This 1933 Wauwatosa basement was dark, dingy and lacked functionality. The basement was unfinished with concrete walls and floors. A small office was enclosed but the rest of the space was open and cluttered. The homeowners wanted a warm, organized space for their family. A recent job change meant they needed a dedicated home office. They also wanted a place where their kids could hang out with friends. Their wish list for this basement remodel included: a home office where the couple could both work, a full bathroom, a cozy living room and a dedicated storage room. This basement renovation resulted in a warm and bright space that is used by the whole family. Highlights of this basement: - Home Office: A new office gives the couple a dedicated space for work. There’s plenty of desk space, storage cabinets, under-shelf lighting and storage for their home library. - Living Room: An old office area was expanded into a cozy living room. It’s the perfect place for their kids to hang out when they host friends and family. - Laundry Room: The new laundry room is a total upgrade. It now includes fun laminate flooring, storage cabinets and counter space for folding laundry. - Full Bathroom: A new bathroom gives the family an additional shower in the home. Highlights of the bathroom include a navy vanity, quartz counters, brass finishes, a Dreamline shower door and Kohler Choreograph wall panels. - Staircase: We spruced up the staircase leading down to the lower level with patterned vinyl flooring and a matching trim color. - Storage: We gave them a separate storage space, with custom shelving for organizing their camping gear, sports equipment and holiday decorations. CUSTOMER REVIEW “We had been talking about remodeling our basement for a long time, but decided to make it happen when my husband was offered a job working remotely. It felt like the right time for us to have a real home office where we could separate our work lives from our home lives. We wanted the area to feel open, light-filled, and modern – not an easy task for a previously dark and cold basement! One of our favorite parts was when our designer took us on a 3D computer design tour of our basement. I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this could be our basement!?!’ It was so fun to see how our designer was able to take our wish list and ideas from my Pinterest board, and turn it into a practical design. We were sold after seeing the design, and were pleasantly surprised to see that Kowalske was less costly than another estimate.” – Stephanie, homeowner

This basement family room is light and bright.

This basement remodel held special significance for an expectant young couple eager to adapt their home for a growing family. Facing the challenge of an open layout that lacked functionality, our team delivered a complete transformation. The project's scope involved reframing the layout of the entire basement, installing plumbing for a new bathroom, modifying the stairs for code compliance, and adding an egress window to create a livable bedroom. The redesigned space now features a guest bedroom, a fully finished bathroom, a cozy living room, a practical laundry area, and private, separate office spaces. The primary objective was to create a harmonious, open flow while ensuring privacy—a vital aspect for the couple. The final result respects the original character of the house, while enhancing functionality for the evolving needs of the homeowners expanding family.

Bourbon Man Cave basement redesign in Mt. Juliet, TN

Crisp tones of maple and birch. The enhanced bevels accentuate the long length of the planks.

We were able to take a partially remodeled basement and give it a full facelift. We installed all new LVP flooring in the game, bar, stairs, and living room areas, tile flooring in the mud room and bar area, repaired and painted all the walls and ceiling, replaced the old drop ceiling tiles with decorative ones to give a coffered ceiling look, added more lighting, installed a new mantle, and changed out all the door hardware to black knobs and hinges. This is now truly a great place to entertain or just have some fun with the family.

Inspired by sandy shorelines on the California coast, this beachy blonde floor brings just the right amount of variation to each room. With the Modin Collection, we have raised the bar on luxury vinyl plank. The result is a new standard in resilient flooring. Modin offers true embossed in register texture, a low sheen level, a rigid SPC core, an industry-leading wear layer, and so much more.

We started with a blank slate on this basement project where our only obstacles were exposed steel support columns, existing plumbing risers from the concrete slab, and dropped soffits concealing ductwork on the ceiling. It had the advantage of tall ceilings, an existing egress window, and a sliding door leading to a newly constructed patio. This family of five loves the beach and frequents summer beach resorts in the Northeast. Bringing that aesthetic home to enjoy all year long was the inspiration for the décor, as well as creating a family-friendly space for entertaining. Wish list items included room for a billiard table, wet bar, game table, family room, guest bedroom, full bathroom, space for a treadmill and closed storage. The existing structural elements helped to define how best to organize the basement. For instance, we knew we wanted to connect the bar area and billiards table with the patio in order to create an indoor/outdoor entertaining space. It made sense to use the egress window for the guest bedroom for both safety and natural light. The bedroom also would be adjacent to the plumbing risers for easy access to the new bathroom. Since the primary focus of the family room would be for TV viewing, natural light did not need to filter into that space. We made sure to hide the columns inside of newly constructed walls and dropped additional soffits where needed to make the ceiling mechanicals feel less random. In addition to the beach vibe, the homeowner has valuable sports memorabilia that was to be prominently displayed including two seats from the original Yankee stadium. For a coastal feel, shiplap is used on two walls of the family room area. In the bathroom shiplap is used again in a more creative way using wood grain white porcelain tile as the horizontal shiplap “wood”. We connected the tile horizontally with vertical white grout joints and mimicked the horizontal shadow line with dark grey grout. At first glance it looks like we wrapped the shower with real wood shiplap. Materials including a blue and white patterned floor, blue penny tiles and a natural wood vanity checked the list for that seaside feel. A large reclaimed wood door on an exposed sliding barn track separates the family room from the game room where reclaimed beams are punctuated with cable lighting. Cabinetry and a beverage refrigerator are tucked behind the rolling bar cabinet (that doubles as a Blackjack table!). A TV and upright video arcade machine round-out the entertainment in the room. Bar stools, two rotating club chairs, and large square poufs along with the Yankee Stadium seats provide fun places to sit while having a drink, watching billiards or a game on the TV. Signed baseballs can be found behind the bar, adjacent to the billiard table, and on specially designed display shelves next to the poker table in the family room. Thoughtful touches like the surfboards, signage, photographs and accessories make a visitor feel like they are on vacation at a well-appointed beach resort without being cliché.

