The perfect basement flooring and other fun changes!

Oh wow, I'm so excited to show you the changes we've been making in the basement! If you remember, we had a water issue in my husband's office earlier this year. This was probably the tenth time this had happened and was the worst too. We had to replace walls, ceiling and baseboards and the carpet in that room was toast. 

We knew the carpet had to go for many reasons and were looking for something water-resistant to replace it. I was intrigued by vinyl flooring I had heard about that looked like wood and we decided to try it. 

Well, it turned out we LOVED it: 

That room is done now and looks great! I still need to share that with you. 

Our plan was to extend this flooring to the rest of the basement eventually. We are pretty sure (crossing fingers) we've made appropriate changes to our HVAC system (it was the culprit when it came to the water issues and we thought we had it fixed over and over) but it does make me feel better that this flooring will not be destroyed if it happens again. 

The bigger issue was our sweet old cat who ruined the carpet in other parts of the basement. No matter what we did to clean the carpets he kept coming back -- if you have cats you know it's pretty much a lost cause if you have cat urine anywhere. The carpet was a mess...from the cat, the kids spilling and because of dirty spots all over from when the carpet in the office was pulled out soaking wet. We were SO over the gross carpet. 

Even though I loved the soft feel of carpet in the basement, we've realized over the years we just prefer hard floors in our house. They are so much easier to keep clean and make our spaces feel so much bigger (every. single. time). 

Our plan was always to extend the this Allure vinyl flooring (the color we picked was Teak) to the rest of the basement so when they contacted me about providing more of the product, I was SO thankful. Yes please! What a wonderful surprise. We've had it for a couple months now and just last week started the process of putting it down. I did some of the floors myself but we had help for the rest of the bigger room because they were able to finish it all in one day. This is a HUGE space and that just shows you how easy it is to lay down. 

We are so incredibly thrilled with the flooring and I've been excited to share it with you: 

I shared how to install this flooring when we did the office, and it really needs very little explanation. There are sticky tabs along the underside of each piece of flooring that you fit onto the sticky side of the flooring on the floor...it's actually kind of fun to do. It's easy to cut too -- you can use a razor to score and snap it or use heavy duty scissors/tin snips. EASY. I promise. :) 

I wondered about a few potential issues with this stuff when we installed it months ago and I've been pleasantly surprised. I worried it may be too cold underfoot and it's absolutely fine. It's nothing like the tile we have in the basement and there's no need for socks on it at all. 

Also, when I researched Allure years ago (I had actually considered it way back when I saw Candice Olsen use it!), some people mentioned a smell after installation. Our basement doesn't have windows so I was concerned we'd have to deal with that, but nothing! We didn't smell a thing in my husband's office and don't in the larger part of the basement either.

When we put items back we noticed a few scuffs on the flooring: 

I contacted Allure and they mentioned using the green side of a Scotch Brite sponge: 

And it disappeared! I was so excited to find out this trick!: 

This floor holds up GREAT and those few scuffs are the only thing that I've noticed, even after moving furniture around everywhere. I'm thrilled they come off so easily. 

We rearranged a lot of furniture when the floors were done. I've been wanting to try a new layout for a year now and this was a good time to try it out -- the sectional used to face the built in cubbies: 

It just created a little bit of a jam when it came to the area by the fireplace. Also, my husband's beloved recliner (that I love to sit in but hate to look at) was always in the way. Above we had it off to the right but it was in the way over there. Usually it sat right next to the sofa and it was all too tight with the support pole. 

We wanted to move things around for another reason too -- our plan has always been to build in the electric fireplace in that bay window area and the sectional was right next to it. When we had contractors here working on another project they threw in framing out that area for a crazy good price so we went for it: 

By the way, look what a difference the daylight bulbs make down here! No more editing pics forever and still not getting the real color of everything! (And of course, these are still on a dimmer.) This space is going to be SO GOOD! It already is but we are really excited about the fireplace area. 

The flooring makes the room feel huge. The new furniture layout is going to be even better when we finish that fireplace too: 

There's much better flow now -- you can walk around the whole sectional and there's a lot more open space. We all love it! Here's a view of the fireplace wall before: 

And here it is now, all ready for tile!:

My vision for years has always been more modern look with floor to ceiling stacked stone and a chunky wood mantle. I'm so stinking excited to get this project started! This is the tile I found that we'll most likely go with: 

Oh my goodness, I love it. It goes so well with the flooring, the walls and the whole feel of the room. I won't be able to do that till our budget allows -- I'm hoping in the next month or two. 

