Category / Parties + Holidays

Another Oscar Party is in the books! It is so fun to host this little get-together, each year with a different group of girls (someday, I’m hoping to get all different friends who don’t know each other together for this, but until space allows…it’s on a bit of a rotation!)

This year’s scheme was Pantone’s color of the year, Radiant Orchid, with some black and white striped details, and (of course!) dashes of “Oscar gold”.

The theme for the evening was “Sweats encouraged, fabulousness required.” 🙂 It was a relaxing evening spent curled up in yoga pants and blankets, sipping and munching, and chatting away about who wore what (my favorite of the evening was Lupita’s blue Prada!) and which movie should win (I think Wolf of Wall Street was robbed).

Ballots were filled out, and bingo was taken pretty seriously (!)…

And cupcakes, cocktails, and snacks were on hand. (They didn’t make the photo cut, but tortellini skewers with various dipping sauces will be one of my new go-to food items – so easy and yummy even after they’ve cooled.)

And as always, the paparazzi lurked nearby along the red carpet…

Cheers to a fabulous awards season!

Looking for more Oscar inspiration? You can find previous parties via the links for 2013, 2012, and 2011!

I was prepared to settle in for a long session of color scheme perusing for my 4th annual Oscar party…but after mentioning to my co-worker that I was planning to, she immediately called it — “you should use the Pantone color of the year!”. Of COURSE! I’ve had my heart set on incorporating some black and white this year, and certainly there needs to be some glitzy statue gold mixed in, but the front runner color of the theme will be Radiant Orchid! It seems everywhere I look this year, I can find mint colored supplies (but had to search high and low this time last year when it was part of my 2013 scheme)…I’m thinking this year will be the same story — let the hunt for orchid party supplies begin! 🙂

Photo credits: I struck out tracking down original sources of many of these images — please let me know if you know where credit is due! Striped Oscar bags: studiodiy.com; Champagne + black-white runner: http://shelterinteriordesign.blogspot.com/; paper fan: lunabazaar.com.

With the basement completed and ready to use, I quickly threw in a few accessories I’d been hoarding, in time to host a party the weekend we finished. (Nothing like cutting it close!)

Since then, it’s been fun to take a more leisurely approach to finding just the “right” items to bring this level of the house together. Inspired by a couple of friends’ houses and a couple of my favorite bloggers, I wanted to bring more of our personalities into this space and make it FUN. Inspired by rooms like this one and this one, the decorating goal was to make it feel well thought-out and cohesive, while still macho enough to house poker nights and super bowl parties.

For me, decorating down here started with the color scheme. We brought in the white trim, carpet, and tile from the rest of the house for continuity. But with the bulk of our house a light and bright color, I wanted to feel a mood shift when coming into the basement. And for a room that would likely host daytime sports watching, a deeper, darker color would help absorb some light when necessary.

I wanted to go a little more modern and industrial in some areas. The house still had to flow, but if we wanted to do something a little edgier, it seemed a basement was the place to try it. A little less C&B, and a little more CB2, if you will. You might remember the picture above, which I posted this time last year after paint shopping. I knew I wouldn’t find the exact pieces, but pulling together a board of elements helped me get focused.

Now that the space is a reality and I’ve been able to start playing around with accessories and art, I have a list of my favorite things already in here, and a list of things I’d still like to do.

Here are some of my favorite elements in the space:

I love the bar counter top, because it was our own idea and we worked together to make it. We wanted an “old bar” vibe and I love the deep color and hearty depth of it.

This screen print at the top of the stairs by Jude Landry not only supports an independent artist, and is the perfect color to set the tone for coming down to the basement, but the saying floors me. I love when you stumble on something that is just SO perfect — the moment I IMed the link to Page, he said, “We NEED that!”. What I love even more is that it made ME think of the infamous “makers are going to make, and takers are going to take” comment around the election (yep, political alert!) and Page thought of it as a play on the popular lyrics, “haters gonna hate”. With a dual meaning, I love it even more. 🙂

Married on the 29th of September, there are “2 & 9” elements throughout our home. These canvas bins were the perfect way to bring the date into this room, doubling as storage for movies and games. I designed the golf print based on a quote Page loved and wanted on display.

And some future decorating projects:

I’m excited to bring the influence of seasons in here. Especially with the wood elements, I have already snagged some birch logs and have my eye on some hearty baskets to put to use in here as the temperatures drop. As the holidays approach, I’d like to incorporate the colors of the walls with some more “cabin” type holiday elements like evergreen branches and reindeer.

