Basement suite kitchen gets a bright and timeless upgrade!
Updated: Jan 20
Who says a basement has to be dark, dreary and cold?
Take this reno we did for a lovely elderly couple moving from the coast into their son and daughter in law's basement suite in Oyama. The couple wanted to make some changes to ensure the suite felt bright, warm and properly theirs.
Before
Taupe grey floors and walls, awkward partial wall, dark cabinets that didn't make good use of the space.
After
In an effort to maximize storage and help the space feel larger, we brought the cabinetry to the 9' ceiling. A warm white shaker style was more to the clients taste and helped the space brighten up and take on a more timeless aesthetic. Calcutta Gold quartz countertops and subway tile with a subtle texture helped to complete the space.
Central vac and electrical ran down the partial wall so we opted to keep a post rather than re-routing to keep costs down but open up the space as much as possible.
After adding heated floors throughout, we laid a beautiful high end laminate that had a warmer and more consistent colouring than the existing floors which had varied sizes and colour. These days the high end laminates rival the durability of Luxury Vinyl Plank in terms of scratch and water resistance, but often look slightly more like the real thing than the often plasticy-finish of LVP.
We took the walls from the existing BM Balboa Mist to BM Ballet White, to warm things up.
Not Bad for a Basement
It was a squeeze to fit in full sized appliances in this teeny kitchen footprint, but we managed it, and the island offers a nice amount of counter space and an unencumbered view of the lake. When you're in the space now, it's pretty easy to forget you're in a basement.
A Tip with Kitchen Islands
When planning an island with your cabinetry shop, don't forget to consider finishing details, so as to help it not to look like floating wall cabinets. Simply adding baseboard will help finish and ground it, or mimic the shakers of the cabinet doors like we did here.
In another kitchen renovation we did we opted to build posts on the back of the island.
The Fireplace Surround
We also updated the tile on the fireplace and added built ins. A mix of open and closed storage is perfect in a living space, to be able to shut the door on items you don't want seen, as well as an opportunity to add decor on the open shelves. The TV is now installed where the large art sits in this photo.
Before
The fireplace tile was too gray for the clients taste, and the flanking walls were not a practical use of space. Read more about the trend back to warmer neutrals from grey in a recent blog post from us "Is Beige Really Back?"
What do you think of these updates? Are you envisioning some new potential with your own basement space? Book a call to discuss how to best utilize your basement, be it for your own family, or to use as a rental suite!
Hope you're enjoying the calm between Christmas and New Years, and wishing you all the very best in 2023!
Meghan