We also have plans to extend the kitchenette area a bit. Here's how it's looked for awhile now: 

Evertything is still unhooked because we're eventually adding a corner cabinet and more cabinets along that wall: 

The wood wall will stay because I love it. :) We hope to add a wine/drink fridge under the counters as well. The basketball hoop is moving and I'm thinking up storage/decor ideas for that wall. 

We're pretty excited about these changes! The flooring is the best part though:

I hung one of those IKEA mirrors for the future bathroom renovation and I love it down here! :) 

Overall the whole basement is going to be a little more sophisticated and edited quite a bit. Our son is getting older and wants to make this space feel more grown up. I'm both thrilled and sad about that...sniff. 

I'm pretty sure these shelves will go and I have an idea in mind for the TV wall above the cubbies: 

Those cubbies will stay because they are AWESOME storage and I love them. Our son doesn't play with the toys as much but we have a grandson (my older stepdaugher's son), nieces and nephews and friends with younger kids who will play with them for years and years. This will always be a kid's space -- I don't want to make it too sophisticated.

We'll definitely add a rug under the sofa eventually: 

I love that the new layout allows us to enjoy both the TV and the future fireplace wall. :) How fun would that be to have that done by Christmas? I'd love another mantel to decorate! 

This flooring change is so awesome, we're thrilled with it. If you are looking into vinyl flooring that looks like wood, is easy to clean and is water resistant, I highly recommend it. We've had it in the office for six months and it's held up great there. It makes this room feel so much larger!: 

Be sure to check out this post to see how it's installed -- it is so simple. We chose this design because it was in stock at Home Depot but Allure has a ton of other pretty colors and finishes to pick from too. 

Have you tried this vinyl flooring made to look like wood? It's perfect for basements, kitchens and bathrooms but I think it would look great anywhere! 

Allure provided some of our flooring for this project but all opinions and experiences are my own. I only share products and brands I use and love!

Hardwoods in the loft and adding farmhouse door trim

Well hello all! It feels like forever since I've been writing to you all. I hope you had a lovely holiday weekend! A lot has happened in the loft already and I'm excited to show you the progress. Keep in mind I show you updates in real time so this is truly how it looks as I'm going. I wish I could show you a beautiful space each and every time but that's not real life. Dangit. 

So the floors were put in last week -- I'll show you a larger shot at the bottom of the post but you will get glimpses of it throughout. The floors are white oak, stained in Jacobean stain with a satin poly -- satin poly is my BEST FRIEND. No foot prints can be seen, it hides dust and makes hardwoods completely, totally easy to live with. Satin is the key, you heard it here. :) You can find out more about the floors we've put throughout the house here. 

I've been adding chunkier, craftsman style trim to our doors and windows for years now. It's not a hard process at all, but I loathe the painting part. So I just do it as I can -- the main floor doors and windows are completely done and our master bedroom doors are done as well. Our builder put in the basic small trim which is absolutely fine, but I'm a lover of thick molding that gives the house more character. 

I should have done this first part before they laid the floors but removing the baseboards was enough work for me. Our loft has five doors -- we don't have a traditional hallway in our house, it's all open in this area. Our master door is a double door and I completely forgot to take a before or an after of that one so you'll have to just imagine it for now: 

I especially love adding the thicker trim in rooms like this where the ceilings are really high. It gives them that extra oomph that they need. 

I went through the entire process of removing the door trim in this post so check that out if you are interested in doing this in your home. Now that I've done it eleventy billion times it's a quick process for me: 

You'll need a few tools to remove the trim -- a razor blade, a crow bar and a hammer. Also pliers to remove staples that may not come out with the old trim. 

I go through the steps of adding the newer trim here as well, but here's a close up of the final result: 

You'll need a 1x2, 1x4 pieces and stop trim (for the header). It's not difficult at all but the difference this makes to the overall feel of our home is huge.

I used scrap mdf from the old board and batten wall in here for the headers (that's why those are already white). I don't like to use mdf for the sides of the doors because they get more wear and tear over time. The header is a great place for it though (and it's cheaper). 

These are not painted yet (this is what I mean by in between photos) but you get the idea of how they beef everything up: 

I started adding the baseboards back in too but stopped because I may want to wait until the wall treatment is done before continuing. 

