I WILL be warm: The Bunker

As I said in yesterday's post, my plan for reducing heating costs involved closing up many of our rooms. To close up the den was easy. There was already a TV and comfortable seating in the basement (near the wood heat). Check!

But what about closing up two bedrooms? Son goes to sleep early and gets up early. How would I accomplish sleeping arrangements? My mind began to think and plan and reject ideas until I came up with DIVIDING the basement! One side was essentially the game/workout area. (Stop laughing. I WILL workout... eventually...) The other side was the TV viewing/sewing area. If I hung a curtain up to divide the areas...

It worked! Let me just pat myself on the back a second about those curtains. My husband is a paint contractor (as I mentioned). His customers usually redecorate when they paint, and every once in a while he brings something home that I might be able to use. One day he brought home six off-white tab curtain panels. I dug those out of my stash. They were off-white. That just wouldn't do in my attempt-at-early-60s-mod basement decor. What did they used to do?? RIT dye, of course! I chose a bright yellow, pinned them up on the rafter and we have DIVISION! My inspiration for all the colors and theme in the basement have come from this memo board:

The dots were echoed on the wall at the foot of the basement stairs:

I had some "groovy" fabric in my stash (dot-like with the right colors) and stapled it with some batting around pieces of cardboard to provide privacy and insulation in the windows:

Then, the final step. The sleeping area. My son's futon became ours and his loft bed mattress became his new bed. Add a lamp, bedside tables, and the humidifier, and we are now dwelling underground. Underdwellers? Nope, that doesn't work. (Ignore my horribly lumpy pillow. I tend to mangle them in my sleep.)

You know, my whole plan really is mid-century with the bomb-shelter feel and all!

If we had moved the Foosball table out, we would have had more area in the "bedroom." We like to play, though, so it stayed and we just ease ourselves around the frame. Everything was in place and it was time to move to our new apartment.

Next episode? Our first night in...The Bunker.