THE TEEN ROOM: AN EVOLUTION
Basements can go one of two ways – gross, cluttered, and cob-web filled – or organized, tidy, and functional. My basement has experienced both of these states!
My friends who know me know that I tend toward being organized and tidy, so can you image how I felt when my basement looked like this??
Despite the crazy mess, I have tried to organize and reorganize the basement for years on a budget of $0, and all efforts would fall apart.
I couldn’t take it anymore, and my kids are getting to the age that they could really benefit from having their own hang-out space (plus I won’t need to listen to loud 13-year old boys playing video games!)
So, I started gathering things to create a cool teen room!
After years of having no money for anything above-and-beyond survival, I got really good at finding deals! Here’s a breakdown of some of the things I bought for their space and where I bought them:
- Air Hockey Table – free! – from a friend via Front Porch Forum
- Foosball Table – $30 – at Goodwill
- Large-screen TV – $100 – off of Craigslist
- TV Sound System – $130 – clearance at Costco (originally about $300)
- Drum Set – $7 – yard sale
- Dart Boards – I don’t remember – probably a yard sale, for cheap
- Large wool rug – free – via Front Porch Forum
- Smaller wool rug – from the house I grew up in
- Guitar – $50 – yard sale
- Keyboard – free – a gift from my sister
Not so bad!!
Finally – and here’s the heftiest price tag – I hired my favorite handyman to build walls at a price of $1,100 for materials and labor. These walls separate the kids’ space from storage and utilities and was well worth that cost and I’m grateful I was able to do that!
I’m not one to tolerate very much clutter, so the teen room needed an entertainment center to have a place to store all of the stuff! I looked on Pinterest for ideas and came up with purchasing used kitchen base cabinets and building up from there.
I went to our local recycled building supply store, Resource, and purchased these three base cabinets for $130! It took me two trips to get them home in my little Suzuki, but didn’t end up needing to pay for delivery!
I still plan on painting the cabinets, but was anxious to get them in place. Then I decided I wanted to paint the walls and brighten things up before I installed the cabinets, so I painted the cement walls with some paint I had laying around.
It really made things much more cheerful!
I will also still build up from the cabinets and put shelves on top.
To build the countertop I purchased three pine boards.
Mistake number one: I forgot that a 1×8 isn’t really 1″x8″, so I tried for a 2″ overhang, but it ended up just covering the top of the cabinet. Not the end of the world – at least it fit. But, something to remember in the future!
Mistake number two: thinking I can eyeball where to screw. That is why you see oddly placed plugs for the screw holes. I also used a countersink drill bit and didn’t go quite deep enough on some of the holes.
Mistake number three: Even though I used a mallet to hammer in the plugs, it still dented up the wood. So, I should have used a piece of scrap 2×4 to cushion the blow.
I suppose this is the place to make the mistakes and learn! The kiddos won’t care!
The kids are really loving the space! The woodstove keeps it comfortable and there’s firewood stored on the other side of the wall. And there’s lots of fun stuff to do either on your own or with friends!
There’s still more that needs to be done:
- Build the shelves on top of the cabinets
- Paint the ceiling
- Get real electricity run through the room (now we have two power strips)
- Build a few more small walls to create a closet
- Put risers on the stairs and paint the stairs
- Put shiplap on the walls of the stairs going down and on the new walls that currently have particle-board.
- Maybe put some sort of coating on the floor
- Get a real couch in here!
I’ll gradually pick away at those things, but for now the kids and I are happy to have a functional, comfortable, and fun room for the teens to hang out!
