I guess this is turning out to be basement week. Yesterday I showed ya our massive junk problem that we solved and today I wanted to start to show you how I prepped this back hallway to be a usable space for both us and for our friends that are staying in our basement.
So in the basement, running almost the full length of our house is a hallway. We call it the storage hallway because duh, it is where we put storage. It’s a little over five feet wide and is L shaped. There are two entrances to this hall – one in the living space of the basement and one in the biggest bedroom. This is how it looks if you enter from the living space….
Once you turn the corner, it runs almost the full length of the house and has a little bump-out where the basement furnace lives.
This area is weird to us. There used to be a ‘window’ to the kitchen on the other side of this wall. We don’t know exactly what the previous owners were doing back here but there is a plug for a stove/range (????????), a couple standard outlets, and a gas line. Yeah. Our best guess is that they were cooking back here and then passing it through the window to the bar area in the kitchen? Maybe they had a grill? A barbecue? We have no idea but in our minds, it all tasted delicious.
In our future, we don’t see hotdogs roasting back here. Right past the drywall is where we want to put up a partition. On this side (let’s call it the L side), we will put washer and dryer hookups for a basement laundry nook and keep this side empty for anybody who is staying with us that may have storage needs.
Past the dry wall is the bump outs. It is nothing really special. The bump out area and the rest of the hall will be our storage for holiday bins.
In the past we had not utilized this space to the full potential but with storage shelves, we can fit our Christmas stuff (that’s the vast majority), other holiday decorations and our emergency stash.
Ok now if you get to the end, you can turn around and see the whole hall….
Now the worst part about this entire space was the floor. It was just plain nasty. If I was doing laundry down here and dropped a sock on the floor, I would seriously consider rewashing it just because the floor looked so bad. And the real kick-me-in-the-pants is that these photos were taken after it was cleaned. That’s right…all those red marks and dark marks are just stains. That’s when I started thinking about painting it.
A lot of bloggers have talked about how to paint concrete floors and I read about six accounts of how-to’s and in depth tutorials. When it came down to it….it’s really very simple. First you mop….or you get your husband to mop for you….
Let me just say that I could stand behind this man and watch him mop all day. Especially in those shorts.
It’s like those commercials of men ironing….god bless household chores.
After your floor is really clean and your every female fantasy is fulfilled….time to break out the paint. I went with Sherwin Williams Floor and Porch Enamel. A lot of people recommended this one and I liked that you can color match it in the store. Just make sure you buy it with a coupon and during a sale because dude, it can be really expensive especially if you need more than one can…which I did.
I went with Peppercorn which is a Sherwin Williams color….it’s nice and dark gray….perfect for a window-less basement space. My best tip was to hold the color swatch under those lights that shows natural light, fluorescent, and tungsten, because if your area is like mine with no natural light, it really does affect the color.
All you do is cut in around the edges and then pour out a couple cups of paint and then use a roller to push it around.
It’s UBER easy….way easier than painting a room.
Pretty soon the entire space was covered. Then came the waiting game. You have to let this stuff cure for at least 24 hours.
I did two coats and it got great coverage.
Here she is after all was said and done….
And a gif so that you can feel like you can paint a floor at warp speed! Super painter!
I could have stopped here and been perfectly fine but I decided that I would go ahead and seal it completely just so that we could have a more finished look and if we ever had a spill, it would be easy to clean up. The sealer I used was H&C’s concrete sealer wet look…..and let me tell ya….it really does make it look very wet.
I applied it the same way I did the paint….cutting in around the edges and corners and applying a generous layer in the middle with a roller.
And then after at least 72 hours, we could walk on it. Seriously…the waiting almost killed me. I was so ready to start organizing this space but thankfully we had cleaned it out and had all this done and DRY before our friends brought over the first load and started filling up their half.
My mom asked me why I didn’t do the walls but honestly….I just can’t see us doing those right now…it just doesn’t justify the cost. The floor I can explain because I would be a person who does laundry barefoot or would want to come down and get our Easter bins out without thinking about shoes….but the walls aren’t as functional. Is that weird? I mean, the floor cost about $37 a can…plus the cost of rollers….so a little over $100 total and we have enough leftover to do another small space (maybe our old workroom that holds all the furniture?)…but I imagine that the walls would have cost more than that. What would you have done?
So another thing checked off the get-ready list….and I can not wait to show ya our storage down there. It is great. So organized and functional. And just because I know exactly where every thing is….it totally makes me want to celebrate every holiday early. Basically my basement storage has turned me into Hobby Lobby 🙂 Bring on Halloween!
I wouldn’t have painted the walls either. Unless it had a functional reason, like keeping it cooler/warmer down there. Nothing is worse to walk on than cold concrete.
We have been living with family for the last year and a half (short term option turned long term 🙁 ).
All of our stuff has been in storage, thrown together haphazardly.
I have been itching to go organize it for the last few weeks but knowing we will be moving in a few months is what is stopping me.
Maybe I can convince my fiancé that we need to go through all of our stuff before we move…
Thanks for the inspiration!
Love how clean it comes out. I really want to do this in our back yard. There used to be a screened in porch (it’s california, no idea why they had one) so now there is just a huge rectangle of cement and we don’t have to budget to tile right now or anything. The concrete is still in tact but it’s been around since the 50’s. I think this would be a great transitional solution! Thanks!
I am so jealous of your large basement. I live in Texas and we do not have basements. I can’t imagine having all of that extra space to live in and to decorate! I love the way the floors turned out. I think I would probably find an inexpensive way to cover the walls. After all, you could cut loose and decorate in a way you always wanted but haven’t!!! Maybe the kids could do a graffiti wall?
Looks amazing! We have 3 parts to our L-shaped basement. A new, “clean” concrete addition… a finished (carpeted/drywalled) section at the corner, and then the “old dirty” part with our furnace, tools and laundry area. We recently painted the “dirty” walls white and it made a HUGE difference! We also painted our window wells white and now the entire room is so much brighter. It makes going down and doing laundry a little less painful. 😉 Your post definitely makes me want to consider doing the floor!
I probably would have made the same call as you on just doing the floors. A part of me says, paint the walls to make it feel more finished. But, budgets are important (so I hear). I’m not always good at sticking to budgets. Just ask my hubby! Lol!
I’m totally with you on painting the floor but not the walls. For storage/utility spaces like this, especially in a basement, it doesn’t bother me that it has that unfinished, raw look, and you don’t walk on the walls. But I know from experience of doing laundry in my parents’ basement that a painted floor is nice for barefoot laundry. And that color looks so fantastic!
I’m so jealous of everyone with a basement. We don’t have them in Texas. Bummer!
This is awesome Katie! I have been wanting to finish our basement floors for a long time in order to create a bigger, less in the way play space for our little dudes. Painting seems so much more cost effective than carpet at this point. Everything that I read (until your post!) has talked about needing ventilation to paint concrete. Our basement has zero windows that open. Did you find that ventilation was an issue at all? Do you think painted floors would stand the test of time with little people playing all over them? Thank you so much for this post! I want to start like now…
I never considered stains on concrete floors to be dirty/nasty. Having said that, the transformation is AMAZING, looks great! I agree with your mom. I was looking at the walls and wondering why you didn’t do the walls. I would care about them before I would care about the floor. I totally understand your not being able to justify the cost though! The walls can wait!
Girl, I am dying over your 10′ basement ceilings! That is my DREAM. Every time you blog (well, almost), I head over to Zillow to find a house like your and am always disappointed. Would it be weird if I just handed over your blog to an architect so I can build a twin house? I’ve legitimately considered it. Ha.
if you have money left after doing everything else at the top of the list, I would definitely paint the walls too. A nice, clean white (or whatever will look white in that light) would really do wonders!
