Five Easy Pieces

If you went to UVA or visited Charlottesville you may think I am referring to the delicious sandwich from the famous Little John's deli.  Sadly, I'm not. But I am now craving it!  What I am referring to are some key furniture pieces that we have "easily" scooped up for our basement transformation.  Going into this project, we knew we wanted to create a cozy space that was casual and chic, but not spend a ton of money on it.  We started sourcing furniture at local stores as well as online and ended up finding some great stuff.

Easy Piece #1:  Sectional Couch
The basement is being divided into 2 distinct sections:  play area and TV area.  Since it is not a large room, we need to make the most use of the space and we thought a sectional would help us accomplish that by offering ample amounts of comfortable seating as well as act a natural divider between TV viewing area and James playing area (which we know will eventually be mashed into one space no matter how hard we try!).  Enter Bob's Discount Furniture.  We had been to Bob's a few times when living in NY and were really happy when they started opening stores down here. We paid them a visit a few weekends back and fell for their Venus II sectional model.

Not only is it a simple, clean couch, it was also very reasonably priced without being total crap that will fall apart in a year.  The best part - all the ice cream and cookies you want!!  James was a fan of that - as was Ed. :)

Easy Piece #2:  Entertainment Stand

I had a vision for what I wanted in an entertainment stand from the get go.  I wanted something that was solid, sturdy and tall enough to withstand the hands of a toddler and a tv-watching dog.  I also wanted something that had a good amount of storage to hide toys/games/books of said toddler and tv-watching dog.  And my final wish was for it to have a rustic, almost reclaimed look.  A pretty tall order, but my dreams were answered when I walked into Home Goods - hello gorgeous!

This beauty was all that I wanted without a Pottery Barn-styled price tag. It was probably the first time that I made a purchase like this without Ed being present to give it a thumbs up, but thanks to photos via text message, he was just as much on board as I was.

Easy Piece #3:  End Table
Because of the configuration of the room, we are in need of a single end table to house a lamp and some other goodies.  After securing the couch and measuring the space, we were able to get something fairly sizable and in my head it would be something unique, but simple.  The Home Good Gods shined down on us again and offered up this pretty piece:

It's hard to tell from the photo, but behind the little cut-outs is a mirror making it both rustic and chic at the same time.  It's also a door that opens to reveal oodles of storage which is a big plus.  The price tag was a little more than I wanted to spend on an end table for the room, but I figured it was worth it to have an attractive piece that also served up ample storage.

Easy Piece #4: Ottoman Coffee Table
This is a piece that I had been eyeing for some time and has actually been sitting in our basement for quite a while.  I first spotted it on my favorite DIY blog, Young House Love.  After doing some research, I found it for a whopping $800.00 and put it out of my brain then and there.  No way I was going to invest that much into an ottoman.  Then one day, while browsing the Joss & Main website, there she was for 75% off the rack price.  Uh - yes please!

I scooped it up then and there and we have had it for several months in anticipation of the basement.  It's a big piece measuring 25" x 25" and the best part is that it opens up offering major storage.  Are you seeing a theme here??  Full disclosure - we are still deciding if we want to keep this monster or try to sell it on Craigslist to get something a little smaller and not as matchy matchy with the couch.  We will make a final call once everything is in place.  I already have a back-up in mind (of course!).

Easy Piece #5:  EXPEDIT Bookcases

So technically we don't yet have these in our possession, but we will once we make our way to IKEA in the coming weeks.  Here is the inspiration:

We are going to get two of the 2 x 4 Expedit bookcases in white and fill it with some red and teal baskets for all of James' stuff.  The did is small, but he sure has a lot of crap so this will be one of the ways that we attempt to contain the crap.  The plan is to set them up in a similar manner so that we can also have his little table and chairs and a refrigerator along the same, not-very-long wall.  

So there you have it.  There are still some other items to get in place including a book case, a mirror and screen for the fire place area as well as some other decor related items, but I'd say we are well on our way to having a stylish and functional basement family room/play room!

Now You See It...Now You Don't!

It's renovation time again in the Mangiaracina house - yippee!!  The basement has been a thorn in our side for a while now so we decided that it was time to ship it into shape.  The motivation?  James' 2nd birthday party of course!!  To be honest, we have been wanting to convert the basement into a family room/play room rather than an oversized storage space for quite some time.

Now is the time.

In order to accomplish this feat, we apparently had to make it look like a tornado went through the space.  Good Lord - is that a mess or what?!

But, the best part of this mess is that is just the first step in making the basement a gorgeous, usable space rather than a dumping ground.  

The real first step was to remove the kitchenette that lived on one of the walls.  

We had decided pretty much as soon as we moved in that we would never really use it and would rather take it out and open the room up a bit.  So, one recent Sunday morning we dropped James off at Grandma and Grandpa's house and got to work.  

The kitchenette wasn't high quality so we figured it would be easy to remove from the wall.  And thanks to a trusty drill and some Mangiaracina muscles, the upper cabinets came down, no problem.  

The bottom cabinets were just as easy - but we did have to deal with some plumbing.  Luckily Ed knows a thing or two about pipes so dismantling the sink was a breeze.

As you can see from the above photo, removing the kitchenette did leave us with a hole in the wall and some missing baseboard molding.  Nothing a quick trip to Home Depot couldn't solve!  Within minutes the hole went from this...

... to this:

No problem, baby!  You can even see from this photo that Ed replaced the baseboard molding as well.  That part wasn't as seamless, but it wasn't anything an electric sander couldn't fix.  

We felt such a sense of accomplishment once the wall was free from the eye sore kitchenette.  Instead of trashing it, we are donating it to ReStore - a Habitat for Humanity program where you donate building and household items that are then sold in one of their local stores with proceeds going to the charity.  I'd much rather someone benefit from this thing rather than dump it in the trash.

The catch?  You have to get said items outside for the pick-up.  That meant Ed and I dragging these not-so-feather-weight pieces out of the house.  

In the freezing cold.  

With all the snow.  

Definitely a work out, but it's done and ready to be gotten.

As James would say, "buh-bye"!  Next stop on the renovation train: Paint Town!