Reclaiming a Cluttered Basement

The Cherry family — mom Staci, dad Cliff, and daughters Brooklyn and Casey Blue — is not getting the most from its small, multifunctional basement. Used as an office, family room and classroom, the 11 x 20-foot room is buried underneath piles of toys, broken electronic equipment and outdated papers in the office area.

The Cherrys would like to eliminate the office and use the room as a teaching area for home-schooled Casey Blue, and as an inviting, comfortable place for the family to relax.

The Cherry family needs help reclaiming this room. Designer Gianfranco DiLuzio comes to the rescue. Since the furniture in the room is outdated and doesn't really function that well, he decides to start from scratch.

His plan for the new family room capitalizes on Casey Blue's name for the room's dominant color. He will paint the room a vibrant shade of blue and use white for accents. He also intends to establish specific zones for each activity. Let's see how it turned out:

The basement is part office, part family room and part classroom. Without any clearly defined areas and uncontrolled clutter, it doesn't work well for any of these functions.

A dysfunctional microwave sits amid the mess of a desk that is no longer used for a home office. It's a good thing because it doesn't look like there's even an inch of spare space.

An outdated couch is piled with toys, and the coffee table is a no-show underneath all that clutter. Clearly there is no room for relaxing in this family space.