Coming Soon! Sneak peak of upcoming editorial story on my unfinished basement turned retro theater…and a former attic storage space turns into a nautical guest sleeping loft “goodbye mancaves… hello she rooms!” Making a space out of existing footprints in your home.
Artistic process… renovating basement staircase entrance to our rebuilt movie theater… so many people ask “how did you do that” with my paintings or renovations so I took pictures to document the start to finish! This was originally a basic wood staircase going down to an unfinished basement. I had the staircase carpeted in crimson red, bought some old movie poster books for a dollar at flea market and cut out and framed my favorites, did a layered venetian plaster style sky going from dusk to night black, adhered vintage mirrored stars to the ceiling, painted walls crimson red and lastly added vintage embroidered edging with silk tassels on the borders to pull it all together to give it an elegant, old school theater feel to make a more grand entrance into the theater. The theater was initially an unfinished basement… I had done theaters for clients in the past and said I would do one in my own home someday. I collected items at flea markets such as a vintage movie set light, vintage film posters and found beautiful red drapery. Most theaters tend to be done in deep reds or golds… I wanted mine to be unique and did mine in a vibrant blue to make the crushed red and gold velvet curtains really pop. Warm honey colored flooring, retro antiques, a replica vintage popcorn machine and a very unusual 1960’s style circular doorway helped pull the vision together. From an otherwise unused space, this quickly became the most popular room in the house!
Before and After transformation!

Former wasted attic space storing wrapping paper turned nautical guest loft with ship ladder

Amazing what you can create with a combination of vision, passion …even if it is a small budget!… Our home was bedrooms… but when Luke sold his home and moved to my home by the beach and we “merged families’, together Luke and I have 5 children ( not to mention lots of family who want to visit from out of state)…and yes, we are a version of Modern Family but that is another story! And although the three oldest are now out of the home, we still wanted comfortable bedroom spaces for everyone to come visit! Luke and I house hunted but you get into six bedroom homes and you are in millions… so… we got creative. We took my old attic space used for storing wrapping paper and a lot of other things we just didn’t need to keep around and turned it into a chic loft bedroom/studio with 2 queen beds… now very practical and arguably one of the coolest rooms in the house! We added some nautical craftmanship and made my vision a reality with a shipladder, porthole mirror accent and boat light sconces. The kids love to use it for sleepover parties taboot… it has two queen beds so we can have friends visit anytime for beach and fun!