Welcome back friends! It’s time for my week six REVEAL of our “Basement Junk Room-to-Teen Bonus Room Makeover” for the official One Room Challenge! If you are unfamiliar with the One Room Challenge (ORC) it is an event hosted by Better Homes and Gardens for bloggers to share the step-by-step process of a room makeover in only six weeks.

For this challenge the goal was to transform the catch-all junk room in our basement into a fun teen hangout/bonus room for our 14 year-old son, and his friends to play guitar, video games, and watch movies. Before beginning on the project I researched a lot of different examples of basement developments and small space makeovers could transform the room into a more enjoyable and useable space. He had just gotten a new electric guitar right before the ORC started so it was the perfect time to change the junk room into teen hang out.

Well…

I can’t believe it!!! We pulled it off! It is 10:30 p.m. as I write this post and the deadline to link up over at the official ORC site is 11:00! My husband has worked non-stop for the past couple of days and I have been busy doing what I can to help and trying to take some photos and blog along the way! We didn’t get everything completely finished, but our  son certainly has a cool  new bonus room to hang out in with his friends! Check it out!

If you have been following along over the last six weeks, then you will see right away that my husband did a fabulous job with the main focus of the makeover which was a built in entertainment center with guitar display built-ins! The real challenge for me now is figuring out how to really get some good photos of the room since we designed the built-in to hide the old basement window and now there is no natural light. I normally don’t use interior lights in photography, but the puck lights in the displays and the industrial track light are actually part of the reveal. I think they look great!

Below is this same view just two weeks ago:

Here is what it was looking like just three days ago. What a difference! He ended up finishing the frame around the entertainment center and book shelves with dry wall. He also painted the ceiling and trim black, and we painted the walls and the new drywall and book shelves around the entertainment center a darker gray than what was previously on the walls. Using the same color around the built in as the walls made the room feel wider instead of long and narrow.

We were also going for a retro-vintage-industrial vibe with the decor, and I think we pulled it off! In this photo you can really see the grayish- black ceiling which we just love (and some frog tape that we apparently forgot to remove!) We have no regrets painting the ceiling whatsoever! I also think the whole “entertainment center” looks awesome and the guitars just look so cool on display like artwork illuminated with the LED lights.  The pallet wood laminate flooring worked great as the back walls for the book cases too.

After seeing the pallets next to the entertainment armoire, my husband and I both thought that the original wood stain on the entertainment center looked a little too orange. Just last night my husband started stripping it with Citri-Strip. After he strips it down completely he is going to give it a more rustic finish to blend better with the various wood tones in the pallets. Even though it isn’t finished yet it already looks so much better.

Here is a shot showing the faux brick panel around the the electric fireplace insert. Due to our truck having to go to the shop for repairs we weren’t able to pick up the paneling until two days ago! Therefore, I didn’t get to do the rustic, exposed brick faux treatment on the brick in time for the reveal, but I will definitely do a follow-up post when I do.  I am also still shopping for the perfect industrial style large wall clock to hang on the faux brick and maybe a framed Beatles poster for the wall space just to the left of the panel. We are still not sure if we are going to add a floating wood beam mantel or just use a large clock.

I did add a few other fun vintage style accessories and the room is coming together just how we envisioned it.

As you first come down the stairs there is a vintage desk which will be great for homework, art, or working puzzles. It is like having a private little office space separate from the rest of the house. I am still trying to figure out how to photograph the angles of the room so I didn’t get a full pic of the desk, but at least you can get a peek of a few more vintage treasures with retro-industrial vibes.

Our son just put some puzzle glue on his Beatles puzzle today. He wants to frame it and hang it somewhere in the room. Sounds like a fab idea to me!

He just loves the room already! Due to the paint fumes and Citri-Strip odor, he will have to wait a couple of days to really hang out in his new space. By next weekend he will be able to invite some friends over for guitar playing and video games. We also plan to finish the room by upgrading all the technology and completing a  home theater installation sometime this summer. With the guitars, music equipment and all the other technology in the room, we may look into increasing our home security, possibly through remote CCTV.

Our new bean bag chairs and ottoman from Big Joe could not have been more perfect for the space! The room is long and narrow so it was nearly impossible to find any type of traditional seating that didn’t eat up the room. The bean bag chairs were the best solution, as they are small enough to keep the room feeling spacious and they still provide plenty of comfy lounging. They are also super light weight and we can just grab them and move them to the upstairs family room when we need extra seating in there too. (*I am so happy to partner with Big Joe for a review of these products. All opinions are my own.)

Everyone in the family loves the chairs and big poofy ottoman! I will share more details about them in an upcoming post. I also added a rug to the area in front of the entertainment center and fireplace and now the whole space feels so finished and cozy! There is actually quite a bit of space behind the seating area to scoot back the chairs and open up the space for more stools when my son has several friends over.

My son is also a golfer, and his favorite drink is a classic Arnold Palmer (lemonade and iced tea). As we were finishing up the room today he wanted to make an Arnold Palmer to sip while he kicked back in his bean chair and tried out relaxing in his new space. I can tell he is really excited about the room and that makes my husband and I so happy. All the work over the past six weeks has been worth it!

Here is one last look at the “junk room” from week one:  ( We had already mostly cleaned up everything in this pic—it was so full of junk before we started!)

Below is a makeover picture from a similar angle. There are still a few things to do, but it looks so much more like a real room now and not just a basement junk storage room!

The whole family is pleased with the makeover and I know we will all get lots of use out of the new “teen” bonus room, especially since we all play guitar. This week we will finish up the little touch ups and other small details, and when I finish the faux exposed brick and add all the final decorative accessories I will share the “finished” room.

It has been a lot of fun participating in this challenge! Overall it wouldn’t have been very stressful at all and we would have probably gotten all the little details finished if it hadn’t been for truck problems! Even as it is now, the “new” room is perfectly usable. I am happy that we were able to take an unused room in our home and turn it into a place that will hopefully provide lots of fun, music making and entertainment for friends and family for many years to come.

Thanks so much for following along with the challenge! Stop back by again soon!

Amber