I’ve considered and decided against several things for this long wall opposite the bar that leads from the stairwell into the living room. I think I’ve settled on the the idea of a collage of frames (either random sizes/arrangements, or super linear like this) with a common theme. Whether they house a collection of personal photos… or a set of Friends quotes… or prints I make of the various area codes we’ve lived in together…remains to be seen. 🙂

This wall behind the seating area in the main space needs something as well. I’m hoping it might work to incorporate this deer (in silver). I ordered it weeks ago, but it has been back-ordered over and over again and will finally arrive later this month. I like a quirky element here and there that raises an eyebrow – and love that it’s a great play on basements that may ACTUALLY boast real deer heads. I’m not sure it’s enough to hold this wall on its own, so a couple flanking pieces are on my lookout list.

The bathroom turned out to feel larger than either of us anticipated when building. Even after adding in the vanity and allowing plenty of “swing room” for the door to our HVAC closet, I’d like to bring in something cool into one of the corners of this room for a little added interest. It would be great if it could double as storage for some not-so-pretty-to-display stuff like bleach and toilet cleaner. 🙂

There are a few, less exciting, things we might add if we feel they’re needed – like curtains over the bamboo blinds on the window for more light-blocking, and I’m always open to some cool dishes to have on hand in the bar. I love a good decorating project and this one promises to be a fun one!

Earlier this week, I posted a re-cap of the progress we made from last September through January, and our “final stretch” to-do list between June and July. I didn’t even get a chance to take many “finished” pics before we jumped in and started decorating, installing speakers and the TV, and wired a good ol’ dartboard on the wall. We figure we’ve waited long enough, and that we should start enjoying the space immediately! It will be fun to continue to play with the decor and find just the right details for this space, but we’ve definitely gotten started!

Welcome to our basement…

STAIRWELL
The stairwell to the basement was already finished and carpeted by the builder when we moved in. We added two step lights and additional switches to toggle the hallway lights from the top of the stairs, as well as some decor (future post coming on the decorating — of course!).

WET BAR
For the wet bar, I drew out the cabinet configuration in a design program, working from standard-size, unfinished cabinet dimensions. We painted these ourselves and made the counter from planks that we stained and glued together for an “old bar” look. (You can read more about the detailed process of building the bar here.) The cabinet color is Valspar’s “Storm” and the hardware came from here.

STORAGE CLOSETS
Because of the supporting walls, the space under the stairs was already sectioned off so we hung a door to make the area accessible as a storage closet. We also needed access to our HVAC and left room around it for additional storage space. Rather than ending up with a row of three doors down this wall, (to the closet, to the bath, and to our HVAC), we opted for a non-twilight zone vibe and kept it to just an under-stairs closet and put an access door to our utilities closet inside the bathroom.

BATHROOM
I fell in love with this image when planning the bathroom. When all of the industrial-looking vanities we liked turned out to be hundreds more than we wanted to pay, we ordered a sofa table (no longer available) and Page picked out an awesome vessel sink and faucet and made us our own. The mirror came from Lowe’s and the light fixtures from Home Depot. For something a little unexpected (but also something easy to change out down the road), we had this room painted in Sherwin-Williams HGTV “Antiquity”.

LIVING ROOM
In addition to tiling in front of the bar, we ran tile from the bathroom into the entry area in front of the exterior doors. We used the same carpet and tile that is in the rest of the house for the sake of continuity, since the lower level is otherwise a big departure from the aesthetic of the upstairs. Inspired by the house of a friend, Page created the trim above the doors and window totally ad-hoc (stud alert!).

Page schemed and framed the media wall all in one night. He designed it to have three sections of storage – the largest/middle for media components and the shelves on either side are already storing DVDs, games, and other stuff. I’m anxious to find more cool large pieces to flank either side of the ledge (you can see I’ve already started to play around!).

This one’s for the dudes. When we built our home, Page ran extra speaker cables to various spots in the basement, anticipating that we would eventually finish it. He installed the same Polk in-wall system we have on the main floor. I can tell you first-hand…they sound amazing!

As for the lighting, we put our ceiling cans and wall sconces on separate switches (and with dimmers) to accommodate different situations. The sconces came from Lowe’s and the wall color is Sherwin-Williams HGTV “Indigo Batik”.

Later, we removed one sconce and used the spot to hard-wire an electronic dartboard. It’s so hard to imagine when it’s just 2x4s how everything will lay out exactly, but we ended up with a great spot behind the sofas to create a darts area. We don’t miss the light at all (there’s plenty down here!) and I love that we don’t have to see the cord from plugging in the game.

After running the vacuum a final time and scheduling our final inspection walk-through with the city (happening Monday and that bright orange paper hanging in the door can finally come down!), we can collapse onto our comfy couches and high five.

Thanks for following along on our basement-finishing journey. It’s been a lot of sweat and dust and craziness, but we are in love with the additional space. As the furnishing, decorating, and eventually the patio space all come together, I’ll be sure to post updated photos – I’ve had so much fun decorating down here already…but  there are a couple more things on order that I’m very excited to add down here!