<p>This might sound like a silly question but thought i could get some insight as always.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking of trying to make my basement a little bit nicer. 2013 has new windows in store. It’s currently separated into four rooms… Oil/ furnace room, a work room, a storage room with lots of shelves, and one big open area which is kind of like a living area with laundry and a usually finished half bath too the side.</p>
<p>The common denominator here is that most of the rooms have painted cinder block walls. I have old steam heat in the house and the piping for this runs along all of the walls in the basement which would make finishing the basement much harder and more expensive. The ceilings aren’t really high enough to do a drop ceiling either so they would need to be dry walled and i really don’t want to duo that so there are no plans to finish the basement at this time.</p>
<p>The living area does have carpet down. What I’m wondering is if there is an economical to make the walls look less like cinder block. Can they be smoothed out with dry wall spackle and re painted? Would that chip off?</p>
<p>I’m thinking of putting a pool table there and some seating and if i can get the walls more smooth then I’d like to point a projector on one of them for movies and sports in this hypothetical hang out room.</p>
<p>Any thoughts or should i just hang a sheet? Lol</p>
<p>Instead of hanging a sheet, you could install a pull down projector screen (like we had in school in the 60s/70s). For the walls, a quick fix to warm it up and hide the block walls would be curtains. </p>
<p>Track hardware like this would allow you to install a long run of floor to ceiling curtains. If you can sew straight seams, you can buy a bolt of fabric and customize the length to suit your needs. </p>
<p>How wide/large is your basement living area? Just saw show yesterday where they used kitchen cabinetry to line the walls and create tons of storage. Their first option however was cheap bookcases which they couldn’t use because their ceilings were too high.
You could buy a pull down projection screen and attach it to the ceiling.</p>
<p>You can glue fabric on the walls to look like wallpaper-easier to remove too. I did see on Pinterest someone that painted their cinderblock walls to look like slate. If you go there you can probably search for a lot of ideas…not sure if we can post links to Pinterest or not.</p>
<p>It’s not all that difficult to put up firing strips and drywall either. You just have to work around the pipes, which can either be left exposed (painted to match wall color) or enclosed in a hollow beam.</p>
<p>If you want to use a projector, I would buy a real screen. Having it on the wall is ok but if you plan to use it a lot, a real screen is better.</p>
<p>All in all it’s probably about 1000 sq foot but the room in question is maybe 600 sq foot or so and an L shape. I haven’t measured everything yet. Just looking for ideas. Curtains could be a nice idea. I could even hang them to separate the laundry area from the living area. There are several windows that have icky curtains now that i plan to replace once i get the new windows. </p>
<p>My problem with the pipes is they are butted right up against the wall and secured to the wall so dry wall doesn’t fit behind them. So id have to build out the walls and enclose them. I actually kind of like them exposed because they are quite hot and they warm up the room to the point that i don’t need heat down there in the winter!! </p>
<p>Some potential thoughts:
-Paint a bright fun color on a wall or two. A bright color for the entire space could be too much, but an accent wall will divert attention from the concrete block.
-Paint the ceiling AND any pipes or ductwork on the ceiling, a dark color (like they do in old warehouses, restaurants, or lofts, to make it blend and become a background).
