Design Ideas for Basements (ISBN 1580111580)

Book Description:
Design Ideas for Basements offers homeowners attractive, practical ideas for converting unfinished space into extra living quarters without the expense of adding on. Consumers will find many examples that go beyond the standard options of basement conversions, including ideas for family rooms, extra bedrooms, kitchens, home offices, media rooms, gyms, laundry rooms, storage areas, workshops, and hobby centers. The book also covers practical solutions to providing ventilation, heat, waterproofing, and soundproofing, as well as the latest options for windows, doors, lighting, storage, finishing products and materials, and furnishings.

Not worth the money:
I was in the process of finishing the basement to make a playroom for my children and was looking for some design ideas. While the book had some nice pictures of bars, full bedrooms, etc... for the basement, there were no ideas for playrooms or basement flooring options besides carpeting.

A wealth of ideas for converting basements:
Enhanced with more than 200 full color photography by Phillip H. Ennis, Design Ideas For Basements by home improvement expert Wayne Kalyn offers a wealth of ideas for converting basements into extra living space for busy families. offering up-to-date information on building codes for converting basements into bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, Design Ideas For Basements also deftly covers contemporary trends in basement oriented family rooms, laundry rooms, and/or storage facilities. Light and water issues, and sound proofing options are also fully covered. If you have a basement in need of interior design conversions for optimal utility, then browse through the pages of Wayne Kalyn's Design Ideas For Basements!

Pretty bad, even for a design idea book:
I bought this hoping to get either structural or design ideas. It contains almost no structural or layout suggestions. It really should have been named "Decorating Ideas for Basements". 90% of the basements shown are hideous. Some look like someone with $$$ to burn decorated a dorm room while drunk. Others look like a caricature of "wealthy", and simply look expensive and tacky at the same time. Most of the rooms don't meet construction code, either. I suspect a lot of the rooms shown aren't actually IN a basement in real life. Great designs for your basement if it will never contain kids, pets, neighbors, family, or the sighted.

They dont have a 0 star rating:
do me a favor....DONT BUY THIS BOOK,,,, i spent good money on it because as i searched it i saw a couple pics i liked!!! it is basically a catalogue, not anything more...it even has all the companies that the products came from in the back.... Pretty pictures,, but that is it. Honestly,,,I bought the Stanley complete basements, and it answered about 90% of my questions...and this one was like reading the sears catalogue.....

Very nice book, but probably a 4 1/2:
As a carpenter / remodelor, I purchased this book for design ideas for basement finishing. The book has some great ideas, but many do not seem like they are for basements, and so I often find myself using them for other remodeling projects as well. I as wrote, there are some great ideas in this book, but they all are geared toward finishing off basements under ideal conditions. Every room seems to have high ceilings with pipes and ductwork that is already inside the floor joists, a situation in which I rarely find myself. Many of my clients live in older homes around the metro Detroit area that have lower ceilings with even lower pipes and ductwork. I was hoping to find some great ideas for those spaces in this book. Can pipes and ductwork be moved as part of the project? Yes they can, but that either inflates the budget or steals money from other areas of the budget, neither of which is most profitable for me since it requires additional subcontractors (the expensive kind), so I was hoping to see some designs that worked around such issues. Again... I love the book. it has great photos or great design ideas, but these ideas just require ideal working conditions, which most of us do not have.