I Created a Gentleman's Proper Basement — Transcript

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1. 0:00When we look to design a room, it can be
2. 0:02very easy to fall into an instructional
3. 0:05type mindset, we go into a mode of
4. 0:08following directions where we completely
5. 0:11forget why we chose to change that room
6. 0:14in the first place. We start treating
7. 0:16the room like a math equation based on
8. 0:19what others have dictated is correct in
9. 0:22design. If I have this paint color, then
10. 0:25I guess I should have this type of
11. 0:26furniture. And if I have this type of
12. 0:28furniture, well then I guess that means
13. 0:31I need this type of decor. Everything
14. 0:34becomes this type of A plus B equals C
15. 0:37trajectory. It's too restrictive. It
16. 0:40eliminates the ability to evoke. It's
17. 0:43mechanical and it puts constraints on
18. 0:45what should be a more free flowing
19. 0:48process. When constructing a room, it's
20. 0:51important to remember the underlying
21. 0:52factors that have led you to this point.
22. 0:56Why are you designing this room? Is it
23. 0:58out of utility? Is it emotion? Is it
24. 1:01both? Think of shopping for a car. What
25. 1:04is the purpose that this new car is
26. 1:06going to serve in your life? Is it
27. 1:08simply to get you from point A to point
28. 1:10B? Is it a gift to yourself as a reward
29. 1:13for something that you recently
30. 1:15achieved? Is it an element of prestige,
31. 1:18nothing wrong with that, to signify the
32. 1:20things that you have accomplished in
33. 1:22life? Or is it a self-identifier? I have
34. 1:26worked to become this type of person and
35. 1:29this type of person gets to enjoy this
36. 1:32type of car. Today I'm going to show you
37. 1:35how we turned a basement into what most
38. 1:37would consider a main level design. If
39. 1:41you're a returning subscriber, hit the
40. 1:43thumbs up. If you're new here, hopefully
41. 1:45by the end of this video, you'll be a
42. 1:47subscriber. Remember that if you would
43. 1:49like my help in designing your room, you
44. 1:52can have that help by clicking the link
45. 1:54in the description below. Let's turn
46. 1:56towards the computer and you'll be able
47. 1:58to see what I see. Dan uh the customer
48. 2:03and subscriber had approached us with
49. 2:05this basement saying that he wanted to
50. 2:07transform it. As you can see, up to this
51. 2:10point, the basement was fairly basic.
52. 2:12This is a very common look that you're
53. 2:13going to find in homes which have
54. 2:15recently been renovated or just built
55. 2:18nowadays. The basements have that stark
56. 2:20and cold appearance which is intended to
57. 2:23be appealing, but I've just never
58. 2:25figured out who the intended audience
59. 2:27is. Dan was pretty much an open book in
60. 2:30regards to doing what we needed to do in
61. 2:32order to accomplish the look that he
62. 2:34wanted. The only requests he had were
63. 2:36that we keep the gray hardwood flooring
64. 2:38and keep the kitchenet in place. He was
65. 2:41however open to changing the color of
66. 2:44that kitchenet. The overarching theme he
67. 2:46was going for was this masculine
68. 2:48traditional vintage lounge. He described
69. 2:51it as being a bit of a man cave of
70. 2:54sorts, but based on our discussion, I
71. 2:57knew that he was referring to the
72. 2:59denotation of a man cave as opposed to
73. 3:01the common connotation it's attached to.
74. 3:04This room was going to serve as a
75. 3:07getaway area where he could pursue
76. 3:09everything he enjoys and strives for as
77. 3:13an individual. It would be a place of
78. 3:15thought. It would be a place of study, a
79. 3:17place of relaxation, and a place of
80. 3:19work. It was to be a gentleman's
81. 3:22retreat. Some requests that Dan had to
82. 3:25incorporate into this design were the
83. 3:27following. An office desk, a seating
84. 3:29area with couches, a TV, a coffee table,
85. 3:33a space to eat, bookshelves, uh a
86. 3:36ventless fireplace, plants, and accents
87. 3:39of either copper, brass, or gold. So,
88. 3:44let's go ahead and take a look at what
89. 3:46we came up with.
