Our unfinished finished basement.

OK, I make a big deal about this project, and for most of you it will probably totally boring. But I think it is the space in our home I am most proud of. AND it involves no molding. Shocking, I know. There's not even much decorating going on.

But there was a TON of decluttering and organizing involved, which I'm a total sucker for.

Our basement is pretty large, and last year I was feeling frustrated with the TOTAL DISGUSTING PIT it had become. (You'll see what I mean in a second.) What a waste of space! And our son was getting to the push toy/ride on toy/large massive take up ten square feet toy stage.

I was on a mission to make the space usable and enjoyable to be in. Which is a feat for an unfinished basement. I started with the stairs. They were unfinished, with white walls and kitty litter greeting you as you went down. Uhhhh...welcoming:

Grody.

So I bought a gallon of paint, painted the walls, replaced the $5 ugly light fixture, and bought carpet and really good padding for the steps that my father in law installed:

I found this massive NYC photo at Goodwill, SCORE!! It is perfect in this space:

I used the stair treads that were on the steps, put them under the stairway, and put the litter in that spot. Perfectly out of the way:

As you come to come down the steps, this is what we used to see:

A bunch o' crap. Oh, just wait my chickees...it gets worse. MUCH WORSE.

This is what it looks like now, as my "craft/tool room":

I purchased three of the white shelving units, not much else. We had everything else, I just made it work. I've decided this area will be my girly area -- I don't have any other space to do this in the house, and it's getting totally girlified:

As girlified as you can get with cement floors and walls, but still. Stay tuned for some updates.

As you walk to the left, this is what it looked like:
AHHHH!!! OH my goodness, I told you! Can I tell you this wasn't even the worst of it? I had already started sorting this area before I took this picture.

This is what it looks like now:

Dang it. I have room to work out.

To the left again, this is what it looked like:
This is it today:

Total play area, and we all love this space. The carpet was a GREAT price, $80 for about 12 by 16 feet. The train table was $10 at Goodwill, the "roller coaster" is being borrowed from a friend who didn't want it in her basement. HA!

As you walk in a little more, this was before:

This is it now. Hubby works down there, it really is that comfortable:

The area to the right will eventually be his office.

As you look back into the basement, this is what you used to see (stairs on the right):

Atrocious.

Here it is today:
And finally, the area in the back, that will be the office:

Is now just storage. Let's count the Christmas bins, shall we?
OK, really, let's not. Really. I still want to do yet another massive purge in this area this year to get rid of half of this stuff. We'll need to in order for it to fit into what will eventually be the workout/storage room.

We have grand plans for this space, but it will still probably be next year before we finish it. Until then, I've turned it into a whole floor that we really, really do use, comfortably. Total, the stairway transformation cost more than the whole basement did. It cost very little for remnant carpet, new, brighter lights and some storage.

Oh, yeah. And getting rid of your crap is free. Just sayin'.

I luuuuurve basements. What about you -- do you love them, hate them? Do they creep you out? Give you the heebies? Or do they make you feel all warm and cozy? Is yours finished? Or an indoor pool?