Looks fresh and clean, nice color choice. I agree with you, the walls can be painted anytime and in sections if need be. Your friends will appreciate the clean floors, especially if their kids run around barefoot.
Wow, what a huge difference that made. Great job! Sure it would look great with painted walls, but I’m with you. It’s just storage after all and it doesn’t justify the cost, especially with the laundry list of projects you want to tackle yet.
LOL, no pun was intended, it just happened “laundry list”.
The floors look great! But can I say that you doing all the posts on the basement makes me feel like you all live in a giant mansion–sooooo much space!! It’s amazing. I think my home might just fit in your hallway–excuse me not “think”, “KNOW”! 🙂
What a great project! I think its best you only painted the floor. I prefer the look of concrete walls and also, once you start painting a surface you’ll eventually have to maintain/repaint it; I’m all for less maintenance.
Love the painted floor- I need to do that to our basement ASAP!! Ours is so gross! (120 yr old house basement… Eww). I don’t know that I would have done the walls. I think this isn’t a space you’re going to hang out in and it’s a decent amount of money… I probably wouldn’t have! Plus… All that work! Lol
Since you asked 🙂 I completely agree that painting the walls would have been purely for looks and not an absolute must like the floor was. I’ve wanted to stain my front porch for ages (stalling because it needs to be scraped and power washed and scraped some more to get the old paint off), but your painted concrete floor looks really good and might be an easier method than staining, too, I think.
Hey Katey,
Thanks for the lovely tutorial! We have a “bomb/tornado shelter” that needs some love, especially if we need to really use it. Painting the walls and the floor would really help make it feel “homey” if need be. I’ll have to check out that paint. 🙂
-Lindsey
Is it weird how excited I feel about your floor? We just moved into our dream home on 2 acres (with a pond!) and it’s awesome but I didn’t do laundry for a full week because the basement is gross and cob-webby and gross. This seems like an easyish project to do. I could just admire the floor anytime I have to go to the basement for something and not look at the walls or ceiling. And then my children could wear clean clothing again. . . .
The floors look great! I’m so jealous of your storage space.
Looks great! Was the paint easy to work with? I’m thinking about painting my storage room floor.
Also, my homes exterior is painted Sherwin Williams Peppercorn. I just had them add 25% more black to make it darker. It’s made me very happy over the last few years. Hope you are equally as happy with the newly painted floor.
Wow! I would have never thought to go with a dark color, but it does look great! I can’t wait to see it all organized. Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you that in my next life I’ll be a professional organizer. Seriously, organizing makes my heart smile!! And yes, I’m THAT dorky!
Love that color! Probably will use that on my front porch this spring. By the way, I have not received an email from you, so I’m assuming I did not win the sofa. Boo hoo
At first I thought ‘why not paint the walls?! :(‘ and then I thought- hang on, I hate painting and these guys paint every wall themselves, and right now their energy could be used else where coughfoyercough! But as I started typing I realised this could have been a REALLY easy place to spray because of the no windows and the floor needing paint anyways…?
Anyway, many people would have ignored the paint altogether so I’m glad you’ve done the floor at least! Loving the new found energy 😉
Keep up the great work- I’m sending you internet energy to keep going!
I think you have one of the biggest, most majestic basements I’ve ever seen. It just goes and goes! Amazing! Love what you’re doing to make your friends feel at home. Two thumbs up.
The floor really looks great! I’m with you in not painting the walls. More than cost, what I see is a lot of time invested which you don’t have right now. It would seem to me that you will probably need 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint.
