When The McGee Home was designed years ago, we had big plans for the basement. 

We put it on the back burner for a few years while filming our Netflix Show (and using the space as the set!) and welcoming baby number three; we are so excited it’s finally complete. 

We were lucky to work with Killowen Construction on not just the basement but our entire home! Tyler and his team helped us make every detail as beautiful and functional as possible, and we are forever grateful! 

Scroll through the photo tour below of the theater lounge space for all the details and to shop the entire space. 

We’d like to thank our friends at Killowen Construction, Killowen Cabinet Co., Kohler, Bedrosians, Lemco Design, and McGee & Co. for helping us bring this space to life!

One of the first steps of working on any project is selecting the finish palette. In the main areas of the basement, we continued a few of our favorite elements from the upstairs space to keep everything cohesive.  

We started with one of our most-loved paint colors, Swiss Coffee by Benjamin Moore, at 75% strength, on the walls, ceiling, and trim. On the flooring, we chose an Engineered Hardwood floor from Lemco and stained it to match our White Oak Hardwood floors upstairs. 

When you walk downstairs, you enter into the main open-concept living area. We have relatively tall ceilings for a basement, so we really needed to consider the floor plan and make sure it was as functional and cozy as possible. We divided it up into a few different sections – the theater lounge area, the kitchenette, and the fireplace / game space.  

In basements, you typically have drops for duct work, and we wanted to make sure that they felt intentional. We worked with our builder, Killowen Construction, to keep the ceilings as tall as possible and incorporate T&G and beams. Not only is it functional, but it introduces an element we used throughout the rest of the home, and we love how it brings an extra layer of detail to draw the eye up. Our ceilings are 10 ft. high, so the ducts are not low enough for anyone to worry about bumping into them!

We did a projector screen on the back wall, and it’s one of my favorite things we’ve ever done. It’s so fun to come down here and hang out as a family, watch TV, and have all the space we want to lounge on the sofa. Arched built-ins on either side take cues from the rest of the arches throughout the home and add an element of warmth and shape. 

Below the projector, a long custom cabinet accommodates all the wires and helps ground the screen visually. One of my favorite details is the notched detail on either side of the arches that wrap around the edges and create this cool, thoughtful look. Killowen Construction and Killowen Cabinet Co. helped us custom build the framed arches for the niches before the framing went in and the radius couldn’t be more perfect!

Our furniture in this space is all about comfort, but we still have a few dressy pieces to elevate the look and feel. We started with a big custom sectional with a chaise on one end and filled in the space with two of my favorite ottomans and an Italian console table I found at Roundtop a couple of years ago and finally found the perfect spot for. 

We styled the shelves with baskets for blankets and a mix of vintage, McGee & Co., and pieces from our Target collection. Mixed and matched throw pillows on the sectional complete the look and add subtle color and texture. 

On the coffee table, we have a few woven trays for styling our favorite candles, coffee table books, and accessories.

The powder bathroom blends vintage and new textures for a dimensional, lived-in feeling. One of the first things we found is this antique trough sink from Italy. It took us a few months to get here, but it was well worth the wait, and we designed the whole bathroom around it!

A custom wooden console and black soapstone countertops contrast the white walls with vertical T&G from Metrie. We did one of my favorite tiles on the floor — and a light grey Bedrosains Paver Tile. It’s actually what we used on the waterline of our pool, and I love how it has this beautiful stone look but is super durable. Our curved Kohler mounted faucet offsets some of the rough edges on the sink and adds a cool modern touch, and a piece of artwork from McGee & Co. ties everything together.