Our IKEA Basement Makeover! A Kid-Friendly Adult Space

November 5, 2013

 (THIS IS OUR OLD HOUSE.)
I recently teamed up with IKEA here in pittsburgh for
a beautiful and functional basement makeover!
We wanted to have a kid friendly adult space…
We needed to have an office area, an entertainment
area and a defined kid area! (with a limited amount of toys!) I filmed a video to give you the full tour.
ALSO!! There’s another IKEA Makeover to check out at the
bottom of my post! My Friend Abby created the cutest big boy room!
I’ll link all of the products that are from IKEA!
If you have any questions, comment below!
I knew that I HAD to have a chalkboard wall in our basement!
The girls absolutely love it. We got the paint at Lowes. It went on really easy.
Micah loves pulling up, standing and walking across this area.
The girls are all about playing restaurant or bakery right now…
and micah loves to put toys in and out of the storage bins. He is a sorter. ;)
I needed some desk space..but didn’t want the tables to be sticking out into the room.
I was so happy when we found these desks at IKEA
because they are very shallow and sleek!
We got the high gloss black and I think the light reflecting off of them helps
brighten the space and not make it so flat. We hung two magnetic boards so we
could post calendars, to-dos, artwork and homework! The LACK shelf above holds
storage, books and my pens/sharpies/scissors high away from little trouble makers. ;)
The Shelf was actually really simple to mount on the wall! It was the one piece I
was kinda worried about but it went up like a breeze and feels sturdy!
I loved these chairs… they felt modern, simple and not bulky!
I put a white besta piece next to my desk to hide my printer and give me more storage!
(the owls are from marshalls or tj maxx..lamp from target.)
We hung picture ledges and plan on shuffling through different photos and frames!
I painted the area of the wall that bumps out with chalkboard paint…
Sophia LOVED seeing all the letters. ;) And let’s pretend
like I meant to spell joyful that way. ;) LOL.
BESTA Storage Combo. BESTA BURS Desk. (this is the longer version.) 
The frames are a mix of IKEA ones and ones I already had.
The cute print on the top left  is from Livy Love Designs
and the ‘Someone give me an amen’ was a gift from my friend Mandy!
I also framed our HAPPY MOMMY BOX Logo and my children’s book
cover design for Mommy Has an Angel.
RIBBA Frames.(logo and book are in these)  RIBBA Picture Ledge.
LOVE this space…Date nights are hard to come by with three kids,
so ben and I really wanted to have a comfy space where we can do movie nights…
or game nights with friends!
The rug helped define the space. We chose the KIVIK Loveseat and sofa.
LOVEE them. They were the easiest IKEA furniture to put together out
of the whole space! I love how sturdy and comfy they are…
the fabric pattern is great with kid spillage… and pretty at the same time!
The Gallery wall was SO CHEAP to do. The 6 frame project cost $40.
I snapped some photos of the kids in our backyard, uploaded the images
to staples.com for their architect prints(10 bucks!!)…
picked them up at the store a few hours later!
Framed them in these IKEA frames that are on sale
right now for 4.99….crazy right?? Do this project! I’m so happy with how it turned out…
and the girls loved seeing their faces “I have a big faceee!!”
NYTTJA frames  KIVIK Loveseat.  KIVIK Sofa.  BESTA Burs TV Unit.
I picked out these IKEA coffee tables because I loved how they were on wheels.
We can move them in front of the tv to work as a baby gate and keep micah
from high fiving our tv…and we can move them around to use for putting food and
drinks on.. or if we are playing games on a game night!
A big thank you to IKEA here in pittsburgh!
As always, they are amazing to work with..
We are so happy with our space!! Go say hi on twitter @IKEAPittsburgh,
if you found these ideas helpful and want to make a trip to IKEA now ;)
 
You know how you clean your house like crazy
when you have company coming over?
Same goes for when you are filming a house tour. lol.
Enjoying our clean basement. ;)
 
Looking for more IKEA Inspiration??
Check out my blog friend turned real life friend, Abby’s, IKEA makeover!
She is sharing her boy’s big boy room on her blog today! – Just a Girl and her Blog.
She made the cutest little craft corner for her boys and DIY artwork
that now I want to try for Micah’s room!
 
 

22
  • Abby Lawson
    November 5, 2013 at 1:21 pm

    AMAZING!!! I love how everything turned out! Love those photo shelves and I NEED to find a wall in my house for a huge gallery of the boys like yours! I think for our next makeovers we should swap… I’ll do Micah’s room if you make an office/hangout room for me, mmmk? :-D Beautiful, beautiful room!!!

