Tag: DIY

  • Basement Bath & Closets

    Basement Bath & Closets

    My plan for the bathroom was similar to the kitchen, make cheap tile look good and play with black and whites. I knew for sure I wanted to tile the walls of the tub/shower but the budget for tiles themselves was very small. In the upstairs bath we had played a lot with geometrics, so I wanted to keep that theme consistent throughout the house. This time I decided to simplify it by using rectangular tiles and playing with lines. I found an inexpensive white wall tile and paired it with a slightly more expensive white textured tile and created alternating horizontal stripes. The subtleties of it are hard to capture on film but in person it reads as a contrast of shiny and texture (see a pattern here?!, same thing I did in the kitchen). But again white on white, just looks sooo white, so it needed a little bump in contrast.

    I found a matt black tile at a discount tile shop that I thought would add the perfect pop of contrast to all the shiny white texture. I originally wanted to lay it in a herringbone pattern but after measuring it out we discovered first off it was hard to get everything square! And secondly the bath was small and the tile was large, not allowing you to see much of the pattern anyway. We decided on a basketweave design instead which I really preferred once we got it installed. It’s understated and modern in its simplicity while adding a bit of visual interest to the floor.

    We opted for a grey vanity with a white stone top from Ikea and decided to add a little bit of bling behind the faucet. I found a light white and grey mosaic tile in a chevron pattern that wouldn’t pull so much focus. Turns out when it was installed it read a lot darker than I wanted and not the subtle pop of pattern I was looking for. Not every choice is going to be a home run but we decided to leave it in place and just roll with it.

    I decided to keep the vanity lighting very simple and clean-lined and let the vanity mirror, a trendy hexagon in black, be the focal point. The good thing is both of which are easy to change out at a later date is styles change or we just want to mix it up.

    Storage is a big component in bathrooms and really houses in general. We made the bathroom about 18” larger than your standard builders’ bath and therefore were able to build a nook of shelves at the end of the tub. I would like to eventually put doors on them but for now they are open very deep shelves perfect for pretty storage baskets.

    To bump up the storage in the rest of the suite I knew we needed to maximize our three closets. They were one of the last projects we tackled and by then the basement reno budget had been spent. Instead of racking up debt to buy weirdly expensive closet rods and shelf systems from a big box store, I decided to get creative. Using a combo of Ikea metal curtain rod hangers, leftover plywood, used Billy bookshelves, two premade brackets and electrical conduit I created really inexpensive but functional closet interiors. I’ll do another post showing how I outfitted three closets for less than $150.

    That about sums up our basement reno and adding an income suite to our home. The rest of our reno focuses on the “great” room on the upper floor which is where I get to add a little more of my personality to the design.

  • Basement Floors & Kitchen

    Basement Floors & Kitchen

    Now that we had the walls in place and clad it was time to add some of the prettier finishes to the basement. Overall I was going for a look that was light bright and neutral, allowing who ever was living down there to add their own personality to the space while have a well designed jumping off point.

    I choose a mid tone brown laminate flooring with a slight grey tone to be the base of the design. Laminate was not my first choice of flooring, I was actually adamant that I wasn’t going to put a “paper” product down on cement floor. But as often happens with first plans in DIY projects, it failed epically and I had to go with the option B. I planned to lay down a foam thermal break with plywood and LVP (luxury vinyl plank) on top of that, but it turns out my basement is slightly damp in the middle. The foam just exacerbated the moisture and started to smell … bad! Thankfully we only did one room so ripping it up and starting again wasn’t too much of a set back. Plan B was to use a plastic dimple membrane under a floating floor allowing the concrete slab to breath and dry. I know option B won’t last as long but it fit our needs at the time and we will cross the replacement bridge when we get there.

    Basement feature walls and ceiling

    As I said before, because we are dealing with a subterranean space light and bright was the plan so the walls got painted a bright but slightly warm white. But an all white space can feel institutional very quickly so we added some pops of contrast throughout. The kitchen was a play on black and white, the wall in the main area got a coat of warm rich grey, and the ceilings in the bedrooms were painted a light dove grey. Our “feature walls” gave the space life and dimension, making it seem more inviting and thoughtfully built.

    Mood Board | Basement Kitchen || Tracey Cameron Creative

    We created an open galley-ish style kitchen in a small recessed area the former owners used as a gym. The space was 7 feet wide, too narrow to do a traditional galley kitchen with lowers on both sides so we got creative.  We used 24” lower cabinets on one side and 15” upper cabinets on the other allowing the space in between to breath while not sacrificing too much storage. We decided to do open display shelving on the shallower side and nothing but sconces and the hood vent on the other. It helped the kitchen feel more spacious and integrated into the living space while giving an almost sculptural quality to the hood vent. With no upper cabinets we need a little bit more storage though and created a suto built in pantry around the fridge with a short upper and a narrow Ikea bathroom cabinet at the end of the space.

    Basement Kitchen Before || Tracey Cameron Creative
    Basement Kitchen After || Tracey Cameron Creative

    I choose classic white shaker style cabinets which we topped with a dark charcoal countertop with a waterfall edge and black hardwear. For the backsplash I wanted to make cheap tile look good! and used a very inexpensive white wall tile (left over from the bathroom) combined with a stacked stone mosaic (that I got on sale) and laid them vertically in repeating lines. The vertical tiles helped elongate the ceiling height and contrasted the strong horizontal lines of the countertop. I grouted it all with a bright white grout unifying the tiles and making the backsplash read as repeating lines of shiny and texture. Brass sconces from Ikea topped the whole thing off and brought a little warmth and bling into the space.

    Basement Kitchen Sink and Stove || Tracey Cameron Creative
    Basement Living and Dinning Room || Tracey Cameron Creative
    Basement Kitchen Cabinets and Fridge || Tracey Cameron Creative
    Basement Kitchen Dinning Room || Tracey Cameron Creative

    We hung a pendant light in the “dining area” and installed an electric fireplace with a geometric surround in the main room. The fireplace not only helps to keep the suite extra cozy but I think it’s a step most landlords wouldn’t include but it’s those extra steps of feature walls and blingy fireplaces that make a rental suite a home. I didn’t want to create a space I wouldn’t be proud to live in myself and I would be quite happy down there. In the next post I’ll show you the downstairs bathroom and extra steps we took with the closets.

  • Dining Chair Slipcover DIY

    Fun fabric slip cover for dining room chairs

    I am a DIY maven, I love a good furniture redo! The thrill of finding a old unloved piece of furniture with good bones/lines and turning it into something beautiful again. I found four of these red parsons chairs on Kijiji for $25 and turned them into the “after” that you see above. You can click through to see the “before” and a little bit of the process.

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