Building a Room in the Basement for Under $1K; Part 1

When our son returns home this summer during college break, his girlfriend will be living with us. During Christmas break my daughter shared her room, but we wanted to give our son's girlfriend her own space for the summer so we decided to create a room in our unfinished basement. Adding two doors and a window added to the cost. If you are able to build your space on a wall that has an exterior window and only needs one door, you will save money. (Disclaimer - This space is not officially a bedroom according to code. We call it a bonus room that will occasionally be used for sleeping.)

There are some things that need to be considered when finishing a room in a basement. If not done correctly, mold will ruin any space built in a basement. Below is a photo journal of the journey my husband and I took to create an inviting space.

This is what we started with... a cluttered unfinished basement. At the time this photo was taken my husband and I were sorting through what we would donate to Good Will, what we would sell, and what we wanted to keep. It felt good to get rid of stuff that we no longer needed.

The first step is to prep the cement walls. In our case, we did not have any leaks in our cement walls. If you do, you will want to fill in cracks properly first. I painted the cement wall with two coats of waterproofing paint. Many people use Drylock, but the night we bought supplies to begin the project we closed down Lowe's and didn't remember the paint until we were in the check out line. Luckily our local Walmart is open later so we ran over there to grab some paint. By the way, this was the first of four times closing down Lowe's during Christmas Break. I don't know why, but we often end up doing our shopping late in the evening.

Another angle of what we started with.

And yet another.

Building our first wall. Because walls in basements are not load bearing, they do not need to fit tightly under the joists. We framed the wall first so that the we could put the nails through the top and bottom 2x4. Much easier than toenailing a stud. The far right stud had to be toenailed in so that we could get the wall up past the post. Make sure to use pressure treated wood for any part of the structure that is going to come into contact with the concrete.

Two walls up and we are starting to get a better sense of what the space will look like.

Framing a door. We ended up purchasing a door that was completely encased with molding. We figured this would save us some time even though it was a bit more expensive. $80 for the easy to install door. We will be building a barn door for the entry near the stairs.

We put up the sheetrock and then cut out the space where the door will go.

One wall with sheetrock and one coat of joint compound.

We started insulating the wall only halfway up because we was not sure where the electrician would need to run the wires for the light switch. In this photo you can also see the door that we purchased to give us access to the electrical box. Plus behind the stud wall we put up foam insulation. One more layer to keep moisture away from the wood, batted insulation, and sheet rock.

I searched Pinterest for ideas on finishing a basement ceiling at an economical price and I fell in love with the idea of painting the ceiling black for an industrial look. I experimented one evening. The following evening my husband helped me. We closed in the whole area with sheets and covered the floor as well to contain the particles that would be flying around as the can sprays out the paint.

We used spray cans that contain paint and primer.

This is how I protected myself the first evening while spray painting. I wish I had taken a picture of my husband and I the second evening after we finished. It was quite comical. We sprayed just before bed time so that we could be away from the smells that were released while spraying. Also, we opened windows in the basement and cracked the bulk head. By morning our basement was back to normal.

We purchased shiplap for two of the bonus room walls. It turns out that Lowe's is no longer going to sell shiplap so after we bought out all of the good ones at one Lowe's we went to a couple more Lowe's to get more and they were on sale for $5.98 each at one of the Lowe's. Since the boards were so cheap, we bought as much as we could and we will be using the rest at our camp for an accent wall in the bathroom and the headboard for our master bedroom.

We spaced our shiplap to give the wall some vertical lines using a nickel and a quarter. 

We framed our last wall in similar fashion as the other walls and left an opening for the glass block window that we ordered from Home Depot for $60. I felt that this space needed to have a window even though it is an interior space. The window will allow some light in during the day, while not overlooking the adjoining room.

I primed the shiplap and filled in all of the nail holes.

After three coats of joint compound and sanding, I primed the wall that we put sheetrock up on. We used spacers when we put the sheet rock up. Do not have the sheetrock rest on the floor just in case your floor gets a little damp.

The ceiling after one coat of spray paint. I bought a can of paint to brush on and touch up the spots that the spray did not cover evenly. Not yet done in this photo.

The glass block window from Home Depot.

The window shiplap wall completed.

We used adhesive to put in the glass block window plus the wings that came with the window.

A view of the room from the outside. Adding this wall has actually made our exercise space feel more like a room. Plus we were able to add some much needed outlets to this space. We will add insulation and sheet rock to finish the wall off.

I added black foam insulation to the copper pipes to make them blend into the ceiling and primed the shiplap.

A final coat of white paint was added to this wall. I decided to have all white walls except one accent wall with color to make this room feel bright and not dingy like basements usually are.

I also painted the floor gray. Before painting, I prepped the floor by washing it a few times. I often paint walls without washing them first, but a floor is quite a different situation.

We also hired an electrician to put four outlets and a light in the room. The electrician also moved the light that is on the circuit with all of the basement lights into the area where the electrical box is. We are lucky enough to have found a really good seasoned/retired electrician that only charges $25 an hour. I purchased the light in this photo at Lowe's.

The final results will be shown in the article... Building a Room in the Basement for Around $1K; Part 2