90. 3:49The styling of this room was so
91. 3:50enjoyable to come up with because I
92. 3:52myself am partial to this theme and type
93. 3:55of style. We wanted the room to present
94. 3:58sophistication and class. It was to be
95. 4:00studious, well-groomed, and
96. 4:01gentlemanlike. And I think we achieved
97. 4:04just that. Starting with the center
98. 4:06seating area, we combined rich wood with
99. 4:09brown leather. And that's a classic
100. 4:11traditional look. Now, to ensure that
101. 4:13those elements did not clash with the
102. 4:15gray flooring we had, we included a
103. 4:18large aerial rug, which pulled colors
104. 4:20from all around the room and based them
105. 4:23at the platform of the design. The
106. 4:26artwork you see above the center sofa
107. 4:27there is by the artist Sergey Marenov,
108. 4:31and it contained the exact color palette
109. 4:33we were using with the furnishings. So,
110. 4:35it was an excellent choice and an easy
111. 4:38way to pull the theme from a lower line
112. 4:41of sight and bring it up to that
113. 4:42midlevel line of sight. If you're
114. 4:45wondering, the the paint color that we
115. 4:47used here is called iron ore. It's made
116. 4:50by Sherwin Williams and it was their
117. 4:52color of the month back in March of
118. 4:552022. The work desk was one of the
119. 4:58lighter tones of wood that we used in
120. 5:00the room, that being acacia. So to
121. 5:03complement it and bring it back to
122. 5:05center, we used a black leather chair
123. 5:07accompanied by a sort of royal mahogany
124. 5:10trim. If we would have used a brown
125. 5:12color for the entirety of the chair,
126. 5:14it's possible that it would have worked,
127. 5:16but it felt like a little too much brown
128. 5:18and red for me given the the large
129. 5:20leather seating chair that you can see
130. 5:22right beside it. Dan did mention that he
131. 5:25wanted to incorporate some academia into
132. 5:27the design. So the built-in bookshelves
133. 5:29serve that purpose. And nearly midway
134. 5:32between the bookshelves and the
135. 5:34fireplace is the lounge chair, which
136. 5:37presumably would most often be used for
137. 5:40reading. Sitting next to a fireplace in
138. 5:43a comfortable chair, firewood at your
139. 5:45feet, ready to be used as fuel, and a
140. 5:47great book in your hand is such a
141. 5:49classic image, which of course goes back
142. 5:52centuries and felt extremely right in
143. 5:54this room. Now, the nature of basements
144. 5:57is that they tend to be widespread. It's
145. 6:00a single room which nearly spans across
146. 6:03the entire blueprint of the home. What
147. 6:07this results in is a lot of
148. 6:09uninteresting ceiling. So, what we did
149. 6:12to combat that is very simple. We added
150. 6:14a few ceiling beams. The ceiling height
151. 6:17in this basement is not incredibly high.
152. 6:20So painting the beams the same color as
153. 6:22the ceiling allows them to serve the
154. 6:25purpose of interrupting that monotony
155. 6:28while still fading to the background as
156. 6:30to not create a claustrophobic type of
157. 6:33feel. The original kitchen here in the
158. 6:36basement was a kitchenet as you could
159. 6:38see from the original design, meaning a
160. 6:41smaller, more compact kitchen, typically
161. 6:44with less utility. You often see these
162. 6:46in new luxury studio apartments. The
163. 6:48units are so small that they'll use
164. 6:50these one-wall kitchens to conserve the
165. 6:53space available, but the footprint of
166. 6:56this basement is large and it's large
167. 6:58enough to not have to neglect ourselves
168. 7:01of having an inviting, welcoming, proper
169. 7:04kitchen. So, the easiest thing to do was
170. 7:07to include a nice, prominent island. And
171. 7:10for Dan, this could serve as an eating
172. 7:12area. It could be a bar. It could be a
173. 7:14place to host. When you end up with a
174. 7:18really welltailored space in your home,
175. 7:21you do enjoy it for yourself, but you
176. 7:24almost inevitably want to share it with
177. 7:26other people. So, this island would
178. 7:29allow for the gathering space of friends
179. 7:31where you can provide refreshments,
180. 7:33small bites to eat, or have a full
181. 7:35spread if you want to. It's a space
182. 7:38where the conversation begins and then
183. 7:42it makes its way to the seating area. As
184. 7:46you can clearly see, the kitchen color
185. 7:48scheme was changed and painted to fit
186. 7:50that of the rest of the room. We did
187. 7:53four things to make sure that that iron
188. 7:56ore paint did not overwhelm this section
189. 8:00of the basement. The first is that we
190. 8:02incorporated these black iron and light
191. 8:05wood bar stools. That helped
192. 8:07differentiate them from the island's
193. 8:09color. The second is that we installed
194. 8:12caged pendant lights, which preferably
195. 8:15would use Edison bulbs with an amber
196. 8:18glow. This is something that I gravitate
197. 8:20towards, and it's actually a great trick
198. 8:23to change the presence of a room
199. 8:25completely just by switching out some
200. 8:27bulbs. The third was placing these pecan
201. 8:30stained wood planks on the ceiling to
202. 8:33add a little bit of interest. And the
203. 8:36fourth and last element was including a
204. 8:39countertop with the decor of that
205. 8:42countertop being wood, copper, and black
206. 8:45tones. You have now seen the creation of
207. 8:47a gentleman's proper lounge and
208. 8:49basement. If you like the video, hit the
209. 8:52thumbs up. If you feel like sticking
210. 8:53around a while, feel free to subscribe.
211. 8:56See you on the next