Welcome back friends! It’s time for my week two update on our “Basement Junk Room-To-Teen Bonus Room Makeover” for the 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 my goal is 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. *This post contains affiliate links.

 

Week 1 Recap:

In last week’s post I shared that when our son got an electric guitar for his birthday just a week before the challenge was scheduled to begin, my husband and I decided that he needed a place to practice that wasn’t right in the middle of our upstairs family room. Since I am a piano and voice teacher we do have a music room in our home, but electric guitars, amplifiers and cords strewn about aren’t quite in keeping with the rest of the French vintage, cottage style decor of the room.

 

Transitioning From Summer To Fall Home Tour

 

The timing was just right to jump in and give our basement junk room a makeover and to document the process for the ORC. I also shared some before photos and inspiration for the room last week. We began by cleaning out the room and sorting out all of the junk. We have been purging and preparing for our spring yard sale. I can tell you it feels so good to get rid of the junk and to  to clear out old things!

 

Honestly there is so much I want to get rid of! Just a tip, if you are clearing out a ton of items in preparation for moving house or downsizing or maybe you just want to move some things into storage and you don’t have a truck, it can be helpful to hire a reliable moving company  to get it all over with at once instead of making several trips back and forth. For example, you can book a moving van from https://www.greenvanlines.com/ soon as you know your move in date. Oh, and another tip if you are moving, don’t forget to have all of your mail forwarded to your new address several weeks in advance.

 

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The goal is to transform the small room into a music-themed teen hang out space with masculine, rustic-industrial, vintage, and maybe even some modern boho vibes.

 

WEEK 2

This week I unexpectedly had family come in from out of town which I thoroughly enjoyed but prevented my husband and I from getting any major work accomplished. He did manage to switch out the fluorescent task lighting for a new track light and I got most of the junk moved out of the room and ready for our yard sale the first weekend of May.

 

We found this light on clearance for $48 at Home Depot and it was just the right size and style that we were wanting since the room is going to have a sort of industrial look.

 

The fluorescent light was just plugged into an outlet in the ceiling. It would have been too much work and time to wire the light to hang in the center of the room, but we were able to angle the light and use the existing electric outlet without any issues. I really don’t mind it being off set and I think it will look kind of cool with all the other fun accessories I am hoping to use in the room.

 

Pottery Barn Teen

 

 

We also placed our new (thrifted) Broyhill entertainment center in the spot where it is going to go and started measuring for the new wall and built-ins. The entertainment center itself will have to be modified a bit but it will look built in, with openings on each side for guitar display. The window and weird plumbing clean out access in the left corner will be covered, but my husband is going to design the wall with hidden removable panels so that both the window and clean out can be accessed if needed.

 

 

We won’t be painting the entertainment center, so the side built in’s will either be drywall, plank walls, or brick. Our son really wanted to display his guitars in some type of built in with lights after seeing his friend’s guitar room. My husband is quite the handy man, so even though it is going to be a challenge, I have full confidence he will come up with something awesome.

 

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The entertainment center is in great shape, and I think if I change out the door handles and hardware it will look a lot more rustic-industrial and will fit in fine with the rest of the room decor.

 

 

 

 

In the week ahead our goal is to start working on the faux brick panel around the fireplace. The paneling is textured but I am not crazy about the colors so I am going to give it some kind of makeover with paint. I love the look of faux exposed brick, but I don’t want the brick to end up looking too French farmhouse or shabby chic since the room is going to be primarily a teen bonus room.

 

Lowes

If I can figure out a way to really give it a faux paint treatment to look like authentic exposed brick, then that would be my first choice. For now I am also leaning toward solid black or a dark charcoal gray.

 

Here are some fireplace photos I am using for inspiration:

 

Sunset

 

 

Spencer On The Go

 

Little House Of Four

 

The Decorista

We are either going to use a free floating wood beam mantel, or none at all, and maybe just hang some really cool artwork above the stove insert.

 

Crate and Barrel

Since our whole family loves the Beatles, some type of framed Beatles poster or photo would be a fun choice.

 

A framed Union Jack flag or picture of a Union Jack would be fab too!

 

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There is also some interesting guitar art that would look great too.

 

Etsy

 

 

Well, that pretty much sums up week two of our basement junk room to teen bonus room makeover! At least now it’s not so junky, we have a new light, and things are in place and ready for some new changes in the weeks ahead.

Be sure to stop back by next weekend to see how it is coming along! Thanks for visiting!

Amber