A creative couple wished to finish their walk-out basement using their own personal stamp and use it every single day. They desired an industrial vibe and plenty of room to enjoy the distance using their three college-age sons and their friends.
The finished basement features a bar, a sitting room, billiards, darts, a film room, a bathroom with a shower and a workout room. “I am friends with these clients, and I have been able to enjoy the basement since we completed it,” says the architect, Daniel Martin. “No one wishes to go to anyone else’s house!”
Basement at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with 3 college-age sons
Location: Atlanta
Size: Around 1,250 square feet
Daniel M Martin, Architect LLC
The homeowners wanted the industrial appearance of stained concrete floors. And with a pool out back, concrete proved to be a sensible option, also.
A hallway leads to a movie room on the left along with a workout room on the right side.
Wall paint: Quietude, Sherwin-Williams
Daniel M Martin
From the film room, a large sofa offers enough room for the entire family to watch TV together. A rustic bricklayer’s coffee table and metal cabinets add industrial design.
Martin transferred ductwork into the border of the room and emulated the appearance on the opposite side for symmetry. The bottom ceiling height is about 7 feet, 4 inches; the greatest will be 10 feet. The ample cellar ceiling peaks were part of their 1990s house plans that are original.
Buzz, the Georgia Tech mascot, is a personal touch. One of the owners is a professor and bought one of those decorated mascots in an auction.
Daniel M Martin
“My clients are very inventive, and they like to do projects,” Martin says. They made the artwork on the wall with the school colours of all of the schools in which immediate family members have earned levels. The blank rectangle is holding a place for one of the sons while he picks a grad school.
The room also has a large window into the exercise room, which makes both spaces feel larger.
Daniel M Martin
The couple exercises each morning before work, and a bathroom with a shower lets them rinse down, also.
The dartboard (left) is in the end of the hallway between the film room and the exercise room.
Daniel M Martin, Architect LLC
Another window at the exercise room looks out to the bar area and beyond to the view outdoors. Again, Martin made a more cohesive ceiling by falling a soffit around the entire room to match the ductwork.
The floor in here is the original concrete slab, polished and coated with polyethylene.
Daniel M Martin, Architect LLC
“Working with a couple who had strong opinions about their likes and dislikes made things so much more interesting,” Martin says. “You can see their personalities and their taste throughout the space.”
Daniel M Martin, Architect LLC
Case in point: “Your husband is an engineer, but he is a real blue-collar man at heart,” Martin says. Originally from Philadelphia, he desired the bar area to have a corner-bar type of texture, thus the neon Pabst Blue Ribbon sign and reclaimed wood facing.
Daniel M Martin
Martin discovered the heart pine countertop from a reclaimed wood dealer; it’s from an old mill. The husband discovered much of the accent timber by a Dumpster. While out searching for furniture, he spied lost scrap timber supporting the store. He combined that with painted beam edges and other reclaimed boards to make the facing round the bar.
The bar contains a beverage cooler, a sink, an ice maker and a microwave drawer. The door on the right leads to the bathroom.
Daniel M Martin, Architect LLC
Across the room by the bar, the husband constructed a complete accent wall from the reclaimed boards; it warms up the space and adds to the industrial vibe. Track lighting highlights the wall socket.
Daniel M Martin, Architect LLC
Martin opened as much of the basement as possible into the windows, and only to the left of the border of this shot is really a sliding glass door. Swivel chairs make a comfy sitting area, and built in shelves hold books and board games. The couple’s collection of record albums is another touch.
“What’s great about celebrations in this space is that individuals can collect in smaller groups throughout the basement but still be collectively” Martin says. In a new Super Bowl party he attended, die-hard lovers watched in the film room while other teams gathered in the bar, played pool and chatted in the cushioned seats.