Basement of the Week: Listening Lounge for a Music Fan

A designer creates a cool area where her husband can enjoy his favorite albums and others can spend time too

Becky Harris February 2, 2017

Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected." I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia.

Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe... More

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The most important material in this basement renovation was vinyl. Interior designer Suzanne Manlove’s client — her husband, Mark — was a vinyl aficionado, and he was finally getting a listening room in their home where he could enjoy his favorite albums. “I interviewed him just as I would a client so that I could meet all of his needs in the room,” Manlove says. “We set real deadlines and we made them.” Though designed with him in mind, the basement also is multifunctional and serves the whole family, as well as overnight guests. An album cover wall, bike storage, a workspace for her business, a dartboard and a lounging area all were included the final design.

Manlove and Company Interiors

Photos by Stacy Zarin Goldberg

Basement at a Glance
What happens here: Listening parties, overnight sleepovers, gaming, movie nights, organizing samples, playing darts and more for a couple and their two teens
Location: Arlington, Virginia
Size: 500 square feet (46.5 square meters)
Designer: Suzanne Manlove of Arlington Home Interiors

When they built an addition to their home years earlier, Suzanne and Mark dug down deep enough for a finished basement. They decided to finish it as their oldest child entered his teen years.

Built-in storage and display for albums was a priority. Suzanne worked with Mark to determine how much space he would need and designed the cabinets accordingly. “He also had a vision for an album wall,” she says. “It serves as a focal point.” They were carefully chosen to represent iconic albums from different music genres. While Mark picked out which albums were important enough to display, Suzanne worked out the composition based on the cover art. She still tweaks it from time to time to get the color and balance just right. “It’s a great conversation starter,” she says.

Manlove and Company Interiors

Mark likes industrial style, so she used reclaimed barn wood for an accent wall. Then she complemented the wood with caged sconces and a zinc countertop on the built-in cabinets. The built-ins were designed with albums and media equipment in mind. She included glass doors in the cabinet so that she could tuck in media and gaming equipment and so that their non-radio frequency remotes would work. The turntable has a prime spot atop the cabinets.

The framed 45s, all Beatles records, on the wall to the left, belonged to Suzanne’s mother when she was a teenager.

Reclaimed barn wood: Elmwood Reclaimed Timber; zinc: RotoMetals

Contemporary Living Room Contemporary Living Room

Touches like the tulip-base chair and vintage coffee table give the room a dose of cool midcentury modern style. The rug is composed of carpet tiles. “It’s easy to replace a tile or two if you spill something or have water damage,” she says. Beneath the rug are large-format gray ceramic tiles that work well with the industrial elements in the room.

The sofa pulls out into a comfortable bed so that overnight guests can have their own space. There’s also a full bathroom in the basement. “We call it ‘The Apartment’ when we have guests,” Suzanne says.

Main wall paint: London Fog 1541; accent walls paint: Templeton Gray HC-161; media built-ins paint: Rockport Gray HC-105, White Dove OC-17, all Benjamin Moore; carpet tiles: FLOR; floor tiles: 24x24 Lavagna Rectangular Field Tile, On Square; chair and sleeper sofa: Lee Industries

Manlove and Company Interiors

The bathroom has a clever recess for towels and other items. The photography is by musician and artist Matt Schwartz.

Tip: If you’re planning to dig a basement space now but finish it later, get it set up for the plumbing during the original construction. The Manloves figured out where the bathroom would go and had it plumbed during the addition construction, which saved them some time and money when they were ready to finish the basement. They planned the ductwork during that phase as well.

Wall paint: Silver Mist 1619, Benjamin Moore; vanity: Ronbow Lassen (with custom counter)

Manlove and Company Interiors

Next came bike storage they could live with. “I wanted to do something that wasn’t just utilitarian,” Suzanne says. “I wanted to elevate the iconic shapes of the bikes to something graphic that would feel like artwork.”

To accomplish this, she had the wall covered in the same zinc she’d used for the counter on top of the cabinets and framed it in remnants from the reclaimed wood. During construction, she was sure to have the walls behind the standard bike brackets reinforced with extra wood to handle their weight.

Just out of view to the right is a walk-out door, and beyond that is a dartboard. Manlove covered the wall behind the dartboard in the reclaimed wood as well. Wayward darts add to the character of the wood rather than piercing drywall.

Manlove and Company Interiors

She integrated more album storage into shelves behind the sofa that also serve as a sofa table. This is especially handy for overnight guests.

To the left is Suzanne’s work area; she designed the cabinets for her interior design samples and hanging file storage for her business.

The room feels light and bright thanks to a thoughtful lighting scheme. “I like to bring in lots of lighting choices and put everything on individual switches and on dimmers,” she says. “That way you can really control your scene at different times of day and night and different activities.” Each wall has lights, the ceiling has recessed lights, and there is a free-standing floor lamp and plenty of outlets for more lamps.

Though the family also enjoys a turntable upstairs, this room is the cool spot for listening parties. “There are a lot of dads in the neighborhood who have albums, and sometimes we have parties where everyone brings their favorite album for us all to listen to,” Suzanne says.

One memory of the old unfinished basement inspired its name. “We lovingly call the finished basement ‘The Cricket Lounge,’” she says. “The name came from when Mark used to hang out down here when it was unfinished with the bikes, kayak and camping gear, and all of the camel crickets would hang out with him.”

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