indoors

RENOVATION

S

tacy Gaynor doesn’t buy the idea that a basement

should be a moody-looking man cave filled with

plump leather furniture. She’s all for comfort, just

not at the expense of light, character, or a look

that jibes with the rest of a house. “When we

finished our basement, my main goal was that

everything flowed from upstairs to downstairs so

the basement didn’t look like an afterthought,” says the Saratoga

Springs, New York, seamstress and mom of two. To continue the

traditional detailing of their home, she and her husband, Gavin,

added beaded board on walls and trim around windows and built

columns around unsightly steel posts. A drywalled, rather than

dropped, ceiling also helps the space seem more above-ground.

The few noticeable basement-like touches stem from practicality.

Stacy could easily have made curtains, but she left windows bare to

maximize natural light. The concrete floor? “I’m anti-carpet and we

ran out of money for tile, so I just painted it,” Stacy says. “It’s

worked out fine.” So, too, has the entire space. “Everyone says it’s so

bright and homey that it doesn’t even seem like a basement,” she says.

DEFINING POINTS

Ledges top wainscoting, and columns

camouflage steel posts. A vintage

daybed that was too big for Stacy’s

bedroom anchors the living area.

“I tend to buy things I love and then

find a place for them,” she says. “This

was a happy accident.”

5 8 JULY2009 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS