Last year I was asked to help a young family with a basement renovation project. The house was a beautiful combination of Victorian and Craftsman details, but because of how the driveway was set up they used the unfinished basement as their primary entrance and were specifically looking to add a mudroom. They also needed a place where the kids could play independently as they got older. Other programming items included a rec room, exercise room, and laundry room.
Coming up with a finished basement in new construction is no problem—nice and clean. But old houses are different, and this one had 100+ years of pipes, electrical wires, and mechanical equipment jogging in and out of a low ceiling. Some of this could be moved, but the final design had to work largely with what was already in place. Step one was documenting it.
There was no easy way—I used pencil and paper, a tape measure, and lots of patience. Afterwards I transferred the important constraints into 3D to see what we had.
Once modeled, it was clear that the most significant layout constraint was the boiler. The basement was “L” shaped, and the boiler was located at the intersection of the two wings with lots of low pipes and ducts running towards it. Clearance and ventilation requirements would require a generous amount of dedicated space, and moving the whole system to another part of the basement would prove to be prohibitively expensive. It had to stay.
Because the stairs were also centrally located, the layout strategy became clear: divide the basement into two areas: The mud/rec room area, and the exercise/laundry area.
Mudroom
The mudroom was one of the client’s primary design goals for the project, so I started working on that first. Designing it as a separate room was right out as an option— that would leave the main rec room space feeling small with most of its natural light cut out. The task was then to create a mudroom “area”—one that felt contained enough that it didn’t spill out into the rec room, but not too contained so that there wasn’t any distinction.
The entrance to the basement had two steps, so I used this to my advantage by creating a raised platform. Eliminating the steps right at the door made entry safer and less cumbersome, and the platform created a natural distinction from the rec room.
A bench with shoe storage would enclose the platform a little more, and I combined this with the wall of a new closet and a new column on the other side. The bench formed a large window into the mudroom, and the column helped it hit that sweet spot that enclosed it just enough.
Study Nook
Sometimes, the technical constraints of a project leave you with scraps of space that are difficult to use. As I mentioned, the boiler in this project took up a significant amount of real estate, leaving a narrow strip of space between the stairs and the rec room. This was an obvious candidate for closet space, but with a major cost: two of the basement’s six windows.
A fun solution to this problem was something that was not on the client’s list, but might fit the client's needs: a study nook. With storage cabinets on the bottom and natural light on top, it was the best of both worlds. Even better, a purely circulatory space could now be occupied. The two desks could be used as work from home area now, and in the coming years become a homework area.
Strategies & Takeaways
When finishing a basement, there’s a temptation to keep everything wide open. In this case were forced to divide it because of the boiler, but there’s a lot of merit into breaking it up into smaller spaces.
On the other hand, too many walls may make the space feel tiny. Sometimes what you’re looking for is sense of enclosure or separation, rather than a physical wall.
Think of the furniture layout. Too many doors and openings might leave you with a large but unusable space.
Create storage out of as many nooks and crannies as you can. This was a basement, and basements have stuff. Stuff has to go somewhere.
Alternatively, trying to fill every tiny space might leave you with a series of hallways. A column in a big space leaves you with a large space- no need combine it with walls.
On this project there was a desire to make the laundry room bigger, but at the expense of turning the exercise room into a narrow, unusable space. Sometimes you can’t get the design to do everything, and you have to make tradeoffs.
Use texture and color to define spaces. In this project we used shiplap to define mudroom and study nook. It helps make them feel like separate objects sitting in a larger space.
Work with what you have. You have goals, you have constraints. Find something that acknowledges both. In this project there were pipes everywhere. Instead of trying to hide them, we just embraced them. Painting them the same color as the ceiling goes a long way.
Patternbook Architecture & Design is an architecture firm located in Beverly Massachusetts. We specialize in residential design, and draw our inspiration from historical New England homes.
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