Braxton's Playroom

Hello there everyone, I know I shared a few posts about our basement renovation. If you're new here, you can catch up here (Half Bath), here (Office), here (Stairs) and here (Built-In's). But I haven't shared the main reason for our renovation. 

One day Luis and I were talking about how cluttered our house was going to get once Braxton started playing with toys. We don't have a small house, but it's not big either. So this was a concern. We have a huge crawlspace under our main floor; it's about 40 feet by 40 feet and only 4 feet tall. So tons on space, but not really livable. We joked that we should take a portion of the crawlspace and make it into a playroom since Braxton will be short for awhile and won't care. That's when the joking stopped and the planning began, it was actually a great idea.

So that's how the whole renovation started, by wanting to build a small playroom for Braxton. Funny how talking about something so "out there" can actually lead to a great use of space.

This was the crawlspace before:

This is just one side, the pillars you see on the left are the middle of the room.  We decided that the best place for his playroom would be right off the door, and that making the first pillar the room boundaries would leave enough room for both a playroom and storage in the crawlspace. 

Here is a better picture of the area cleared out:

First thing Luis did was frame out the walls, securing them with tapcons into the foundation and into the floor joists:

This shows you the area a bit better. We decided that we would move the door back into the playroom so that we can lock it. By doing this, we were able to widen the original doorway:

Before the door about half the size. It actually makes the crawlspace more accessable because we were able to widen the door at the original wall and in the playroom as well. Next was drywall and placing the door. Here is where we put the door:

It's about 3.5 feet wide and we decided to use drywall and the door, instead of wood. That way it will not be too heavy to open it. We have the drywall up off the foundation because we have had water troubles in the past. This keeps the drywall from getting mouldy if water ever happens again. Here is the best view of the entire room:

It's the perfect size of playroom for us. Once the sanding and mudding of the drywall was done, we painted it in a high gloss paint (I will share paint colours once I have them all done). I thought that high gloss would be best for cleaning down the road:

Don't mind the toys, it is a playroom after all. You can see the doorway as well as the unfinished trim in the above picture. We made the door trim a little fancy, trying to match the built-in's a little bit. It really adds a finishing touch to the playroom and makes it look a little more cohesive.

We put 6 inch trim in here because the 4 inch trim looked a little wimpy for some reason. The chunkier trim helps balance the very short walls, I guess. Here are a few more pictures that give a better view of the doorway area and room:

I still need to finish painting the trim in here, but it was put on the back burner until I finished party preparations. I am planning on putting a mural on the wall with the door (the right side in the above picture), and storage directly across from it (the left side in the above picture).  I also want to add some wall bookshelves in the room, since Braxton L.O.V.E.S books. Seriously, he carries books with him everywhere he goes. I love it.

I will share that all with you guys once we get it finished, hopefully soon! 


Here is a list of what's left to finish:
- Paint & caulk trim
- Touch up wall paint
- Paint mural
- Finish crawlspace door
- Add bookshelves & storage

Not a huge list, so hopefully I can check them off quickly!

Anyone else make a huge change to their house by turning one space into another?

Kerby

Linking to:
A Night Owl - Monday Funday 12/15/14
Someday Crafts - Whatever Goes Wednesday #252