I am a lover of thick, classic white trim and this whole area will look fantastic when it's all painted out: 

The only door I couldn't finish completely was the book nook frame -- the one side needs to be cut down just a bit so it will fit flush with the header above: 

Here's a before and after to show you the difference the thicker trim makes: 

It's going to look so good when it's finished up!:

I have a fun little project in mind for that corner by the nook. :) 

I've painted all of the doors in our basement and main floor black and will continue that up here -- I can't wait to see it done but I can totally, completely wait to do it. ;) Doors are no fun. I think I'm going to spray them with the sprayer I used on the kitchen cabinets and that will make the process much easier! 

Here's a look at a before and after of the floors as well!: 

I've never been so happy to have carpet hauled out of my house!!

Here's that same view today: 

So lovely! I would put these hardwoods in every single room of our house if I could! 

I'm adding a lot more white to the walls so the contrast is going to be dreamy. You know how much I love contrast. :) 

Dare I say it -- I think this room will go faster than I originally thought? The longest part will be the painting. All the trim, base and wall treatments will need to be painted and it's going to take forever. 

Next up I have our electrician coming to add more outlets along that wall where the work space will be. I'm also adding sconces in the room so I'll share more about that soon! I can't wait to see this room continue to transform! 

P.S. If you are curious about that DIY square art by the book nook, check out this post to see how I did it!: 

How to remove baseboards (the easy way)

Well I'm thrilled because a project I've been itching to start for years now has finally started!! Our loft is a great big space that has always felt underutilized to me. I really hate not using rooms to their full potential (even if my way is not how they're supposed to be used). 

When we knocked down a wall in our family room a few years ago I lost my office, which really hasn't been a big deal. I don't mind it (I blog from a comfy chair most days) but I would like to have a central location for all things office, crafts and wrapping. This room will be a space for all of those -- plus some. 

My hope is it will be a fun work space for me when I need to "get away," for our boy to work on projects or homework, a craft area, wrapping station and we'll also have a sofa up here so we can just relax if we want. It will be a much more girly space though and I'm super excited about that! 

Here's how this view looked about a year ago: 

This room is the brightest in our home but also the most difficult to photograph. (Can't wait to try this camera attachment in here throughout this process!) 

Later I added a gallery wall and took down the lights:

It was a cute space but I never felt like I was using all of the room well. I've had a plan in place for years now but we've had to hold off until we could get new floors put down in here. (The carpet is totally disgusting after 12 years.) We've been adding finished on site hardwoods throughout the house over the years and this is most likely the last room we'll have them installed. We waited because on site hardwoods are not cheap -- but I LOVE them so it will be worth the wait. 

Before they could get started (today!) I had to do a few things. I started by emptying out the room and nearly everything was given away or sold. We really didn't have much furniture in here anyway but I'm keeping very little because so much will be built in. I was actually going to keep everything until I was ready to install the cabinets but I figured having the piles of stuff in the guest room would spur me on to get things moving faster. That usually works for me. ;) 

Next up I pulled out all of the baseboards. In the past when we've had the floors put in I've left them, but I always regret not removing them first. They aren't tall to begin with:

They are puny and even more so when the flooring goes in. It's taller than the carpet and they look even smaller when the floors are done. Plus trying to remove these after the flooring is installed is a total pain in the butt. They are hard to take off anyway but with the flooring it's nearly impossible to do without damaging the hardwoods. 

Because ours are so hard to remove and I've finally figured out the best way to do it, I'm sharing this quick tutorial here. If you need to remove baseboards where you already have carpet this will work well for you. If you have hard floors you'll need to put something down to protect your floors while working. 

Step 1:  Use a razor to score your caulk along the top of the baseboards. I don't do huge sections at a time and I'll share why in a moment: 

Step 2:  Grab your crow bar and hammer and start tapping your bar between the wall and the drywall: 

Sometimes it takes a tap, sometimes a pound. :) So you see how I missed some of the caulk there? That's why I don't try to work all the way down the wall, because as you start to pull the base away from the wall just the slightest bit, it will make it much easier to score and cut that clean through. Don't pull too much because you'll start pulling the drywall away from the wall. If you're replacing the base with something taller then that won't matter much. 

Rock the baseboards away from the wall just a bit, but not enough to cause damage to the drywall. Move down the wall a little bit, but not too far just yet:

Step 3:  Now this the magical step that I didn't do for years and that's why it was so dang hard to get these out. Doing this will help tremendously if you have baseboards that are hard to remove like ours. Take the crow bar and leverage it underneath the base:

Lift up -- it may take some muscle. Be careful here and make sure your crowbar is well under the base so it doesn't come loose and flying back at you -- you'll have to push down pretty hard. 

