Basement Bar & Kitchen (My home - My pride)

With May long weekend we unofficially start Canadian summer and collectively look forward to the long days and pretty warm nights that the season brings. While we are ready to soak ourselves in the spirit of summer, our walk-out basement is also slowly shaping up to keep us entertained with the clan of visitors we are expecting this year.  

Taking time and creative opportunity to make the most of what we loved, we built our basement and extended our living space. Even though this space is a work in progress, I am finally sharing a little update on the progress that we have made in our basement bar. There are still several things I need to do here and it's definitely far from being done, but baby steps, right?

The idea of a drink in here may lure you in, but it's the little details that will make you linger for long and explore...come on in.  

When the plans started brewing for finishing our basement, us, being the social butterflies, I knew that we needed a versatile space. A space that can tick off all the boxes of necessary luxuries in our basement including a wet stylish bar to inspire and inform whether you are in for a quick drink or a big overhaul party. While I can blob on and on about it, I am better off letting the pictures below tell you more stories about it. 

The place is more like a kitchen galley meets bar which can take care of many party essentials and social gatherings we host. Having all the conveniences of a kitchen down in our basement makes my lifestyle much easier.

I take the freedom to alter the place as per the need of the occasions. With drinks and games on the counter, the place is a man cave for my husband to call his own and with mimosa bar and sparkling wines out there, the place is ready to host my girl's night. When all the drinks are out of sight, the same good flat surface is perfect for me to lay our starters and plug in the food warmers for all social gatherings.  

Our daughter's latest paintings of three different beers add the needed punch of color in an otherwise all white quartz backsplash. A large fridge makes social hosting a breeze since I can do all my prep where the party will be, instead of running up and down stairs for food and drink. A small sink here makes my cleanup simple and fast. Moreover, the built-in-microwave helps me achieve the clean and stylish look while making the life easier to warm up the food before party starts. I also took care to include an in-built garbage and recycle bin in the small area. The floating shelves and glass cabinets are perfect opportunity to display my curated treasures.

With a walk-out basement and big windows we never have a problem with adequate light but I feel lighting can do wonders to help define the overall decorating scheme. With me wanting some mood lighting, we over boarded the lighting scenes in the kitchen and also installed lights under the cabinets.   

Here is a bigger picture to pique your curiosity. Combination of all white quarts and accents of rustic wood feels ethereal. Barn wood wall...yes, finally it got ticked off my wish list.  100+ years old original barn wood adds the rustic touch I wanted on the wall. The wood wall is extended further in our living space as well where we lounge and settle down for movie nights on our projector. With an open concept basement, I also wanted to bring a mellow and inviting feeling in the space, hence ditching the dark color, we decided to bring in the soft color and beautifully distressed structure of the gray lamination as flooring. Here is a detailed post on that mask wall in the background

Considering the functionality of our family and taking care of the essentiality of social gatherings, we took complete freedom to decorate another space in our home. Now the bar here is not just a place to fix yourself a drink, but we make the very best of the moment with music playing on auto loop loudly. The word 'excited' might not even remotely come to describe what I am feeling about the fun episodes that are about to follow in this stocked up bar :). 

Until we meet again, will see you around on my social media, toodles! 

And we nailed it.....Our Mask Wall!

If only our walls could talk...while our walls might not be able to talk, we are surely making them a talking point in our home. I believe that walls in our homes truly have the power to speak volumes about our lives and our deep love of collecting pieces. 

With our overflowing collection of tchotchkes from around the globe, my creative idea of a “mask wall” had started brewing ages ago. Now that our basement is done, we had many more walls to free up our creative thoughts. And finally my vision could result into a reality with our own one of a kind wall! The wall was reserved, at the foot of the stairs, from the moment it caught my eye and it was a perfect canvas for showcasing the treasures of our masks.

After attempting one here in our living room and one here in our temple room, we were ready to tackle another one with aplomb. Though, I would be one lost woman if my handy husband wouldn't stand next to me for any decorative front at home. He definitely packs his patience and bears out my bold enough (read crazy enough) experiments with equal fervour.

And just because every new decorating project requires a brilliant fresh scheme I opted for a bright hue of ‘Bean Bag Toss’ paint from ‘Para Paints’ to make the masks stand out. While the rest of the basement walls are done in warm grey this perky shade flawlessly brightens up 'mask wall' display.

Our little wall is finally developing personality reflecting our passion. Each piece here tells a story of the places we have visited and sparks memories of interesting travel tales. The wall is also an ode to those beautiful years we have spent in Africa. In addition to those lugged away pieces in our carry bags from Africa…few masks from our tropical vacations to Cuba, Mexico, and one recently from my last trip to USA are also adorning the wall. Two large wooden panels on sides were shipped back to Canada from Africa.

These two little guys on the floor are actually stylish and versatile seats that I carried back with me when we moved to Canada 20 years back. They fold up perfectly to take on adventures or to move anywhere in home as an extra seat. The saddle leather on top is hand dyed and hand stitched in Africa.

Besides being a fashionable focal point while running up and down in our basement, the mask wall is now sure to kick fire a conversation with our guests. 

Hope this wall has inspired you to kick start your own gallery wall project. Don't stifle your creative thoughts and start tackling one because the best thing about gallery walls is....everything and anything can go!  There are plenty of more sites to scroll and surf through for your imagination. I would love to hear your feedback on my attempt, do drop in a line. Until we meet again, see you on Instagram and Facebook, toodles!