How can I liven up my basement?

I lived in my sisters basement for a few years and it was cinder block and cold and damp.

I got a lot of cardboard and painted it white and hung it up on the walls with some tile caulking I had around. Boxes were free and paint is cheap. It brightened things up and was cheap. You could also pick up some cheap sheets for bedding and hang them on the walls for a splash of color.

Just a warning. Don’t leave the cardboard on the walls for long. I found out about mold the hard way.

First you’ll need to clean all the clutter out and organize it. You may need to do a deep cleaning. Get some comfortable furniture’s like overstuffed couches, beanbags and chairs with plenty of throw pillows so the guests can feel cozy. Get some colorful curtains for the windows. In case you don’t have carpeting, lay down a couple of rugs. make sure to have plenty of table space. Strobe lights and bright fabrics add color to the room. Hang pictures or cool posters or decorations on the walls. If possible you can paint the walls a dark color. Get a game system or DVD player. Get a good collection of music and movies. Arrange a corner place for food buffet. This video might be helpful.

Old (unstained, lol) sheet sets & comforters is a great idea. Hang the flat sheets so they hide/cover the walls and staple-gun the fitted sheets to the ceiling joists for a light, fluffy ceiling. Stuff the pillowslips and throw them around for seating.

Don’t worry about the cold. As the party heats up, the basement will be the most popular place!

This is kind of advanced DIY, but…

Find some branches. Get rid of the leaves, make sure they’re nice and dry. Then wrap them in fairy lights (the ones you put on the Christmas tree) and hang them from the ceiling or prop them against the walls. Something like this

Or, incorporate the fairy lights into the hanging sheets as mentioned above. Like in this picture

I was going to suggest Christmas lights also. White lights. You can buy them the day after Christmas cheap usually, because the stores want to get rid of them. Depending on how you decorate the basement will dictate if you should buy the green wire or white wire lights. If you can invest in some fabric you can buy tulle pretty cheap and wrap the lights with the tulle and drape it. I like the idea of the lights on branches also. Or, if you have tall plants/trees from other parts of the house maybe you can bring them down for the party and put them in the corners (that would need the green wire).

If the walls are not painted you might want to paint them a light color like white or even a color that will go with the theme of your fiesta if you will have a theme. Paint is inexpensive and can transform a room.

Lastly, I suggest you go to a party store where they sell party plates, balloons, and all sorts of stuff, and you might get some ideas.

Are you going to do a theme besides the fact that it is your quinceñera.

@JLeslie I already had a quince, I’m turning 16. It was a pretty expensive party, so I just want to throw a simple 16th birthday. I think I do want a theme, but I want a really clever one.

That’s cool @Seek_Kolinahr. Break out the Christmas lights and hang them behind the sheets!

SOrt of an Arabian Nights effect.

@blueberry_kid Sweet Sixteen then. You get both being bicultural.

The sheets with the lights is kind of cool. If your family already has white sheets that part costs you nothing. You could do a toga theme, or a white party theme, or even a winter wonderland theme. Use silver and white balloons, silver, clear, and white plates and table clothes. As a parting gift a little bag with white and silver jordan almonds. If you do winter you can hang cut out snowflakes. For toga you might do white and gold. White party you can add black light to some lamps. If you have a friend in theatre they can help you with lighting to make the unfinished walls disspappear.

Or, do the total opposite and do bright colors with a tropical theme. I don’t know where you live and what the climate is like.

I think we’re bringing together a cool idea.

If the floor joists are open on the ceiling, you can use matching color push pins or thumbtacks to blouse sheets to the ceiling…that would harm the sheets. Same for the walls. That way you could borrow sheets you can return. If you want to make some kind of pattern or effect along the walls, you can cut long 2” wide strips of cardboard and wrap the edge of the sheet around…that gives you control of the drape if you want to pleat or whatever.

I had a plain old basement with the normal cement floor and cinder block walls and what I did was I epoxied the floor and painted the walls with cement paint. It came out great and made it feel a lot less damp since the paint and the epoxy seals the cement and cinder blocks. It looks so clean and neat now a great play area for my daughters, all I did was put a childs area rug down in their space and moved all their toys down there. They love having a place that is all theirs to use.