No one should ever be afraid of their own house. I’ve been watching Paranormal State a lot lately, so this is something I’ve been thinking about. I’d never experienced “house fear” until moving here and checking out the basement den. Initially, the basement was one of the things that excited us the most about this house—it came with a wall unit for the TV and our many DVDs, as well as a laundry room. But once we stepped into it, we both instantly felt that the basement had a creepyness to it, regardless of its awesome practical features. The wood paneling and dark lace curtains that came with the room only added to its bleak feeling.

The first step was simply cleaning. We borrowed Derrick’s mom’s steam mop and went over the floor three or four times before returning the mop. Though the house didn’t come with a stench, it was obvious that the previous tenants were smokers and layer after layer of dirt came off the floor. Though the linoleum still wouldn’t be my first pick of flooring, it lost its dingy look and grimy feel after the multiple mops.

The second step was filling the room. Our central piece of furniture is a futon. We keep buying this futon over and over. We had it in Asheville, got rid of it. We had it in Flagstaff, got rid of it. We got it again here (though thankfully Dad talked Big Lots into letting us take the floor model—yay for skipping installation!) It is a simple black futon, and it’s already been slept on multiple times by guests. But simply filling the space wasn’t enough. The black coloring only brought out what was already dark in the room. I began keeping an eye on futon cover prices, and I eventually found a reasonable red one at Walmart.

Our third step was covering the walls. One wall was naturally covered by shelving, and putting up the DVDs did a lot in terms of providing that rainbow sprinkling of case after case. A second wall is taken up by French doors and Bogie’s litter box, but two long blank walls remain. Since this was our movie room, we decided that movie posters were our only option. Allposters.com has a variety of posters at a reasonable price, so this is where we did our shopping. After much deliberation, we decided on five posters. 1) Gone with the Wind. 2) Fargo. 3) Vertigo. 4) Johnny Drama of Entourage. 5) Planet Terror. Though I didn’t really plan it that way, the red in the futon and posters play off each other and definitely brighten the room. With most of the paneling covered, the wood feel doesn’t overpower you when you go into the room.

Our fourth step was knick knacks. This is my favorite part of decorating any room. We’ve got our classics that have been with us since Asheville, including a Teddy Ruxpin, some sock monkeys, a Marilyn Monroe cardboard standup, and a severed hand from Derrick’s Ahh Zombies!! project. New additions since moving to Milledgeville include a faux tiger rug complete with head and tail, Jugular Jimmy (a zombie baby), and most recently a lucky red fish from Hong Kong and green ceramic duck (both pictured).

Another “obstacle” of the room is a thick wood column in the center of the room. Yes, it provides support, but it also limits the possibilities of furniture layouts, etc. The futon sits on the far side of the column, and we didn’t know what to do with the other side. My parents gave us a rug to put down, which added some color but looked a little strange as a floating rug. Recently, as a bridal shower gift, I received a card table and chairs set (also pictured!). We’ve put this on the close side of the column. This divides the room into two parts, the game side and the movie side, though we could certainly watch movies and play games at the same time.

In an episode of Girls Next Door when Holly is renovating the Mansion Gym, Hugh Hefner says something like “You have to decorate a room attractively and practically”. Since we access the laundry room via the basement, I also keep a hanging device for drying clothes in the room. I move this out when we have guests, but it’s much easier than trying to find places upstairs to dry clothes or putting up a line outside where pollen would stick to the clothes in spring or summer.

After a year and a half of living here, Derrick said last week, “Hey, we’ve really done a lot for this room. It feels good being down here now.” It’s taken a lot of time and effort, but I feel proud of how we’ve taken the basement and turned it into a nice room.