8 Ideas for a Unique Basement

You know that dark and spooky area under your home that you never like to go to?  For most home owners, the basement is relegated to a lifetime of emptiness and clutter.  Well now is the best time to make good use of your basement!  Consider some of these great options for turning your unused space into a space that is perfect just for you.

1. Home Office.  More and more people are working from home these days, whether they set up their small businesses or just need a place to do the bills.  Unfortunately, the dining room table just isn’t the right place to conduct business.  Consider fitting out your basement with an office that uses built-in shelves and has plenty of room for a true office desk.
2. Guest Quarters.  Do you like having visitors over every weekend but always have to kick them out at the end of the evening?  Make your home even more accommodating by adding an additional bedroom and bathroom in your basement to make sure your guests feel nice and welcomed.
3. Play Area.  If your main levels are dedicated for the adults of the home, make sure the basement is an excellent place for all the little kiddies to hang out.  Offer a place for your kids to play with their friends while staying out of your hair.  Add lots of little niches, crawling spaces, climbing walls and lots of colors!  Don’t forget to use eggshell paint, its easiest to clean.
4. Hobby Room.  Maybe you are the little kid in the house with all of your model cars and trains scattered all over the living room.  Or maybe the laundry room has been taken over by all of your fabric and sewing materials.  Makeover your basement to add a room dedicated to your hobbies with plenty of organization strategies to keep all of the hobbies in order.
5. Wine Cellar.  Now here’s a great idea for the vino in all of us.  Line the entire basement with open wine racks, add a small refrigerator for incidentals, and don’t forget a cabinet for the wine glasses.  For those with a little more passion for the grapes, add an enclosed wine room for some extra flare.  Then, add a sitting area with comfortable lounge sofas that invite guests to relax.
6. Relaxation Station.  Why bother to go to the spa when you have one in your very own home?  Turn your basement into a steam room or sauna.  Include all the elements of peaceful meditation and create a beautiful retreat that is just a few steps away (literally!)
7. Theatre.  The ultimate addition to any man cave has to be a large projection screen with a full 7.1 surround sound system.  Don’t forget to add plenty of sound-proofing insulation in the walls to leave the rest of the house in peace and quiet when you decide to turn the volume all the way up.
8. Arcade.  For kids of all ages, make your basement the true neighborhood hang out spot by including a pool table, pinball machines, ping pong tables, air hockey tables and other fun games to excite the competitive nature in all of us.

With some basements reaching upwards of 2,000 square feet, don’t let that ample space go to waste!  Make sure to give Elite Home Remodeling a call today to find out how we can remodel and finish the basement of your dreams.

Remodeling on a Budget

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need loads of cash to remodel or renovate your house.  There are plenty of projects that Elite Home Remodeling can do for you without breaking the bank.

A great way to update a boring laundry room or mud room is to add a built-in bench, some new shelves or some beadboard paneling.  These great additions will not only provide plenty of organizational and storage space, but you will get plenty of new design elements out of a once boring room.

In the kitchen, upper cabinets are a great way to increase the amount of storage space.  Having taller upper cabinets allows you to not only store more things in your kitchen, but it will also make your room look taller which in turn gives your kitchen more value.  Another great tip for your kitchen remodeling project is to refinish or reface your existing cabinets.  This is a small fix that can make your kitchen look brand new.  Plus, doing something as simple as changing the cabinet door hardware can give your kitchen a new style.

If you are looking to do some work in your dining room, a great and less expensive way to improve the look of the room is to add some chair railing and wainscoting.  Keep the profiles of these trim features low and you will be surprised at just how affordable they really are.

Sometimes staying flexible is the secret to renovation success.  No matter what room you are looking to remodel, always be on the lookout for discounted materials and fixtures at specialty stores.  This is a great way to keep the overall cost of your projects down.  Even ask your contractor if they have any leftover materials from previous jobs that they can use on your job.

Just because you are on a budget, does not mean you have to sacrifice style and elegance in your new renovations.  Keep searching for unique and creative solutions and you can have a great looking home.  Be sure to call Elite Home Remodeling to find out how we can serve you today!

Remodeling Your Home Office

Today, many individuals use their house as both a home and an office.  Many small businesses get their start right in a home office.  Plus, with all of the technology, gadgets and information we gather on a day-to-day basis, there has to be a good place to store all of that information.  That’s where having a functional, organized and stylish home office comes in.