This is an important step because it releases all the nails from the bottom that are too hard to get to from the top: 

I find most of the nails are down low and it's hard to get down there without messing up the walls. Once I figured out how to do it this way the process became MUCH much easier. I don't have any damage to our walls and before it was such a struggle to get them removed. 

You can also put a thin piece of wood above the baseboards and rock your crowbar against the wood instead of your drywall, but with this method I don't even have to worry about that. It works every time without drywall damage. 

I got the whole room done in just over an hour -- this isn't even all of it: 

This room continues over near the book nook so there was a ton to remove -- this way of taking it off the wall works so well I whipped through it. 

As you can see I also remove the board and batten from the accent wall -- that will get a new treatment. I removed the nails from the boards to keep them for the new door trim that will go in soon. I also took down the gallery wall and filled the holes. I will do another photo wall but something simpler. 

See those square on the wall? Those right there are why I now tell you to NEVER use glue to put molding up on the walls:

Unless you are sure you want it there for eternity, don't do it. Nails are enough. I haven't decided if I'm continuing the wall treatment around to that half wall, but they come down I'll be covering the damage anyway.

By the way, do you see that lovely pink wall color that was under the base? Yeah. That was a brilliant decision I made when we built the house. In my defense, it didn't look super pink till after we repainted. 

This is that same view as it looked earlier this week:

The craft table is disassembled and I plan to use that butcher block top on the built ins. The little table set it staying. :) 

You can see my plans for this room here -- I'm so stinking excited! I have cut down on the amount of built ins I'm adding but I think this room may be even more work than our kitchen if you can believe it. I have five doorways to trim out -- FIVE. Just the doors, base and window trim will take a week. The wall treatment will take at least one more, if not two. That doesn't even include the cabinets and window seat builds. It's going to be a labor intensive space but I have a vision and I'm really excited about it. 

The floors are going in as I type so I won't be able to do anything else in here till this weekend. I'll probably tackle the door trim then because that will need to be done before the wall treatment. Next week I have someone coming to move and add outlets and I hope to add electrical for sconces over the work space. 

I'm determined to get this room finished before the fall. Usually I sloth my way through the summer but not this year! I want a stress-free holiday season so I want this done before school starts in August. Wish me luck! 

Here are some projects from this space you may enjoy!

DIY craft table:

Prettying up the ceiling fan:

Making baseboards taller without removing the old ones:  

Vinyl Flooring That Looks Like Wood (for the Basement)

So a couple weeks ago a reader on Instagram commented that I don't have any "close the door" rooms.  It made me laugh out loud -- I know those rooms too well. We've had them in the past but over the last few years they have dwindled. It's taken a long time to get to that point (we'll be in the house 12 years this week!) but there is still ONE room. 

We don't speak of this room. Only one man dares to enter and that's my husband. OK, I go in to grab clothes because that's where our laundry chute is. But that's it! It's always been a very scary place, especially for me because it was a MESS. 

This pit of despair is my husband's office in the basement. He can function in disorganized spaces (he's a creative type -- he plays, writes and teaches music) but the longer I'm on this Earth the less I can handle it. We were just talking the other day how we're both "right brained" but I need much more order than he does. 

My husband was a band director for 30 years and he recently retired from teaching. He's actually busier now than he was then, which is why the boxes and piles and items that filled his school office for those 30 years have been an unorganized mess in his basement office since he retired. He simply hasn't had the time to dedicate to going through everything. It makes me twitch a little, but I simply close the door. 

Well, a water leak a few weeks ago was a blessing in disguise. We were away for spring break for a few days and the day we got home I heard water running in our utility closet. I knew the sound well -- it has happened for 10 years now. Our humidifier in our HVAC system gets filled with lime and then the connections come apart and the water just sprays out…and then leaks to the basement. 

The damage was so much worse than usual because it had been going for days. Our new heating and cooling company replaced the old system and then installed a drip pan directly underneath -- we're praying this eliminates the water issues we've had over the years. Finally a company came up with a plan to help prevent it from happening again!

Because my husband's office is under this spot, it's had the brunt of the water for years now. It wasn't as big of a big deal before we finished the basement. It's happened since we finished it but since we usually catch it so fast we just put industrial dryers in there and it's done. This time we weren't so lucky. 