    ~Abby =)

  • Brittany @ The Fit Phoenician
    November 5, 2013 at 1:30 pm

    You are amazing- so creative!! I love all of your ideas :)

  • Mandy@ a sorta fairytale
    November 5, 2013 at 2:33 pm

    Looks awesome!!!! Good job mama!!

  • Megan
    November 5, 2013 at 2:57 pm

    I love that you did a video tour! :) It’s always nice to see a video and then see photos.

    Loved how it turned out! It looks great. And I love those ikea frames for engineer prints. So much better than post board. I will definitely have to get those.

    I could go on and on but basically….I just love the way it turned out. Thanks for sharing all your creative ideas. I will need to make the hour and a half drive to our ikea soon.

  • Anonymous
    November 5, 2013 at 3:32 pm

    Looks beautiful! I especially love the large prints. :) All it needs now is the tv strapped to the studs in the wall.

  • Shiron @ http://msshowoff-ct.blogspot.com/
    November 5, 2013 at 4:42 pm

    Looks great. Inspires me to do a photo wall in my basement!

  • Kristin Cogan
    November 5, 2013 at 4:55 pm

    Love it! What a great place for everyone in the fam to hang out!

  • Brittany GraceAnn
    November 5, 2013 at 7:15 pm

    how secure would you say that floating shelf is above your desk area? could it hold some more books? we are looking to do a series of shelves JUST LIKE THAT above our piano in our dining room to create more space… but are worried that if we load it with some books… it’ll crash and burn :-( thoughts?

  • Anonymous
    November 5, 2013 at 8:16 pm

    Hello! Awesome post!! Do you have detailed instructions on how to print at Staples/Staples website instructions? I tried and its confusing :-/ ….but it could also be that Im sleep deprived haha.
    Thanks!!

  • Megan
    November 6, 2013 at 1:14 am

    My favorite space is the one with the couch and the beautiful pictures on the wall. How fun to have a room to snuggle with your honey! Its great that everything is super flexible and family friendly. I love your choice of cute storage boxes on the shelves and the framed pictures on the same shelves. Well done. Enjoy!

  • Gemma April
    November 6, 2013 at 3:48 am

    Wow looks fab!! Love it all, especially all the cute pics of the kiddos!! Inspires me to revamp a few rooms in our home xx

  • megan
    November 6, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    I LOVE how your basement turned out!! The colors make the room look so sleek and clean! And I absolutely LOVE the pictures you got blown up!! I totally want to make a gallery wall like that in my basement too!! Great job with this!

  • Tiffany
    November 7, 2013 at 9:48 am

    I seriously love every single thing about this basement. We need an IKEA closer to us!!! I also love how natural you seem in all of your videos! I want to start doing occasional vlogs and seriously need to get past the nerves!

  • Amanda Foley
    November 8, 2013 at 3:54 pm

    Seriously… I have some of those “Lack shelves,” how are you supposed to hank those things on the wall?! Oh, & I love it all of course. ;)

  • Anonymous
    November 13, 2013 at 8:04 am

    No. All of it. No.

  • Anonymous
    November 13, 2013 at 11:21 am

    Love it! How do the plastic photo frames from ikea hang on the wall in your enlarged pics?

  • Anonymous
    December 9, 2013 at 5:43 pm

    Excellent work !!! love the wall with kids pictures.. i bought the SAXNAS frames too.. please let me know which size did you select for prints on staples website to fit in this frame. A;so what was the size of the original pictures.. I would appreciate of you could provide me with the approx. sizes as well..

  • Shawnie
    December 12, 2013 at 2:44 pm

    Love how it all came out Natalie! For the prints at Staples, what size did you have them printed at for that frame?

  • Amanda at Mom-notony Love
    March 7, 2014 at 7:46 pm

    I Love your basement! It is the perfect mix between a place where adults want to be and kids feel comfortable too! I also love the black and white theme.

  • Juliana
    January 21, 2015 at 2:02 pm

    Awesome! I love the chalkboard wall.

  • Bethany
    October 27, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    Natalie- how are your white ikea metal coffee tables holding up with so many little ones? I love love love the idea of putting 2 of them together, but I’m hoping they will withstand the abuse from my rough 2 yr old boy. Thanks!

    • natalie
      October 29, 2015 at 8:45 am

      we’ve moved them around to different spaces..we’ve moved a couple times since this post! but the metal part stood up great.. the hinges needed to be retightened ever so often. but we loved them