A designer transforms her dank downstairs into a gleaming creative zone with renovation help from Sweeten

• Homeowners: Interior designer Danielle Fennoy posted her modern basement remodel on Sweeten
• Where: Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn, New York
• Primary renovation: A basement turns into a designer’s home office (including laundry and storage) with gallery looks
• Sweeten general contractor
• Homeowner’s quote: “Through Sweeten, I met some experienced general contractors. We chose a contractor who seemed most capable and most excited about the job. The cherry on top: He was insanely easy to work with.”
• Sweeten’s role: Sweeten matches home renovation projects with vetted general contractors, offering guidance, tools, and support—for free.

Written in partnership with Sweeten homeowner Danielle. “After” photos by Miao Jiaxin for Sweeten.

An unwelcoming basement

Proud. Calm. Organized. It was hard to imagine a trip down to our cellar—a dark, dank space that I never wanted to set foot in—summoning these feelings. But renovating this space into a fully functioning basement gave us a dedicated workspace for my business while adding an entire floor of living space to our home. It also satisfied some serious storage needs and gave us an occasional guest room for family visits.

We live in a three-family Brooklyn brownstone built in the early 1900s. We’ve owned it for three-and-a-half years. I am Danielle, owner of Revamp Interior Design; Jevaun is my husband and a design director; Zidane is our son and Katara is our dog. We occupy the parlor, garden, and cellar levels of the building, and the top floors are rental units. 

Since we bought the place, we have been redoing it one section at a time, and this was the last of the major projects. We wanted to do a renovation in the basement, which the previous owner had never refinished after a flood years ago. It wasn’t in great shape: the drywall had been ripped out to prevent mold, and the room had no ventilation or natural light. Junk was accumulating down there. The laundry area was way in the back, and we (I) had to walk through hell to do a load. It was sad.

Organization for a basement remodel

The space needed to become a beautiful workhorse of an office. But it had to function, too, as a standard basement and store our family’s things in an organized way. We needed places for coats, tools, luggage, and linens. I came up with this gallery idea with a modern, open look, and we posted our basement remodel project on Sweeten. I wanted one wall to retain the exposed masonry, for texture and grit. For the floors, I planned to pour an epoxy layer over the existing concrete. My running joke: If I could walk through the basement barefoot, mission accomplished! 

Finding new general contractors

I work in the renovation business, so I initially bid out the job with contractors I’ve worked with. But they were all tied up with projects. I didn’t want to have competing deadlines. Through Sweeten, I met some experienced general contractors. We chose a contractor who seemed most capable and most excited about the job. The cherry on top: He was insanely easy to work with. 

My running joke: If I could walk through the basement barefoot, mission accomplished! 

Lighting takes centerstage

The goal was to make it bright and spacious. When we moved in, our vision included a den and guest bedroom in the basement. Then I started having this recurring (and prescient!) dream in which I was working from home, and the conversion plan shifted: I wanted to turn it into a design gallery and studio. I needed a workspace with a big, open surface to work with materials and review large drawings. Because of this, lighting would be key. Color is a big part of what I do and it felt critical to have a bright, blank canvas as the backdrop for my work.

I knew that lighting was the aspect of the redo that would have the most impact. We put in 18 recessed LED ceiling lights; there was not a dark corner in the room. Susan Chan, a specialist at Feng Shui Creative and a friend, recommended I add “uplighting”—fixtures that direct the light upwards—to lift the room’s energy. I thought she was crazy and couldn’t think how to make that work—the ceilings are barely eight feet high. But boy, was she right! The gorgeous pendant fixture I chose made a huge difference in the space, adding both diversity to the light and focus over the island.

Epoxy floors for a chic basement remodel

After we cleared out the stuff, the team sheetrocked the walls and poured the epoxy floor. The exposed masonry wall didn’t turn out as naturally beautiful as we’d hoped it would, but we went with it. The contractors built out closets under the stairs, installed a storage island for a work surface, and hung lots of open shelving. We painted the walls, floors, and stairs in a perfect white—not too cool, not too warm. The furniture plan was the toughest part. I find a “bonus room”—an everything space with 10,000 functions—the hardest to get right for my clients, and it was no different for me. I created a wide-open room and didn’t want the things I put in it to make it feel cramped.

Getting to the finish line

As the room came together, our contractor stopped by often, checking on progress and clarifying details. He gave me a six-week project schedule. The basement remodel was finished the day he promised. The usual setbacks occurred—construction delays, order lags—and our project had surprises, but the crew kept pace and we didn’t go over budget. Sweeten also offered support throughout the project, if needed. 