This basement remodeling project consisted of creating a kitchen which has Waypoint 650F door style cabinets in Painted Harbor on the perimeter and 650F door style cabinets in Cherry Slate on the island with Cambria Skara Brae quartz on the countertop. A bathroom was created and installed a Waypoint DT24F door style vanity cabinet in Duraform Drift with Carrara Black quartz countertops. In the shower, Wow Liso Ice subway tile was installed with custom shower door. On the floor is Elode grey deco tile. A movie room and popcorn/snack area was created using Waypoint 650F door style in Cherry Slate with Madera wood countertops.

This 1933 Wauwatosa basement was dark, dingy and lacked functionality. The basement was unfinished with concrete walls and floors. A small office was enclosed but the rest of the space was open and cluttered. The homeowners wanted a warm, organized space for their family. A recent job change meant they needed a dedicated home office. They also wanted a place where their kids could hang out with friends. Their wish list for this basement remodel included: a home office where the couple could both work, a full bathroom, a cozy living room and a dedicated storage room. This basement renovation resulted in a warm and bright space that is used by the whole family. Highlights of this basement: - Home Office: A new office gives the couple a dedicated space for work. There’s plenty of desk space, storage cabinets, under-shelf lighting and storage for their home library. - Living Room: An old office area was expanded into a cozy living room. It’s the perfect place for their kids to hang out when they host friends and family. - Laundry Room: The new laundry room is a total upgrade. It now includes fun laminate flooring, storage cabinets and counter space for folding laundry. - Full Bathroom: A new bathroom gives the family an additional shower in the home. Highlights of the bathroom include a navy vanity, quartz counters, brass finishes, a Dreamline shower door and Kohler Choreograph wall panels. - Staircase: We spruced up the staircase leading down to the lower level with patterned vinyl flooring and a matching trim color. - Storage: We gave them a separate storage space, with custom shelving for organizing their camping gear, sports equipment and holiday decorations. CUSTOMER REVIEW “We had been talking about remodeling our basement for a long time, but decided to make it happen when my husband was offered a job working remotely. It felt like the right time for us to have a real home office where we could separate our work lives from our home lives. We wanted the area to feel open, light-filled, and modern – not an easy task for a previously dark and cold basement! One of our favorite parts was when our designer took us on a 3D computer design tour of our basement. I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this could be our basement!?!’ It was so fun to see how our designer was able to take our wish list and ideas from my Pinterest board, and turn it into a practical design. We were sold after seeing the design, and were pleasantly surprised to see that Kowalske was less costly than another estimate.” – Stephanie, homeowner

Basement reno,

Fantastic Mid-Century Modern Ranch Home in the Catskills - Kerhonkson, Ulster County, NY. 3 Bedrooms, 3 Bathrooms, 2400 square feet on 6+ acres. Black siding, modern, open-plan interior, high contrast kitchen and bathrooms. Completely finished basement - walkout with extra bath and bedroom.

The clients lower level was in need of a bright and fresh perspective, with a twist of inspiration from a recent stay in Amsterdam. The previous space was dark, cold, somewhat rustic and featured a fireplace that too up way to much of the space. They wanted a new space where their teenagers could hang out with their friends and where family nights could be filled with colorful expression. Light & clear acrylic chairs allow you to embrace the colors beyond the game table. A wallpaper mural adds a colorful back drop to the space. Check out the before photos for a true look at what was changed in the space. Photography by Spacecrafting Photography

New lower level wet bar complete with glass backsplash, floating shelving with built-in backlighting, built-in microwave, beveral cooler, 18" dishwasher, wine storage, tile flooring, carpet, lighting, etc.

A lovely Brooklyn Townhouse with an underutilized garden floor (walk out basement) gets a full redesign to expand the footprint of the home. The family of four needed a playroom for toddlers that would grow with them, as well as a multifunctional guest room and office space. The modern play room features a calming tree mural background juxtaposed with vibrant wall decor and a beanbag chair.. Plenty of closed and open toy storage, a chalkboard wall, and large craft table foster creativity and provide function. Carpet tiles for easy clean up with tots! The guest room design is sultry and decadent with golds, blacks, and luxurious velvets in the chair and turkish ikat pillows. A large chest and murphy bed, along with a deco style media cabinet plus TV, provide comfortable amenities for guests despite the long narrow space. The glam feel provides the perfect adult hang out for movie night and gaming. Tibetan fur ottomans extend seating as needed.

Andrea Cipriani Mecchi: photo