-Selectively drywall an accent wall placed slightly in front of a concrete block wall. It softens the room, adds visual interest, and can hide selective piping or even storage if space is available. You’ll sometimes see this method used in contemporary office spaces in old warehouse buildings. The old brick, stone, or concrete is exposed, but framed or slightly hidden by a drywall partition that can also house new electric wiring. An accent wall can also become the focal point for a flat screen TV.</p>
<p>I personally would not plaster over the concrete block. Given the age of the house, and probably lack of waterproofing on the outside, the block can still absorb moisture from the exterior.</p>
<p>The storage room is dry walled and set out nicely with walls of storage. There actually is one wall with dry wall on it in the main room now that i Think about it. There is a fridge on that wall. I want to get rid of it so that will open up some space too. Totally forgot about that since it’s hidden! </p>
<p>I love drapes, curtains but the paint idea sounds neat too. Drapes floor to ceiling would absorb a lot of sound and definitely warm up the room. What is the distance from floor to ceiling?</p>
<p>What is your budget?</p>
<p>I also just love, love floor to ceiling bookshelves covered in books. So for me a combination of the drapes and books floor to ceiling would be a dream come true. Throw in a well-loved chair and sofa (has to be well-loved) and you have the makings of a get-a-way to die for!! A website called design sponge does a lot of before and afters with all kinds of quirky beginnings and outcomes, there might something on there worth scoping out.</p>
<p>I use Craigs list for all my well-loved finds including lined drapes from who knows when. But she had tons of fabric and I needed to cover some HUGE windows. I am one of those that doesn’t cover a window in 2 times the material but rather TEN times the amount it calls for. So a 2 panel window gets anywhere from 10-20 panels depending on the weight of the fabric, pattern and cost and if its lined. Linen less material, silk more material. Cotton more, poly less…and pattern matters as well.</p>
<p>And books, the older the better. Love the way the paper feels and the ink on the pages. And a worn comfy leather chair. </p>
<p>That is what I would do with a cinder block basement.</p>
<p>I can sympathize with your steam pipes & other ugly ceiling issues. How about draping fabric around the ceiling to screen it? </p>
<p>Found this website with some interesting ideas & pics. You can likely install a few dowels to drape fabric over and save lots of $ vs buying their kits. Just be careful & keep the fabric away from the steam pipes. </p>
<p>Sounds like great ideas. I so wish that I had a dry basement. I have a friend who bought those blue insulation panels, covered them in fabric and spaced them along the walls after painting the cinderblock a coordinating color. She also hung floor to ceiling drapes over open doorway to the laundry and furnace area. She did not put down carpet, but used an epoxy(?) floor paint and added inexpensive washable throw rugs.</p>
<p>You can build a quick cover around the pipes with wood or drywall and not create an entire false wall. I can’t recommend fabric on the wall because of fire safety.</p>
<p>I haven’t thought too much about a specific budget yet. I don’t want to spend too much on it. The windows are going to run a few hundred dollars to replace them all… I priced them at 65 each… I also want to get 2 screen doors for my house and naturally the ones i picked out were 300 a piece. Have a contractor in the family whom I’m going to ask for help with the windows and doors. I also want to get some scalloped bricks for some edging in front of my house and new locks for my doors. I’m hoping to stick within a thousand out of pocket for all of this total… I have 300 in gift cards for home depot which will help. the final budget will vary based on annual bonus this year. The above is my 2013 home owners goal!</p>
<p>In a previous house, we wanted to use our walkout basement without spending much money on it or having the square footage counted for property taxes. In that county, as long as we didn’t hang drywall, lay a floor covering or put up a ceiling, we could do pretty much whatever else we wished and not have it taxed. Dh sprayed the ceiling (ducts, pipes and all) with flat black paint, then hung black track lights and two black ceiling fans. (Just be sure to wear a good respirator mask if you choose to spray your ceiling!) We then painted the walls white with a masonry paint made for areas with moisture issues (there are several good brands.) I painted the floor grey with garage floor paint, after which our kids splattered painted it. </p>
<p>Plywood panels sectioned off a “media room” in which we built a raised platform for tiered seating. After painting the plywood, we hung large area rugs on three walls; they looked like abstract art and helped with sound issues. Grommet top curtain panels made to be used outside were hung in the entrance from the main room. Dh added a vent to the HVAC duct that ran above that area (builders here tend to oversize HVAC systems, so it worked fine.) </p>
<p>In the main room, we divided a storage area from the rest of the space with four tall white bookcases arranged in a zig-zag and fastened together in back. There was enough room for a pool table, two computer desks & chairs, several game systems set up on older TVs, bean bag chairs and some Lego displays. Dh built a base for a preformed Formica counter that we bought at Lowe’s (I think it was 8 ft.) and we used that for art projects, experiments, etc. </p>
<p>It was clearly a DIY job and nothing that added any resale value, but we used that basement more than the nicely finished one in our current home.</p>