Walls in quasi-finished basement

[Susie]

Has anybody painted their basement walls something they've loved? Or hated? I am looking for suggestions.

Half of our basement is quasi-finished. It has a drop ceiling, fluorescent lights, sheetrocked walls, and pink flowered linoleum floors. (Le sigh.) We have two sand-colored carpet remnants covering as much of the pink flower surface area as possible. It's not a priority to change yet.

We're reworking that space to be a workout area. For Christmas we treated ourselves to a new HDTV + Blu Ray player, and our road bikes & trainers are down there. I am planning to hang race pictures on the wall (motivation). This is the biggest one:


The walls are cream now, and desperately need a paint job. I was thinking of maybe doing that before we wall mount the new TV. I'm meh on cream because a) it's boring, and b) it shows every scuff, e.g., along the stairs. Since the floor goes with nothing, I'm basically open to anything that won't exaggerate the dungeon feel. It gets almost no natural light.

WWY pick?

[simpsongal]

Your basement sounds like ours, except we have a berber carpet. The cream does show every scuff. Maybe pale yellow? Or a pale blue? (like a swiming pool I'm hesitant to put any color on the walls that will make the basement feel darker. Especially because of the dropped ceiling.

Cool pic!

[wawa]

Our basement walls are painted something very close to SW Travertine.




they were like that when we moved in.
(picture from before move-in)



I like it. It's warm, neutral, and does not make it feel smaller or darker even though it's not a terribly light or bright color. We don't have a drop ceiling, but it is low enough that my 6'1" husband can hit his head if he jumps. (as we learned when we we got a xbox kinect)

ETA: (hit post too soon) it does look more yellow down there than the swatch does elsewhere - mostly because of the artificial light I guess.

I'm kinda madly in love with the color we just painted our bedroom though, and I think it'd look pretty good with your race picture.
SW Rainwashed



(after one coat)