Looking at the finished project, I have so many favorite bits, beginning with the added space. Each floor of the building is about 900 square feet, so we increased usable space by 50 percent—we now have 2,700 square feet. The very best reward downstairs: the perfect lighting. I can work around the clock and never know what time it is. I jokingly call it Vegas!

Thank you for sharing your modern basement renovation story with us, Danielle, Jevaun, and Zidane!  

Resource Materials:

BASEMENT RESOURCES: Simply White paint: Benjamin Moore. Epoxy flooring: Sourced by general contractor. Recessed Lights: WAC Lighting. Tracer Loop pendant: Luke Light Co. BL Pole shelving system: Rakks.

A note on fixture and appliance deliveries: If you’re on a tight timeline, Appliances Connection has over 50,000 items in stock and ready to ship nationally. If you’re in the NY/NJ metro area, in-stock items typically deliver within 2-3 days.

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Sweeten handpicks the best general contractors to match each project’s location, budget, scope, and style. Follow the blog, Sweeten Stories, for renovation ideas and inspiration and when you’re ready to renovate, start your renovation with Sweeten.

When a house addition adds almost 800 square feet and enhances daily life

• Homeowners: A Morris Park couple posted their house addition remodel on Sweeten
• Where: Bronx, New York
• Primary renovation: Add a new deck, sunroom, and dormer to a 2,500-square-foot Dutch Colonial built in 1932 
• Sweeten general contractor
• Homeowner quote: “We knew Sweeten would be there if we experienced problems with our contractor. Luckily, we didn’t need that assistance. Our contractor’s team was excellent!”
• Sweeten’s role: Sweeten matches home renovation projects with vetted general contractors, offering advice, support, and secure payments—for free.

Written in partnership with homeowner. “After” photos by Pixy Interiors.

Choosing between a house or apartment

My husband and I used to live in Manhattan in a one-bedroom apartment. Once we decided to have children, we knew we wanted to live closer to our families. So we opted to buy a house in the Bronx and have our parents partake in child-raising. Originally we thought we would have one child, live in the area for a few years, and then move back to Manhattan once school started. 

We were most excited about having a bathroom on the first floor and not having to go upstairs.

Our house addition plan: Envisioning more space

However, we soon fell in love with having a house and wanted to have more kids. Our neighborhood is quite ethnically and socioeconomically diverse. It feels like a nice mix, like we’re away from the city, but not quite in the suburbs. 

An active family scratches a master bath and Queens basement remodel off their to-do list

Photos courtesy of Dixon Projects

• Homeowners: Gordon and Tracy posted their Queens basement remodel on Sweeten
• Where: Sunnyside neighborhood, Queens, New York
• Primary renovation: Remodel two bathrooms and transform the basement into a dual living and utility/storage space in a 1,200-square-foot single-family home
• Sweeten general contractor
• Sweeten’s role: Sweeten matches homeowners with vetted general contractors for residential renovation projects, offering knowledge, support, and up to $50,000 in job-related financial protection—for free.

Guest blog post by Sweeten homeowner Gordon

A new start for an old home

Our home, a brick townhouse in the Sunnyside Garden Historic District, was built in 1925 in one of the first planned communities inspired by the English Garden Movement in the United States. This enclave in the borough of Queens was originally developed to promote green space and community while providing affordable housing to working-class folks. Tracy, a financial analyst, and I, a teacher, had been living in the neighborhood for some time when we purchased the house, a former rental that hadn’t been improved since the early ‘90s. We had a lot of ideas for updating it.

We felt lucky to find a three-story home of roughly 1,200 square feet, or 400 square feet per floor. The townhouse had three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and that was more than enough for the two of us, our cats, Laurel and Juniper, and our dog, Ballou. We wanted to gut-renovate both baths and overhaul our underutilized basement. If we could squeeze in maximum function on every level, the house would feel more modern and bigger.

Remodeling a landmarked townhouse

We had renovated the kitchen just after buying the house four years ago. The job, a mix of DIY projects and subcontractor commissions, was successful but laborious. We were recovered and ready to tackle the next phase, but understood that the difficulty of the work would exceed our own abilities, as would the red tape. Because we own a landmarked building, we would have to secure not only the expected Department of Buildings paperwork but also obtain Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) permits and approvals on all work impacting the building’s exterior. We knew our general contractor would assume much of this burden, which made us feel more comfortable diving in.

We dreamed of a polished concrete floor but settled for large, matte concrete-effect tiles instead.

