A One Day Makeover For My Friend – A Teen Basement With Colorful Gallery Wall Using What They Already Had

When I retire I’m going to do this once a week for fun (and a little extra spending dough) – pop into a home, edit, curate, and restyle, then “BYE”! Like a fairy god-Styler (??). It’s INSANELY satisfying. Nic and Curtis were stumped with how to hang all their art down in their new dark basement (for their almost teen girls) and I assured them that I could do this in my sleep. So Gretchen and I went over one day, took inventory, ordered some new sconces, poufs, pillows, and a fake plant then came back and redid it all in one day.

The Basement Before:

Here’s where they started – a huge dope leather sectional, white lacquer furniture, and a vintage chair. Everything was leftover from their old basement and I knew that we could make them work (and this is not where they wanted to invest any real money). Also how rad is that wall-to-wall carpet??



They had a pile of art for us to play with (and we ended up stealing from a few other rooms, too). All really fun, graphic, youthful pieces that are perfect for a tween hang space.

And because videos are so fun below is a cute little video Gretchen put together to show you the space and a little bit of the process (just wait for the ad to play first:))

One Day Later…
Oh, she is moody and dark and oh so cozy!! The trickiest part was hanging those sconces – we wanted to integrate them into the gallery wall, but without symmetry. Once they were up we hung, the rest of the art in between, balancing the shapes, colors, and orientations. The poufs were added for extra seating for kids and to fill out the space (the TV is opposite the sofa) and I kept them low, wide, and tonal so they felt balanced.
Then above the credenza, we styled more art (keeping the room balanced) and then used what they already had to style out the credenza. We found a bunch of board games which helped, but in general, it was pretty minimal.


The sconces can articulate all different ways and since they are plug-ins they could be moved if need be. They are more mood lighting, wall washers versus a super bright light but they have other lamps for that reason.
It’s dark and cozy and then all these huge pops of pink and white are youthful and wild and I think they have a memory with each piece, so it’s a room of nostalgia as well.

At first, I had a ton of wild pillows on the sofa but pared it back to these which felt less messy, and slightly more refined (but still playful with the ball shapes).

Also if you want to see the basement before they moved in here you go:


Wild, right? It’s such a personal preference, but I personally love a dark room to be dark like this one because without any natural light, it feels dead so you may as well lean into the vibe and make it cozy. Who is next??????