Basement Renovation – Removing the Old Bar and Installing New Carpet

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As part of our basement renovation, we ripped out an old paneled bar. (We actually did that before we had the paintable wallpaper installed, that’s why the room looks a little different than the previous post in this series!) And, we had new carpet installed after the wallpaper. This post covers those two things!

Removing the Old Wood Paneled Bar

As I explained in the intro post for the basement renovation, we thought that this bar was a really fun feature when we moved into the house. However, it was in an awkward spot, and the space behind the bar just ended up kind of wasted.

So, we decided to rip out the bar and install Ikea kitchen cabinetry in a more efficient layout. (More on that installation in the next post in the series)

First, we cleared out all the booze, soda, and other things we had stored in the bar:

Then, thanks to a crowbar, the claw end of a hammer, and a reciprocating saw, we were able to disassemble the bar within about 30 minutes! (Remember, we used the bar as a test spot for our paintable wallpaper installation, and to test paint swatches for the rest of the basement!)

Once we got the bar detached from the wall, we were able to move it … Revealing this green slimy sludge under the bar. YUCK!

Then we just dragged the bar to our back patio, broke it down into smaller pieces, folded down any nails that were sticking out, and took it out to the curb on trash day.

The removal actually went much easier and faster than we expected. We thought it was a lot more “attached” to the floor and the wall than it actually was.

New Carpet Installation

Okay, sorry to jump around a bit, but after the paintable wallpaper installation (which I covered in the previous post in this series), we had new carpet installed in the basement. The old carpet was berber, and we were pretty sure that the previous owners installed the cheapest carpet possible to cover the hideous linoleum floor after their house sat on the market for more than a year. (You can see the old linoleum revealed when we ripped out the bar).

The berber carpet was constantly pilling, and if you vacuumed over a loose strand in the carpet, you basically ended up ripping up several threads of carpet. Oh, and the worst part was walking on it in bare feet. If the bottoms of my feet were even slightly dry, the berber carpet threads would like “stick” the bottoms of my feet like velcro. Awful.

So, we definitely wanted to nice, plush carpet for the basement. We even opted for thicker padding!

Here are some photos from the new carpet installation! For those local to the Northern Virginia area, message us if you’d like the flooring installers info! We’ve used them for three different flooring jobs in our house now, and we highly recommend them!

It’s so much nicer than our old stuff! And we thought it went really nicely with the rest of the room’s freshly painted walls! Oh, and no more “velcro feet!” I can walk on the carpet with no socks just fine!

The basement was already looking nice and finished at that point, but we still had one more phase … installing new Ikea kitchen cabinetry for storage and with a countertop as a “workbench.”