Lavish Lower Levels

Like the kitchen and bathroom, the basement has undergone a significant makeover in recent years. It used to be the place for the kids’ toys—or even the kids themselves. It’s where the old sofa went when you bought new furniture. It was the storage catch-all. It was cold, dank, dark, and musty.

“Basements were viewed as a component that was a necessity for home construction but as a secondary space,” says Brad Johnson, a project manager with Wooddale Builders in Minnetonka. “Now they’re a fully functioning part of how people live.”

Indeed, basements have changed remarkably—so much so that they’re not even called basements anymore; they’re lower levels. The lower level is now the hub of the home, where homeowners gather with their families to entertain and retreat.

The Basics and Beyond
Standard lower levels typically include wet bars, fireplaces, game/recreation spaces, and multiple TV viewing areas. But the imagination rarely stops there.

For starters, wet bars have transformed from a free-standing structure with a dorm-sized fridge to full kitchens with cooktops, pizza ovens, small dishwashers, custom cabinetry, and beer taps. “If you’re having a lot of people over, they’ll gravitate to that area downstairs,” Johnson says. “It’s a larger, more open area. You have the ability to accommodate more people.”

Game or recreation areas are another popular feature. Billiards tables continue to be a requirement, but homeowners are also requesting built-in poker tables, pinball machines, video games, and even arcade rooms. A major benefit of these spaces is that they appeal to kids of all ages. “These are for every member of the family,” says David Frosch, vice president of Kootenia Homes in Woodbury. “I’ve got a Pac Man machine that I play every day.”

Televisions play an important role in the functionality of lower levels. You don’t see too many single-TV rooms anymore—TVs are on either side of the fireplace, by the pool table, and in the upper corners of the wet-bar area. “We’re seeing more flat-screen TVs—three, four, five of them—at different spots rather than in just one designated spot,” says Bob Near, design/renovation manager at Streeter & Associates in Wayzata. “The idea that the family gets together and watches TV doesn’t happen anymore.”

And the TVs are in all shapes and sizes, too. Television design has evolved so much in the last five years that TVs are now on display, thanks to their small stature and sleek lines. “We used to make cabinets that had to be thirty inches deep to make the TV disappear, and now you don’t need to,” Near says. “You can recess the TV right into the wall, so the front of the TV [looks like] it’s just part of the wall.”

Some homeowners are choosing multiple TVs in lieu of a dedicated home theater. “The home theater is definitely popular, but how many people in the busy world today just go down to a designated theater room that has stadium seating?” Near says. “From a practical standpoint, the lower level is only going to be so big. You can get the effect of a big picture with large-screen TVs, but it’s part of the entire room.”

Those who do choose a dedicated theater room make great use of it, says K. C. Chermak, president and owner of Pillar Homes in Plymouth. “If you don’t have time to go to a movie, what’s the next best thing, or even better, to do? Watch a movie at your own house. Besides, the chairs are more comfortable at your home anyway,” says Chermak, who notes how good surround sound technology is these days and how easily audio/video equipment can be hidden.

Comfort is a driving force behind home theater design, Frosch agrees. Instead of the stadium-style seating that was popular several years ago, people want a place where they can relax. “I have a sixteen-foot sectional where everyone can just lie wherever they want,” he says. “Another level up from there is a regular sofa, and in each corner, we have recliners. People who have seen it say, ‘This is the right way to do the theater.’”