We are finally breaking into the basement domain. To be completely honest with you, it's not an exciting space right now and we haven't even broken into what we would really call "phase one" of the basement renovation. We have made some small changes to make it feel more livable and organized. We aren't going to show you the whole basement today, just my desk area and craft storage area, that's where all the DIY magic happens anyway!
When we moved in we were thrilled about all the existing built in storage in the basement. The shelves in the finished part of the basement (seen below) make for such a nice space to keep all my craft and DIY items together in once place. In our last apartment we had to use multiple pieces of furniture to keep all these items organized and now I can see it all in one "swoop"!
This is the chaos that we have been looking at for months. It's all organized and I know where everything is, but it just looks like a hot mess. Our idea has been to hang curtains over the shelves to alleviate the immediate headache these messy shelves create but we wanted to re-use and not buy new. Due to the "reuse it" mindset we have, we had to wait until we moved things around up stairs until they were settled so we could see what there was left over. We ended up using curtain rods and curtains that came with the house.
Rob installed the curtain rods for me while I put the curtains in the wash. They cleaned up quite nicely seeing as though (I believe) they have never been washed.
As you can see, they are not "wrinkle-free" and they were much to long for the job we needed them to do, as well as unfinished/un-hemmed. I thought about what solution I wanted to use for about a day before just making up my mind and hemming them with the old sewing machine. I was going to hem them in such a way that they could be let down later but considering they were free and not a great quality curtain, I just decided to hem and cut.
*Oswin was very concentrated on the noise the sewing machine makes. She is just too cute!
I achieved an even hem by measuring down both side of the curtain and folding the hem to the same length. I went through doubled fabric for about two feet of hem (I didn't cut the excess off because I wanted the weight of the double hem on the bottom). I sewed the line up the full length of the curtain to add continuity since I didn't have any white thread on hand (I know, I know, what kind of seamstress am I?).
Once I had completed both sides of each curtain, I ironed the bottom to a crisp line in order to get a nice, even hem on the bottom.
As you can see in the picture on the left, I was left with a pocket at the bottom of the curtain and I didn't like the way it pulled the sides in when it was hung so I cut the pocket out. The double hem still leaves plenty weight to keep the curtain down but keeps it from pulling in from the sides.
The hem and a quick iron (can you believe it since they are still so wrinkly!) made the difference for these basement storage shelves.
This is my whole desk area, the table folds down on both sides and we usually keep the right "flap" folded down but it's awesome to have the extended space for working on projects! The shelving unit to the left is from Ikea and just adds nice "quick access" for the things I use the most. The greenish yellow storage cubes are respectively filled with yarn, fabric, and desk items such as notecards, writing utensils and all the other odds and ends.
Like I said, the basement is far from finished and we are moving s.l.o.w.l.y down here because we want to make some major changes (ie. drywall, new stairs, etc). We are happy to make these types of simple changes in order to make the space livable in the time being.
Did any of you take on project of this caliber this weekend? Nothing too crazy hard to accomplish but makes a big difference?
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