Bottom line -- we decided it was time to rip the carpet out of that room (it was soaked and the padding was a mess) and replace it. I've been researching the best options and found this stuff: 

It's vinyl flooring from Allure and it is water resistant. We had carpet installed throughout the basement years ago when we finished it and I quickly realized it was not the best idea. It's our kid zone (and also big family space) and the kids spill stuff all the time. Also, our animals have destroyed parts of it. Our old cat found a spot and if you know how that goes if you have kitties. 

It's just kind of gross already and as comfy as it is, we know the carpet needs to go. This stuff will go throughout the whole basement eventually, but for now we focused on this room. They have a ton of color options, but only four in the store that you can purchase. (I got ours from Home Depot.)

I prefer a slightly darker floor but when we go this home and saw it down there I knew this was a great pick -- it's not too dark and it's really a beautiful color. It truly looks like wood: 

It has a some slight texture to it that I love too: 

We had to pick it out quickly and get moving because the contractors we use had offered to do it one day last week when they didn't have work. They offered us a crazy good deal. They had already taken out the drywall (where the water had leaked) and replaced that for us, so they threw this flooring in for a little more. I've never laid this stuff (I did install similar vinyl tiles in our mud room as a temporary fix years ago) so I wanted to have them do it so I could watch and see how it was done. 

It's a floating floor and there are sticky sections on the sides and underneath each board (see above -- the gray parts). You lay them down (it's a floating floor) and the sticky parts go together. The guys ran out of flooring (more on that in a bit) so I had to run and get another box and wanted to finish it myself: 

I laid a few and thought, this will be quick! It was SO easy. You know how saying that always bites me in the butt though. It was easy to install -- ridiculously easy. But there was a little strip at the end that the quarter round wasn't going to cover, so I had to cut thin pieces to fill it: 

I didn't have a good way to score such long pieces to fit in there so I sat and looked around at all of the scrap and got an idea. I used my favorite scissors (these are AWESOME and I use them all the time) and just cut strips from the sticky part: 

There's a sticky part that faces up (the gray) and a sticky strip that faces down with the wood look on top. That's what I cut to make this work. 

I cannot tell you how thrilled we are with this room and the flooring!! It looks SO GOOD: 

It's so warm and clean and I just love it. I can't believe how much bigger the room looks now. Part of that is that we took all of the piles out too -- I have sorted and filled 14 boxes so far. They aren't huge boxes, but still…14 people. And I'm going to get two more today. When my husband's schedule dies down here soon we will sort through it all. For now my next project is to paint the walls and get the room set up again.

I was sure this room was around 9 by 9, maybe 10 by 10 at the most. It's not a big room -- at least I thought. When we actually measured we realized it's nearly 12 by 12 -- that shows you how much stuff was in here! I really should have taken a before picture but then I'm sure you'd never talk to me again. ;) 

It's going to be such a great, organized space for my husband when we're done with it. We're both so excited to be able to leave the door open to this room now. Ha!: 

Here's some quick things to consider if you are looking into this floor: 

1. It is VERY easy to install -- there is no underlayment needed and very little tools (you score it and snap it or use a saw but it will wear down your blade quick). 

2. It is a floating floor and it does have that laminate sound when you walk on it (the hollow sound). Not a big deal to me as we don't even wear shoes in the house much and really, this is the best option for a basement that has possible water issues. 

3. The price was around $40 for a box and it covers 25 square feet. 

4. My only complaint is there is some waste that can't be used -- you have to place the sticky parts together in such a way that when you get to the end and have to cut a piece, you'll have a decent amount left that looks like it's usable, but it's not. You cut off the end with the sticky part to use and the rest won't work. So you will need more than the square footage of your room. 

5. When I read up on this Allure stuff a couple years ago (soon after we realized the carpet wasn't going to work) many of the reviews complained of a heavy plastic odor from it. I have haven't noticed anything like that. You'd think it would be even worse in a basement with no windows but I don't smell it at all. 

6. My main concern was that it would be cold underfoot, like tile is over concrete. It's obviously not as warm as the carpet but I'm pleasantly surprised with it. It's not freezing cold by any means. 

7. As with any flooring, it does need to acclimate in the space where you are installing it for at least 24 hours before you put it in.

I hope this helps if you are considering something similar! Because it's water resistant this is also a great option for bathrooms (and would be warmer than tile). I plan to do the rest of the basement myself -- that's the plan now anyway. It's going to take me awhile but it's so easy to do, I kind of hate to pay for it. Have you installed this flooring? If you have any questions, please let me know!

Affiliate link included for your convenience!