs, but the light they produce is extremely pleasing and just the tonic for a dark basement.
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Paint the walls in bright, warm, light-reflective colors. A dark basement will be instantly lifted with a coat of arctic white, butter-cream yellow or solid orange- and red-toned paints. Even deep terra cotta red paint will feel warm and cozy. Avoid all cool colors like greens and blues and violets, even in pastel shades. Olive green is an exception to this rule, but only if it leans toward the yellow side of the spectrum.
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A light-colored floor treatment is also important. Carpeting, tile, linoleum or wood should be light and bright. You can faux paint concrete basement floors to look like gleaming white marble.
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