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Yesterday was another busy day with the basement renovation. I managed to get a final coat of paint on the wall in the unfinished area and got the shelves fully primed in the smaller storage area. I need to buy paint for those and will do that today or tomorrow.
The electrician was here for most of the day doing all kinds of good stuff! At my request, he installed dimmer switches for all the recessed lighting in the semi-finished side of the basement.
Here’s how those switches look now. I really like this style of dimmer, very easy to operate by just sliding the little side toggle up and down. Since I envision this terrace-level room being a family/TV room one day for the next family who lives here, I thought it would be nice to have the ability to adjust the lighting when watching a movie or TV.
The electrician also added a whole-house surge protector to the main electrical box. I’ve been wanting to have that done for ages.
Sooo, remember how that basement staircase looked on Monday? I still can’t believe when my home was built in 1982 that they didn’t require more than just a single light at the foot of the stairway! So how does it look now?
Much improved! The electrician installed two recessed lights in the slanted ceiling above the staircase, as well as the step lighting I purchased recently. Notice the top recessed light in the ceiling over the staircase. That one was a bit of a pain. Due to the slant of the ceiling, when you opened the door to the basement, the light shone right into your face as you started down the staircase. Even moving it down a bit didn’t fix that issue.
The electrician didn’t have a light on his truck for this slanted-ceiling situation so he left to go locate one that would work. It took two stops but he located a light that was perfect for my staircase. This light below can rotate and tilt in the wildest positions.
Here’s a closer photo showing how it looks pointing down the staircase. It completely solved the light-in-the-face issue when you open the door to head down to the basement.
The recessed lighting in the ceiling is great, but by far my favorite way to light the stairs is with the little step lights along the right side of the staircase. We ended up using 5 of the 6 lights that came in the package/box I purchased. That worked out best for the spacing of the lights due to the location of the studs in the wall. Here’s how the staircase and the step lighting look with the overhead recessed lighting turned off and the basement lighting downstairs turned on.
And here’s how the staircase looks with all the lights off except for the step lighting along the side of the staircase. I’ll probably rarely turn on the overhead lighting, the step lighting is plenty of light for navigating the stairs. Despite the fact, my walls aren’t painted yet and the wood staircase is currently unfinished, this area feels wonderful in person. I’ve known for many years the importance lighting plays in creating a warm, welcoming home, but seeing this staircase lit up under the soft glow of the step lighting really brought that home to me once again. Amazing how soft lighting can even add beauty and a touch of romance to a humble, unfinished, basement staircase. I like this step lighting so much, I’m tempted to add it to my main staircase, too. (Step lighting is available here: Step Lighting.)
A friend of mine once replaced the door to her basement with a pretty glass-paned, French door. I doubt I’ll do that, but it did cross my mind last night when I stood at the top of the staircase looking down on that beautiful glow emanating up from the basement stairs! It would be so pretty to pass by this doorway at night and look over to see that pretty glowing staircase beckoning me down.
I’m off to paint the small storage room in the basement–gotta get everything moved over to that area from the semi-finished side of the basement so the painters can get started with the painting in a few weeks. See you tomorrow for Tablescape Thursday.
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