I had been holding off on this post for awhile because I felt the basement entertainment center wasn’t 100% done yet. But as I read other DIY blogs, I often see posts coming in mid-stream. If they can do it, why can’t I?
The basement center or “bar” was one of the first projects I started at this house. The cabinets I purchased from a guy that I found on Craigslist and their acquisition has been quite the story to tell. Let’s just say it involves a remodeled home and an overly enthusiastic Russian couple with very little DIY experience.
After I got the cabinets home and unloaded, I set out to give them a good sanding. After all, they had many years of built up grease and dirt on them.
After a really really good sanding, I gave each cabinet a coat of primer and then black paint. I actually painted the entire cabinet inside and out. Looking back, I probably didn’t need to do quite an extensive job. Painting the inside of a cabinet that no one is ever going to see is a lot of unnecessary work.
Moving into a new home and having a limited budget, we decided to try and reuse the existing hardware as much as we could. The biggest issue with the hardware was that it was a worn brass. If you are an active reader of this blog, you will remember that we dont like brass! So off to the store we went in search of some paint to resolve this issue. We settled on Rust-oleum silver.
Once everything was dry, I brought it all down into the basement for assembly. Since this is a basement, I wanted to make sure the wood of the cabinets remained free from moisture so I spread out DRIcore subfloor panels beneath where the cabinets would touch the concrete. It did elevate the bar up about an inch but is not noticeable especially with the carpet coming right up to the cabinets.
I assembled the pieces, screwed them together and to the wall, then topped the entire thing off with a Formica countertop we purchased at Home Depot.
Some future plans for this space include putting an electrical outlet at bar height and another one directly behind the fridge space. Once that is done, we will put up a tile backsplash.
