Heres my basement. I bought the house about a year ago and havent done a single thing to it besides the pool table, dome hockey, and foosball. I am not a fan of the 70's wood paneling at all. I dont think it looks horrible, but its definitely not my style. My parents like it though :rolleyes:

Im starting on this today. What a better way to spend my Labor day off than sanding and painting? I could think of a 1000, but I need to get this done. Heres my plan. Im going to do a light sanding on the paneling, and then put on a coat or two of kilz, then paint it. Ive been tossing the idea of drywall around but theres a few reasons why im not going to. I suck at mudding/sanding. Also the cost, and the extra time its going to take. I like to do things myself so I think painting the paneling will be better for me. Behind the paneling is a vapor barrier and insulation.

Heres the pics I took today

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l163/billm0066/P1090273.jpg

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l163/billm0066/P1090274.jpg

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l163/billm0066/P1090275.jpg

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l163/billm0066/P1090276.jpg

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l163/billm0066/P1090277.jpg

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l163/billm0066/P1090272.jpg



My plan with my basement is going to be a bar/gameroom. There wont be a theater down here, because I have an undedicated theater upstairs in my living room. Im going to home depot to pick out some colors. I will be buying paint at sherwin williams, but home depot is open so im going there today. Lately ive been seeing pics of black walls on the internet and I really like it. Heres my idea for color. Im going to install chair rail on all the walls after the primer is on. On the bottom section of the chair rail is going to be black. On the top will be gray. Im leaning towards the lighter side of gray to give it a bigger contrast, and so it doesnt completely darken the basement up. I have a drop celing in the entire basement. I was thinking about spraying all of them with black paint, and paint the grids white. (grids are kind of yellowish). Chair rail will be white, and I will also install floor molding with 1/4 round that will be white as well. I guess im just looking for opinions on the color combo. I know alot of people are scared of painting with black unless its a screen wall. My pool table is maple wood with black felt, and my dart board case is black too. The bar I will be building will be a light maple to match the pool table.

The bar will be going where the countertoptop/cupboards are. It will be L shaped with 45's at each corner. Its not finalized but thats whats in my head right now.

For the flooring I havent decided yet, but I wont be doing it until next year. The bar area will either be a ceramic tile or wood, and the rest will probably be new carpeting. The bar top will be black granite tiles or slate tiles. Any metal accents will be brushed nickel. As for the foosball table I will be selling it in hopes of finding one that will match better, or putting another game in its place.

Im looking for opinions on my color choice. Its going to take a long time to do all of this, so I would prefer to not have to repaint everything. I also need to look up how to paint celing tiles. Ive got a 13 gallon compressor, so im thinking about picking up an hplv gun from harbor freight and spraying them in my garage.

I already picked my colors so no help is needed. Already got one coat of primer on and will hopefully finish everything in the next week.

Post some updated results, I am in the same boat as you with the wood paneling, like to see what you have done.