There are many things you need to create a great home office, but the first and most important need is real estate.  You need an actual, physical location somewhere in your home to put an office.  Maybe you have an extra guest room that you never use.  Maybe you have some extra square feet in your basement or recreational room.  Or maybe you even have a big closet somewhere that you want to convert into a usable office.  Whatever the case may be, you will need some sort of space.

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Here are two great minimum requirements that I would go by when determining which room to use as a home office: it should be at least 60-70 square feet and it should have a window.  If you have a space that has both of those criteria then you have the perfect beginnings to a home office.  If you don’t have these requirements, don’t fret, you can still make a great home office.

Once you have a space you’ll want to furnish it.  Assuming you have four walls, one with a window and one with a door, you’ll have plenty of options to deck out your work space.

Start with the desk.  The desk will be the focal point of the room and it will be the area in which you will be spending most of your time.  Find a desk that fits your needs.  Maybe you like to spread all of your papers everywhere and need as much desk space as possible.  Or maybe you like to keep hundreds of pens, pencils and paper clips right at your finger tips (in which case you will need a desk with lots of organizational features.)  Whatever your case, find a desk that fits you and then build the room around the desk.

Place the desk so your chair and your back will be against a blank wall (i.e. no windows or doors on the wall.)  Have your desk off centered from the middle of the room so you can place chairs for your guests on the opposite of the desk.  If you have a square room, your guest will feel like they are at the center of the room (read: attention) giving them the sense that they are you number one priority.

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On the wall with the door, put all of your shelving, drawers, cabinets, organizers, etc.  It is the last wall your guests will see when they enter into your office so you don’t need to make it look as nice as the other walls.  Since it doesn’t have to be as nice as the other walls, this wall will be used as your utilitarian space.  Make it as functional as possible but don’t make it cluttered.  Use slim-lined cabinets and shelves and make sure you have plenty of boxes and organizational materials to keep the clutter down.

The last thing you should do to your home office to make it a functional and welcoming space is put in some sort of comfortable furniture, perhaps a chair or a sofa (think Don Draper in Mad Men taking a nap in his office.)  So maybe you don’t want to use your office as a napping space, you will need to use your office for matters that aren’t quite as serious.  Serious discussions will use the chairs right at the head of the desk and less serious matters call for some couch sitting.

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Anyone can add a functional and stylish home office to their house, the keys are making sure you are getting the most usage out of that space.  Give Elite Home Remodeling a call today to find out how we can turn your house into the office space of your dreams.

Storage Trends for Reston Remodeling Projects

There’s a war going on these days between the amount of stuff you can put in your home and where to keep all of that stuff.  Although it may seem like an endless battle, there are plenty of solutions to your storage and organizational problems.  A great place to start tackling your storage and organizational woes is in your media room, office and guest rooms.

Starting in the media rooms, entertainment systems have changed dramatically in recent years and cabinet manufacturers and shops are running fast to keep up.  Today, cabinetry isn’t limited to just your bathroom or kitchen.  Cabinets are more streamlined and plugged-in than ever.  Just as TVs become more streamlined and minimal, so does the cabinetry that accompanies them. Contemporary, floating and open cabinets are all growing in popularity.

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Next on the list of places to solve organizational and storage problems is in your home office.  Many home owners today work from home and they need plenty of space within their home to dedicate as office space.  With your house doubling as a home and an office, you can bet storage space is important.  Cabinetry for home offices are becoming more accessorized with more accessories and organizational tools built right into the cabinets.

As the equipment in our office gets more high-tech, so too does our cabinets.  Cabinet makers are coming up with improved storage systems for our gadgets.  Features such as built-in charging stations make your cabinet space work with your electronics.

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Do you have an extra room in your house that you use only as a guest room?  Does it only ever get used when you have guests come over?  If this is the case, you might benefit from having a Murphy bed!  What is a Murphy bed?  A Murphy bed, or better known as a wall beds, is a bed and bed frame that can fold up into a cabinet or wall.  Recent trade and home shows have showcased new styles, new features, new configurations, new easier open-close mechanisms and new lighting and entertainment built-ins for this category.  Murphy beds make a great addition to a guest room because they allow to use the room for many other features throughout the year for all those times you don’t have guests over.

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These are just a few simple solutions to helping you with your organizational and storage problems.  Take a look at the messiest areas in your home to figure out where you need the most help.  Once you’ve nailed that down, you can start creating an action plan to get your space neat and organized.

Give Elite Home Remodeling a call today to find out how we can help you with your cabinet, storage and organizational problems in Reston and throughout all of Northern Virginia.