Come On Over, 'Cause We're Now Ready To Entertain!

Yesterday I'd mentioned briefly that we entertained on Saturday night. Well, that's because our basement family room/pool table room is finally done! Or, as done as it's going to be while we live in this house another 9 months, and can't paint the walls or upgrade our old furniture. Or until I decide to add something, or change something. Ok, who am I kidding, no room will ever completely done as far as I'm concerned, but at least it's now presentable!

Just a few short weeks ago it looked like this:

And as of Saturday afternoon, it now looks like this!

A pretty big improvement, right? Definitely a lot cleaner too!

And see those roman shades over the windows? I DIY'd them last week, and a tutorial is coming tomorrow, once I have a chance to edit down the eleventy-billion photos I took while making them.

But in the meantime, how about a little tour of the rest of the pool table room?

The pool table from a slightly different angle. We moved all our track lighting to illuminate the pool table, and see that plant in the corner? It's sitting on an end table, for people to conveniently put their drinks on when playing pool. That's also why there is a bar stool on the other side of the pool table.

The full length painted brick wall adds some subtle but nice texture, although I still think we could have rocked unpainted brick down here for a more urban chic bar feel. I still haven't figure out anything better to put on the mantel, so for now I'm sticking with the large mirror and small plants. We also don't have a place for our dart board, although I'm thinking it might end up in the hall just outside this room.

You can also see part of the sitting area in this picture. I'm really looking forward to when it gets cooler out and we can turn one of the chairs around for a cozy fireside place to relax.

The seating area from another angle. It only seats 4 as-is, but the ugly flowered thing along the brick wall is actually an ottoman that we can pull out, and we have 4 folding chairs right around the corner if needed. Not that anyone would come over to sit, they'd be playing pool the whole time!

Also, does the red color of the couch cover look familiar? If you guessed it matches the roman shades I just made, you'd be correct! Or rather, the shades match the couch cover, since I made the shades with scrap fabric left over from making the couch cover a few years ago. The rest of our furniture in the sitting area is, well, ugly. But it's what we have, so for now it will have to do!

In this next picture you can see my little workout area to the left. I've got my stair climber, hand weights, DVD player for my P90 and Jillian Michaels videos, and of course a fan for when I get too hot!

And since my last post on the progress in this room, where I showed off my DIY digital watercolor pet art, we've hung the last of the pictures in this room. A photo one of our good friends took on a wine tasting trip to Sonoma together, and gifted us as a 11" x 14" print for our wedding. And to tie in with the wine-themed photo, two pictures I took, from drinking wine on the beach on our honeymoon, and champagne glasses on our 2,000 mile road trip in 2008, down the coast of California and over to the Grand Canyon and Vegas.

And finally, here is the pool table with the cover off of it. When it's not in use though, we like to keep the cover on, so the felt doesn't get messed up by cats, or just cat hair or dust. I already spilled purple sparkles on it last year while storing our wedding card box and supplies on the table, and once dirt, hair or sparkles are in the felt, it's really hard to get them out!

So that's our pool table room, ready and waiting to entertain! Who wants to come over and beat me at a game of pool? I'm still not any good after owning this table for 4+ years, so I'm sure you'll win!

*****

After writing this post, I thought I'd come back and make a note about actually setting up our pool table, in case anyone is interested. I doubt it, but thought I'd include it just in case.

It took us about 4 hours to level the table, then level and screw down the heavy slate, seal the seams between the slate, attach the felt and put on the bumpers and pockets. Quite labor-intensive, although I will admit my husband did most of the work, because it's mainly a one person job. I just handed him paper towels and took a couple of progress photos, which I've included below.

We My husband also watched some YouTube videos on how to set up a pool table, and found the ones by Home Billiards to be the most useful. If you ever do find yourself wanting to try this for yourself, just be sure to do your research, because we did find some conflicting techniques online. But spending the time to figure it out correctly is definitely worth saving the $300 to have someone come out and set it up for you!