Finish a Basement: A DIY remodeling adventure!
Great home theater tips to help you design and setup your basement home theater!

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Visit our project planning page to learn how to prepare to finish your basement whether you're remodeling your basement by yourself, or hiring a contractor to finish your basement
Visit our design page to see how we created our basement design, and for tips on how you can design the basement of your dreams
Check here for information on the tasks you'll need to complete to finish your basement. Complete with the lessons we learned as we remodeled our basement, and tips to help you avoid some of the mistakes we made.
Whether you're designing a dedicated home theater, or creating a multi-purpose media room, check here for tips on selecting home theater components, and calibrating, and setting up your AV equipment
Check here to follow along as we complete our DIY basement remodeling project!






 

>Home >Our progress >Deciding on a paint color

Deciding on a paint color

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Now that the walls are primed, it was time to pick out a paint color. That's been a notoriously tedious process for us every time we paint. Each time we end up with 10-15 color chips that we like and we try to decide (and agree) on the one we like best. This time was no exception!

Here's a sample of the home theater in antique white created with Better Homes & Gardens Interior Designer software. [Click to enlarge]   Here's a sample of the home theater in butterscotch created with Better Homes & Gardens Interior Designer software. [Click to enlarge]

Use Better Homes and Gardens Interior Designer to help you choose a paint color. It's easy to see how different colors will look in your finished basement. Here, I tried antique white (left), and butterscotch (right). [Click the images above to enlarge.]

Picking a paint color

We wanted something different than the standard 'off white', but were concerned that if we went too dark, our basement would be too 'cave like'. Furthermore, we needed to take into account our home theater as we decided on a color scheme.

The ideal color for the home theater would be flat black walls, black ceiling, and dark carpet. However, that wouldn't be practical so we needed to compromise.

After we decided on our top few colors choices we bought a pint of each. We went with Valspar American Traditions brand at Lowe's. I had saved a few scraps of drywall to use for our color tests. I primed each, and put two coats of paint on them so I could see EXACTLY how the color would look in our finished basement. After much indecision, we went with "Canyon" from Valspar's top of the line "Signature" series in an eggshell finish for the walls, and "Churchill Hotel Ecru" in a satin finish for the baseboard molding.

Valspar signature series eggshell finish

FAB Tip - Save the scraps of drywall you've painted and take them with you whenever you go look at carpet, furniture, or flooring. It will help ensure that everything matches.

Using Better Homes & Gardens Interior Designer choose a paint color

The "Select library object" window of Better Homes and Gardens Interior Designer allows you to quickly change colors and textures as you review your basement design. [Click to enlarge]Better Homes and Gardens Interior Designer will help make picking a paint color easier. You just pull up a 3-D camera view of your basement, and click on the spray can icon to bring up the “Select library object” window. This brings up a variety of options for paint color, carpet and flooring. You just pick the one you like, and then click on the surface in 3-D view to apply the selected color or texture. Voila! You can now see how your new room will look!



The carpet selections available make it easy to envision your room in any color carpet. [Click to enlarge]

Changing the carpet color is just a click away. [Click to enlarge]

Here's what the kitchen and walk-up bar area would look like with a tile floor, custard walls, and dark trim and wainscoting. [Click to enlarge]

Here's what the kitchen and walk-up bar area would look like with a tile floor, custard walls, and dark trim and wainscoting. [Click to enlarge]

Cherry laminate flooring, oak cabinetry, and granite countertop with light wainscoting and trim. [Click to enlarge]

Here's what the kitchen area would look like with a cherry wood floor, darker carpet, tan walls and lighter trim. [Click to enlarge]

Progress Topics

Priming the walls

Deciding on a paint color

Buying home theater systems

Painting basement walls

Insulating basement ceiling

Installing drop ceiling grid

Drop ceiling tile selection

Drop ceiling tile installation

Finishing electrical

Home theater wiring

Buying carpeting

Buying laminate flooring

Installing laminate & hardwood flooring

See also...
Phase 1: Basement prep and framing

Phase 2: Electrical and drywall

 

 

 

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