Basement Renovations: Where to Splurge and Where to Save

Basement renovations can take a long time and cost a lot of money if you don’t plan appropriately.  There are certain things you probably want to consider spending a decent amount of money on, whereas there are other things where you can save a few dollars.  This article will talk about where to splurge and where to save when planning your basement renovations.

Where To Splurge

Lighting

Basements can be dreary, dark spaces.  A lot of this results from the fact that they have few or no windows to allow natural light to flood the room.  This can be counteracted with artificial lighting, but only if you use enough lights.  Consider recessed lights throughout the ceiling while adding lamps of various sizes to fully illuminate the entire basement.

Entertainment Area

If you plan on using your basement for watching television, movies and sports you should consider getting a good sized, quality television with a surround sound system and some comfortable furniture.  Hoping to get a lot of use out of an area that has substandard facilities will likely result in a space that never gets used.

Insulation

A good layer of ceiling insulation will dampen sound travelling between the basement and the main floor.  This is especially handy to muffle squeaky floorboards above a basement bedroom or to prevent a surround sound system in the basement media room from disturbing the rest of the house.

Where To Save

Partial Renovations

If you don’t have fully formed ideas about how the entire basement will eventually look, consider a partial renovation that gives you what you want for now and leaves the rest of the space for later.  Not only will this allow you to immediately save money on the renovation, it will give you storage space until you come up with the plan or funds for the rest of the renovation.

Bathroom Fixtures

If you don’t plan on using a basement bathroom as often as those upstairs, you can probably save a lot of money by not installing a full bathroom or using the fanciest fixtures available.  You might consider installing a stand up shower rather than a full bathtub or installing a small sink instead of a full vanity.