Anywho, the floors are just how you wanted and that’s what counts. 🙂
So with you on having to rewash any dropped laundry … gross floors in our basement too. I repainted as well, two coats and then sprinkled paint speckles … you buy them in a jar … and voila, no spots! At least I pretend any dirt is actually a paint speckle. Yes, I’m a little bit lazy but I’m smartlazy … I would have put a hyphen in there but I’m typing this on a french computer in Tahiti on vacation and it’s a little confusing …
It’s not over yet! Friday is the last day to enter!
xo – kb
You should keep an eye out for the right color or quantity in the oops-paint section of Home Depot. Especially since they can be further tinted in some ways.
Congrats on purging. 🙂
The floor came out amazing!! I want to do our basement now. I agree about the walls. Less function and it is a basement (even if people are living in other areas now).
Right now, I think you should be jumping up and down celebrating what you HAVE done! We recently did a basement clear out and it is a lot of work!! I think doing the floors was an excellent call – the walls would be a nice to do – someday! Focus on your incredible accomplishments!
We painted our Playroom with these same paints and have had a HORRIBLE time with the paint coming up and now it’s bubbling in some areas. We did it in July (we’re in Kansas) and followed the curing directions, but apparently something is wonky.
We even did white & grey stripes, so you know I’m mad about the extra time we took to do the lines. 😉
The floors look AMAZING!!! So, I have question for you. We did something similar for the bathroom floors in our gym…we own a CrossFit gym. When we purchased the space there were no bathrooms or showers so we had two separate bathrooms installed but we just left the floors the original concrete that was there which didn’t look that great.. I painted the floors with some kind of concrete paint…it’s been over a year ago now and I don’t remember which brand I used but whatever it was I must have done something wrong because some of the paint is starting to chip away and it just doesn’t look good. We thought about just using those peel and stick tiles over the top of it but I think those look kind of cheap.. Any suggestions? Should I just repaint and if so could I go right over the top of what is there now? I didn’t do the seal coat that you mentioned…maybe that’s the problem? Also, while you’re reading, haha! The walls in both of the bathrooms are a mess. We painted those as well…a somewhat gray color. There isn’t great ventilation in there so in the summer when it gets really hot and people take showers there is alot of condensation. So it’s made the walls look really bad. Like someone has thrown buckets of water on them and it’s dripped down the walls and kind of stained them that way. We used the same kind of paint that we painted all of our bathrooms at home with, which look fine. Valspar regular interior paint. I definitely want to repaint in there but want to make sure I use something different this time. Any suggestions? Or, could you just come to Indiana and help me?!?!?!
Oh how I’d love some storage space like that! It looks great! Can’t wait to see how you organize it.
Is it weird that all I can think of after reading this is “Oh the epic hide-and-seek games that could happen in your house!” Seriously….you scored a great house for that!!
Yay CrossFit gym owners! I would absolutely love to help. Can you email me a pic? It doesn’t have to be perfect…just an idea of what you are working with. Here’s my email – [email protected]
Thanks!
xo – kb
Thats a good idea!
xo – kb
Oh no! I did notice that it is a ridiculously long dry time for anything other than foot traffic and if you are in a hot season or moist area, it could definitely mess with your cure!
xo – kb
It was super easy to work with…but I imagine that most floor paint is because it’s a little thicker.
xo – kb
It was slightly stinkier than I had anticipated so we opened the doors on both ends and created a flow of air. I don’t know how long they would last in a playroom but I did notice that I had one scratch after I assembled the storage rack and dragged it (oops!). Probably not the best bet for super heavy traffic.
xo – kb
Mopping in the Nanos! Functional fitness at its best! Great job on the floor!
Thanks for the review – since it’s just storage, I wouldn’t bother with the walls either, especially since you’re on a time constraint. I’m excited about the paint and hope you’ll give updates eventually… I have a finished basement currently only used as storage, with dingy carpet that needs replacing, and I was thinking of just staining the concrete or something, to make it cheapest, but this paint would have better coverage for the seams from french drains! Eventually might use as living space in which case just get some area rugs and all set!
Looks great. Surprised the way you have repainted the basement. I have never tried anything like this in my home.
Thanks again.