Basement Lighting – Creating a Moody Speak Easy With Light!

I really wracked my brain when it came to figuring out our basement lighting. I didn’t want to replace all the work I had already done down here running wire etc. (Its basically poor man’s “recessed” lighting even though its just bare bulbs.) I also, certainly, didn’t want to spend a lot more money down here. After the ceilings, the walls and the floors we were already a good $2,500 into this project and I am fully aware how we could easily spend that entire amount on just one chandelier. I am also aware that that isn’t a lot to finish 500 square feet of living space I’m just VERY frugal and wanted to come up with something creative and inexpensive…

With the florescent light in the middle of the room the basement lighting was actually ideal in its own way.
It was bright, hard core and wouldn’t have been shy of giving enough light for surgery lol – which was totally great for finishing this space but way too harsh for what we wanted!

So that was our first decision made sitting on the basement steps, me looking over Lodi’s shoulder as he scanned Amazon for a good deal on bulbs. Edison bulbs aren’t cheap but less than $50 for almost ALL of our basement lighting is a total steel!
While he was looking he stumbled upon an Amazon deal. Ya know how when you go to purchase something Amazon sometimes includes something else that you might consider buying with it? That is exactly how THIS CHANDELIER came into our lives!

We didn’t look at other chandeliers. We had barely even discussed what we were even going to do in the middle of the room! But it was absolutely PERFECT and less than $80 and came with all the Edison bulbs it needed!

First thing was first: all the little white bulb bases needed to be painted out black and the florescent light needed to be uninstalled. (In its place I installed a light box and we did even more touch up painting over and around everything.)
While Lodi was working on paint touch ups I replaced all of the bulbs in the basement with 40 wat Edison bulbs and I was totally thrilled with how it was looking. We installed the chandelier together and stepped back. Lodi started this project in March when he moved in. When we got these lights up it was late September. 7 months of work. 7 months of feeling like we were getting this space done at a crawl. 7 months to be able to move in Lodi’s furniture from the garage and a lot of my own. 7 months to spread out and actually get to use our garage again! It was a REALLY good moment for us and completing our basement lighting was the last step. There’s a ton still to do down here but none of it has a deadline like this living room did. I can’t wait to show you how the space turned into our very own speak easy and theater room!