 

Giving new life to the basement

Of the whole renovation, the basement would be the larger piece, the goal was to increase the house’s usable space. Before we started, the basement was a large, unlevel room. Thanks to the old home’s process of settling, there was a two-inch difference in floor height from the walls to the room’s center. It had an outdated bathroom and poorly planned utility areas. A previous owner had installed an awkwardly placed cabinet and sink in the middle of the big room, and the washer and dryer next to the 40-year-old boiler, making laundry day a sweaty affair. The basement bathroom was dark and dank. We wanted to recreate the basement as a study, gaming/movie space, music center, and cat sanctuary with storage, laundry, and a hospitable second bathroom. 

A Queens basement remodel to be livable

We started in the downstairs, where we first had to level the floor. We dreamed of a polished concrete floor but settled for large, matte concrete-effect tiles instead. The cost and challenge of doing a poured floor just didn’t make it practical, and we were ultimately happy with an alternative that gave the room a similar feel at a lower cost. After losing two inches of headspace in the leveling of the floor, our Sweeten contractor suggested raising the ceiling by exposing and painting the heating pipe—easy, since they were replacing the room’s drywall, anyway. A new basement door, window, and vents for the bathroom and boiler room were installed. 

Next, they subdivided the space, creating a new living area, a storage room, and an expanded bathroom. LPC approvals, necessary for the new exterior basement door and window, as well as bathroom and laundry venting, went through smoothly.

(Above) “After” basement bathroom

That leads me to the renovation’s second and equally important part: the bathroom remodels. The basement bath would get a complete gut job to remove a creepy stall shower, and an expansion to make room for a freestanding bathtub. The windowless downstairs bathroom needed to be bright and clean. We went for a spare look, choosing large wall tiles, a custom concrete sink, and a wall-hung toilet, in addition to the beautiful bathtub.  

A tub-turned-shower for the master bath

Our upstairs bath would also be gutted and refreshed, with a glass-walled shower replacing the old tub-and-shower setup. We couldn’t make the 30-square-foot room bigger, but we could up its storage and functionality. Upstairs, we went for a modern toilet and a compact, wall-mount sink, along with a recessed medicine cabinet, and toothbrush niche. We installed rectangular wall tiles vertically for a playful effect. Both baths got recessed lighting. 

(Above) “After” upstairs bathroom

When it was finally time to finish the basement, we were excited to be able to install the shelving system ourselves; the contractor made it easy by mounting wood blocking between the wall studs. We wanted built-ins, but the wall-shelving was more cost-effective and looks great. We offset neutral surfaces with books, wood accents, and colorful velvet furnishings. One takeaway we agree on: Don’t cheap out on hardware; the difference shows as it wears.

The only downside, in the end, was that the price of the project came in much more than we anticipated after we had to replace the boiler and a rotted drainpipe. Once we finalized the task list, though, our Sweeten contractor stuck to the budget. Doubling our living space has had such an impact on our daily life. We don’t have a single regret!

Thank you, Gordon and Tracy, for sharing your Queens basement and bath remodel with us! 

Renovation Materials

BATHROOM RESOURCES (BASEMENT): Floor tiles in Instinct Dark, wall tiles in Instinct Talc: TileBar. Litze hardware and shower fixtures in nickel/teak: Brizo. Oberto tub: Maax. Custom sink/vanity: Stogs Concrete Design. Mirror: West Elm. Toto toilet: Toto Washlet. 1-light wall sconce: Hinsdale. 

BASEMENT RESOURCES: Paint on basement door in Off-Black: Farrow & Ball. Flooring: TileBar. Miele washer/dryer: Miele. Paint in Strong White: Farrow & Ball. Laundry cabinetry: Custom. Wood countertop: Ikea.

BATHROOM RESOURCES (UPSTAIRS): Floor tiles in Black Matte Hex Mosaic: Roca Tile. Wall tiles in Bayou White: TileBar. Litze shower fixtures in polished chrome: Brizo. Shower glass doors: custom. Teorema sink: Nameek’s. Kohler San Souci Touchless toilet: Kohler.  Lighting: Rejuvenation. Kohler vanity mirror/medicine cabinet: Kohler. 

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Cristiana and her husband transform a dated basement in their 1918 Colonial Craftsman house. Here’s their remodel.

Sweeten handpicks the best general contractors to match each project’s location, budget, scope, and style. Follow the blog, Sweeten Stories, for renovation ideas and inspiration and when you’re ready to renovate, start your renovation on Sweeten.