Basements, with their lack of natural light and low ceilings, can be difficult to renovate into warm and welcoming spaces. But the team at Trace Ventures succeeded in transforming this Nashville, Tenn., brick basement into a guest suite that matches the Mission style of the 1920s bungalow.

In the past, one section of the basement had been remodeled into a studio apartment with very basic finishes. The homeowner wanted the new suite to fit the footprint of the apartment, but with upgraded finishes to match the quality and detail on the home's main levels. A large portion of the basement remains unfinished for storage purposes.

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  Tom Gatlin

  In the initial design for this basement guest suite, remodeler Art Stinson had a more open plan. Once construction began, however, he and the homeowner decided that the delineation they wanted between the living room and bedroom could not be accomplished with furniture, and they opted for a low wall and column divider. The original metal windows were replaced with new custom casements. A new French door admits natural light.

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  The new living/bedroom area is in an addition separated from the original basement by a dividing wall made of 16-inch-thick brick. To add texture to the design, Stinson exposed the brick around the doorway and vestibule wall. The crew cleaned and sealed the brick. The French door lines up with the opening to the vestibule, which provides architectural balance and allows light into the suite.

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  The original stairs to the basement ended too close to the brick wall. For better flow, Stinson shortened the steps and added a small landing. The narrow stairs were allowed by code under the pre-existing condition heading, Stinson says. The vestibule has two doors ' one to the laundry room and one to the unfinished area of the basement.

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  Stinson and the homeowner chose to place the bathroom in a more central location off the living room instead of adjacent to the bedroom. The homeowner selected white fixtures and white tile with blue glass accent tile. To maintain an open feel in the small space, Stinson installed a glass shower and a low glass-block wall to separate the toilet from the rest of the room.

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  The homeowner wanted the laundry room moved from the main floor to the basement, so Stinson captured part of the unfinished section of the basement near the vestibule. The homeowner chose an old-fashioned faucet and a farm sink set in a rustic cabinet.

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  A staff cabinet specialist made the 3-foot-wide Shaker-style door and cabinetry. The vestibule has wood flooring installed on sleepers on the concrete floor. To make up for the 1?? inches in height difference between that floor and the laundry room floor, and to avoid using transition strips, Stinson chose thick brick pavers for the laundry.

 

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Remodeler Art Stinson's challenge was to carve a bedroom, sitting area, bathroom, and laundry out of a long, narrow space in the walk-out section of the basement. An early design created an open space for the bedroom and sitting room, with the idea of using furniture to divide the two areas. “But we decided it needed a physical barrier for definition,” Stinson says. To frame the opening between the bedroom and the living space, the client chose a low wall topped with columns, similar to a divider that Stinson used in his own cottage office renovation. “Our office space is representative of the type of work we do,” Stinson says. “I like to have clients come here to meet so they can see our work.”

Stinson prefers to use his own crews for trimwork, finish carpentry, and cabinet installation. “This is the place where details occur and where you want control,” he says. Stinson also has an in-house cabinetmaker, Willie Pryor, who built the low walls and columns. “With Willie, we can do anything we want,” Stinson says. “He can even copy original trim details.”

Stinson says that the basement construction of this home is unusual for a 1920s house. “It's built like a bunker,” he says. “The walls are brick. There are steel posts and steel beams with rivets. The wall along the front of the house is a retaining wall with tension on it, held in place with big boat chains and buckles. The addition that housed the original apartment had been built onto the back wall of the basement — a brick wall that is 16 inches thick.”

The perimeter wall of the addition had two openings on either side of an entry door; each opening fitted with three metal casement windows. Stinson installed new custom clad wood casements in those openings and replaced the French door with a new wood clad unit to match the upstairs front entry door.

For this plan, the remodeler did not have to move any structural beams. “We worked the design around the steel posts,” he says.

The original laundry room was upstairs, but the owner wanted to move the laundry to the basement, so she asked Stinson and his team to build a custom desk in the original laundry space on the first floor and a maple closet near the entry door.

Currently, the homeowner is living in the guest suite while her master bedroom is being remodeled. She chose to repeat the divider element in her long, narrow master suite. However, in that design, the headers do not reach the ceiling. Instead, the tops of the headers are fitted with lights.

Project: Renovate a 580-square-foot basement apartment into a guest bedroom, sitting area, bathroom, and laundry room, and build cabinetry on the main level.
Location: Nashville, Tenn.
Cost: $205,357
Design/build company: Trace Ventures, Nashville
Designer: Art Stinson
Cabinet/trim specialist: Willie Pryor
Project manager: Jack Clark