My Head's in the Basement....

At our little home, we have 900 square feet. Finished. We have another 900 square feet in the basement, unfinished. Well, semi-finished. We have white paneled walls, but unfinished floors.
For the time being, our basement has been our junk/storage/Mr. Free's studio space. (He is an artist after all...MUST have his studio space).
I feel like this area is TOTALLY wasted. I mean....that could DOUBLE our usable space!
But....our current project budget: $0.
Really? It's less than $0....but I'm being generous.

I am creative though. Ask anyone...I AM creative. I'm not organized or particularly smart, but I *am* creative, darn it.

So...I have all these beautiful visions of what could be in our beloved basement, but most of those visions come with a price tag.

In my quest for inspiration I stumbled upon 2 insiprations that I hope to use to help spruce up the place.

Inspiration no. 1:


This is Viv's basement studio space. Isn't it great?!
Mr. Free still needs studio space, so that must stay. We'd also like a lounge area in addition, so we can do a bit of informal entertaining down there.
I love her mix of "basement-y" features, as well as home-y accents, like her beautiful side board.

Inspiration no. 2:

This credenza comes from Little Green Notebook's home office. I LOVE this pop of BOLD color! The upstairs of our home is pretty mellow...mainly neutrals. We stuck with that kinda boring theme since is our house is so small. The basement however is where I want to play with color. Downstairs is where we feature Mr. Free's *amazing* art work. (How blessed am I to live with an artist?!!) I want FUN color!!!
Last year Mr. Free and I bought a sewing table at a thrift store that is about the size of a credenza. It is off-white and kinda dingy.
A couple of months ago, Valspar was giving away free samples of paint. I got a quart of mint green.
I'm thinking our sewing table needs some COLOR!

I'll post some pics of our ever-in-progress basement soon. Anybody have any other ideas or inspirational pictures??? PLEASE pass them along!!!