Homeowner’s Objective: To Create a Deluxe Recreation Space in the Unfinished Basement Complete with Full Service Bar Area

When the homeowners had to relocate suddenly to the Washington, DC area, they were thrilled to find a nice home in a good school district for their four children. However, the home’s basement was unfinished. Not only did this mean that all the children were playing in one first floor family room, but that mom and dad also had no place to enjoy some of the recreation activities they enjoyed, like playing billiards. The homeowners made a careful list of all the things they wanted in a basement. Having also owned a mountain cabin in their previous locale, the homeowners wanted the basement to remind them of their former rustic retreat. Bowers designed the space and built it to perfection.

Functionality Highlights:

• The basement space was carefully designed to house a full service bar, pool table, ping-pong table, card table, home theatre, full bath and a home gym. All of this was accomplished with significantly increased functionality of the space and proportional placement of furniture in mind.
• Custom wainscoting was installed on the walls at the job. However, rather than use a narrow upper trim board, we installed a wider ledge in the home theatre area to accentuate the decoration possibilities in the room. The ledge is being used for lamps, pictures and other decorative items.
• With four children, a custom built-in toy box was the answer to reducing clutter. The toy box is both functional for storage and extra seating space.

Aesthetic Highlights:
The entire project is pleasing to the eye. However, special consideration was made to make the basement feel like a rustic, yet upscale, retreat. Here are some of the highlights:

• The fireplace has been surrounded by a stone facade and accented with a raised log mantle.
• The wall next the stairs was altered to create more open feel and allow a nicer looking wood banister and wainscoting to be displayed.
• A tray ceiling in the home theatre area defines that space as a distinctive part of the basement.

Craftsmanship Highlights:
Every detail in this project was carefully considered. A few are:

• Job-built bar with interesting angles. The custom bulkhead above the bar mirrors the shape of the bar for consistency.
• Custom job-built pool cue and ping-pong paddle rack, recessed into the wall for safety.
• Custom paneling and trim throughout.

Problem Solving Highlights:

• The former basement had no egress and had two small windows on one wall that didn’t allow much natural light to come into the space. One window was removed to create a door leading to the back yard. The other window was replaced with a larger window to let in more natural light and make the space overall more pleasant.

Innovation Highlight:

• Resilient channel (R channel) and sound insulation were installed in the ceiling to reduce sound transfer between the basement and first floor.

This project was a Merit Award Winner in the Interior Remodel category of the Washington Metro Area Contractor of the Year competition 2003.

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