Basement Cabinets! {Pinterest Challenge}

Last weekend we made some great progress with the built-in cabinets. They are definitely still a work-in-progress, but it’s nice to have made it this far! 

Here’s how the basement cabinets looked mid-afternoon on Sunday:


Yes, the base trim and crown has not yet been installed, nor do we have cabinet doors or shelves, but this is progress!

If I back up to the beginning of the design, I have to give some design credit to Pinterest and the many blogs that I follow.  It seems like so many people are painting their woodwork – trim, kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, etc. white, and it took some time, but white cabinets have definitely really grown on me.  If you have been to our home, or looked at pictures, you know that the upper two levels of our home are full of traditionally stained woodwork, 6 panel doors, etc., so we looked at the basement as a fun opportunity to do things different.  We decided the design could be extremely different from the rest of our house – it’s our house, so as long as we like it, it works for us!  I initially kept trying to describe white cabinets with stained wood “countertops” and a chunky mantel to handy hubby and it took some time for him to “see” my vision.  Then I started finding some photos on Pinterest and blogs that provided even more guidance. 

LOVE the look of this mantel!

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Then Sarah of Thrifty Décor Chick started blogging about her built-in cabinet project.  THIS was the cabinet style I wanted and had in my mind – it was PERFECT to have an example for handy hubby!  White cabinets with stained wood counter-tops!

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Then Kate from Centsational Girl painted her built-in cabinets and left the hearth with a stained wood top (which initially was part of our design plan).

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As you can see, all of these pictures have definitely become inspiration for our basement cabinets! 
While the work is definitely not done yet, we are getting extremely close to installing the stone on the fireplace (eek!! wish us luck!!)

Here’s a few more (iPhone) pictures from last weekend:


Since these photos have been taken, prep work has been happening to install the stone on the fireplace.  Given our lack of experience (we have never installed stone before!!), this will definitely be an interesting DIY project for us. Sometime in the next couple days the fireplace will get its scratch coat in preparation for the stone installation.  Right now this makes the barn beam mantel installation look pretty easy!


You might be wondering Why is there already a TV in there??  Great question. We found a great deal on a TV at Costco and decided to take the plunge now, instead of waiting a couple months for the basement to be ready.  We HAD to set up the new TV to make sure it works well, so the new TV is currently upstairs getting used daily, while our old TV is currently hanging out safely in the basement.  Plus, it’s nice to watch while we work!

Remember where we started?  No?  See the beautiful photo below. Wow. Embarrassing, yet I showed it once again. It's so rewarding to see how things have changed! The new fireplace wall is just to the left in this picture (behind the little trampoline).  I didn't get a good photo of that wall when we first started cleaning out the basement.  I still can’t believe all the junk that was (and is) still stored in our home.  It feels like we have purged and purged, but we definitely have more work to do! 



As I was getting ready to share this latest update on basement progress, I saw that Young House Love and Bower Power were doing their seasonal Pinterest Challenge. This challenge they are teaming up with The Remodeled Life and Decor and the Dog.  Even though this project is not done, and has been in progress for months, I thought it would be fun to share how the design morphed from a few photos on Pinterest and from some great blogs that I follow.

I’m THRILLED that we have the cabinet installs completed, even though that means it’s now time to move on to the stone installation.  Eventually we will finish these cabinets (add doors and shelves), but since they are not required for the basement inspection, handy hubby has informed me that those finishing touches will just have to wait. Maybe this summer??

Here’s one last look!



What do you think??


Update:  Want to see how the fireplace looks now, 8 months later?