Essentials For An Amazing Refinished Basement

Refinishing your basement gives you a lot more useful square footage, and it gives you the chance to plan the perfect room in which you can hang out with family and friends. Here are two essentials that any refinished basement should include.

Custom built-in cabinets

Custom built-in cabinets will perfectly house your new entertainment center. Even if you're planning on mounting your flat screen TV to the wall, you'll have plenty of other equipment to store, like a DVD or Blu-ray player, a video game console, a cable box, plenty of CDs and discs, and some sort of stereo equipment. To neatly hide everything, make sure every piece of equipment gets its own shelf in your cabinet, and plan on at least two extra shelves for future purchases.

A front cover to your cabinets can hide all of the equipment when not in use. Slatted cabinet doors are an excellent choice, as they cover up the equipment but also let air circulate through the cabinets. DVR boxes are known to generate a lot of heat even when not in use, and your other equipment could get damaged if that heat is left to build up in an enclosed cabinet.

Your should also drill 2" or 3" holes in each shelf so that each piece of equipment can be easily wired to a receiver, the TV, or the electrical outlet. Without these holes, you'll have a complicated mess of bulky wires.

Carpeted floors

Install carpeting throughout your basement, or at least in the areas in which you'll be listening to music and the TV, to help enhance your listening experience. Carpet can help absorb sounds, which reduces sonic reverberation and improves your sound clarity. In other words, you don't want the sounds to be bouncing around the room before they reach your ear because they can disturb the surround sound effect and make the sound seem more harsh.

When shopping for carpet, you'll first need to select a carpet padding. Carpet padding helps insulate your room (which is very helpful in basements that tend to get cold), conceals any unevenness in your sub-floor, and acts as a strong foundation for your carpet. Thinner carpets match best with padding 3/8" thick, whereas thicker carpets pair well with slightly bulkier padding at 7/16" thick.

Some of the best carpet choices for heavy traffic areas include Berber, textured carpet, and friezes because they can all hide dirt and footprints. Interestingly, they all do so for different reasons: Berber carpets contains loops of fiber that are densely woven together, textured carpet fibers are all cut at different lengths, and friezes contain highly twisted fibers. Ultimately, the result is a carpet that will both be comfortable and durable, exactly what you need for your basement. Ask a carpet specialist, such as Discount Carpet, for their input if you're having trouble deciding.

Regardless of your other design choices, it's important to choose the right storage and flooring for your basement. Custom built-in cabinets and high quality carpeting can both enhance your entertainment experience.  

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