Our home is traditional with generally neutral paint tones. We wanted the basement more lively. It is a great room concept but with several differing colors for various parts of the space. Photos are linked from "My Page". Maybe some ideas to get you thinking.

We are in the process of finishing our basement into a media room. It has little natural light (one small basement window under a deck). Like you, I wanted a fairly light color but something that would add warmth. I did some research here on GW and found several people who used SW Ivoire and were very happy with it. So that's what we did. I love it! The woodwork is painted white and the floor will be oak laminate with area rugs. I was originally planning to do rust/reds/gold/green tones, but then found a excellent deal on a black leather sectional and it actually looks awesome with the Ivoire walls. I will add some large black & white Ansel Adams prints, a small vintage black/gold/beige/white striped velour chair and then a thick off-white shag area rug. Here's a picture of the wall color. It looks a little darker than it really is.

Thankyou both for your replys.
fnmroberts-I love your basement. Sure wish mine was a little bigger so I could have more to work with :(

teeda-I had forgotten about Ivoire. That just may be the color to go with, especially when I realized that I will have to paint the stairwell too. It's such a great color

I've done about half my basement in Jekyll Island Clubhouse Yellow (Lowe's Valspar). It's a light, soft yellow that doesn't get on your nerves. But looking at teeda's photo, I think the SW Ivoire is prettier. It has enough golden yellow in it to be cheerful, but is still neutral.

Teeda,

Are those shutters on the small window custom. I have a small window in my finished basement. The shutters are a great solution.

I am wondering where you purchased them?

My basement is painted Valspar Neutral and accent walls in Valspar Coffee. The Coffee leads up to the first floor. When you look through the French Door leading to the basements it really makes a statement. Very soothing.

My rugs are a flat berber in the sames tones. Almost looks like stripes. I guess I need to get my butt moving with posting pictures.

I second Ivoire! Just finished painting our windowless family room yesterday and I love it! I'd send a picuture, but Photobucket doesn,t seem to be working for me right now. I'll try again later.

fnmroberts - Can you tell me what colors you used in your Living Room Art Niche and your Foyer Niche?

Laurie

OK, now it works. You can see we're in a mess, but I love how the paint turned out. This is SW Ivoire in our basement. The crown molding is Navajo White which is one shade lighter than Ivoire.

Jerseygirl,
Yes those are 2" plantation shutters (did you notice the carpenter installed them upside down???--that is going to be corrected). Behind the shutters is a standard basement window. In an effort to maximize the amount/appearance of natural light in the basement, we framed out the custom larger window and added the shutters. I am going to add mirror tiles on the wall around the actual basement window to reflect light coming in and light from the room. Hoping it will look a little less cavelike! Another trick we are using is that we put a full length exterior glass door in the opening to the bulkhead. I am going to apply frosted window trim. When the bulkhead is open, tons of natural light will filter through the door. We also added soft roping lighting in the bulkhead itself which can shine shed a soft light through the door when the bulkhead isn't opened. We're actually glad that the room doesn't actually get too much light, since we're planning to do a projector theatre thing mounted on the ceiling, and the less light the better. DH is working the the stairs right now--we added oak treads to the bottom three steps and will do an oak/wrought iron railing. After that we put the floor down and hopefully this room will be operational by Christmas (started it a year ago!). I'll try to post pictures, and would love to see pics of yours and others' basements!

Jerseygirl,
Forgot to answer your question! I got the shutters at Bed Bath & Beyond on-line. I think they cost about $50. Home Depot also carries a similar product but didn't have the size I wanted.

msrose

You sent me to the basement on the paint color. It has been several years since painting those. We used SW Library Pewter. The label has 0038 which is probably the color mumber. Not sure that the photo is accurate to the actual though as it is more of a drab camouflage army green in real life. Hope that helps.

We really love our EK Mustard Seed. We just have the small windows at the top (we are a walk - up basement not walk out) but we do have a french door over by the pool table.

These are pictures from one end and then the other. The room goes around the corner to a full bath and an exercise room and storage.