Basement Design Ideas

What with low ceilings, ductwork, large beams, and columns, basements are a design challenge. To make that lower level feel spacious and inviting takes physical maneuvering and a bit of visual magic.

Basement Design Ideas
Photo Credit: Matt Roule, Chad Carter/131Shapes
What with low ceilings, ductwork, large beams, and columns, basements are a design challenge. To make that lower level feel spacious and inviting takes physical maneuvering and a bit of visual magic.
“The only real way to make the space bigger is to dig out the ground, which is costprohibitive,” says Chad Carter, who, together with Matt Roule, is a principal of 131Shapes, a design/build company in Pittsburgh. “So you have to work around and integrate problems into the design.”
Photo Credit: Matt Roule, Chad Carter/131Shapes
JOY IN JOISTS
You can sometimes add another foot to a room’s head height by revealing the joists from the floor above. Here, Roule and Carter sanded the floor joists, put a clear finish on them, and built the bulkhead around them to hide mechanicals. “The big white expanse [of ceiling] in a low-ceilinged basement gives a closed-in feeling,” Roule says. [Editor’s note: This project won a Merit Award in Remodeling’s 2008 Design Awards.]
INCORPORATE OBSTACLES
Photo Credit: Matt Roule, Chad Carter/131Shapes
You could build the ceiling down around an obstruction to create an enhancement, such as a tray ceiling, or leave ductwork exposed for a modern, urban feel. In this basement , Roule and Carter created space using three different ceiling plans: fully drywalled, opened with exposed joists, and showing visible ductwork. They created a central core with a hallway under the ductwork
Click here to read full article from Remodeling



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