It's cold. Really really cold. So we honestly don't mind being indoors, much less buried a few feet below ground. So lucky us to be working on converting a rough, bare, dusty cellar into a modern open and inviting entertainment space. With an interesting sunken portion that gives the space a lot of headroom, we figured we could change the "swimming pool" feel into an ever-so-fresh den by removing the community metal railings, introducing wood to soften up the space but yet contrasting it with concrete and exposed brick.
Stairs leading down into the cellar. Photos by Niya Bascom Photography, all rights reserved.
On the landing/cellar "foyer" looking into sunken area.
View from sunken area - looking at landing, boiler room, and other mechanical room.
Future focal point.
Under the stairs that lead up into the brownstone.
We settled on a cool palette to contrast the warm more elegant design solution we created a while back for the rest of the house. At the get go, what really got our juices flowing was our clients' expressed interest in concrete floors. The idea brought to mind a project I fell in love with last year when posted on the New York Times and became part of the inspiration for the project. A look at our inspiration board:
Our "Cool Escape" concept - blue, white, open juxtaposing a rough edge
Love the contrast of soft white snow, blue skies and water against the cool texture of the cinder block and concrete.
We are still very much in progress on the space, working out some media details such as equipment location and future potential usage. All this to make sure the built-in solution is thoroughly designed. This is the interesting part of the job really as there is a lot of collaboration with the AV guru (co-axial cable, ports, etc are so not our area of expertise), our awesome clients and us. Once all of that is sorted out, we get to have a ton of fun detailing the cabinetry so it all gets tucked away nicely. Can't wait to see how it all eventually unfolds...HERE.
one,
idi