Basement Poker Room & Home Theater (4 Viewers)

[Irish]

I was able to squeeze in a little work here and there the past few weeks, I made the covers for the center beam. These both give the beam a nice finished look and hide the array of wires for the AC condenser, TVs, speakers, etc.

Before:

After:

Had to cut down the cover on the end against the wall to account for the AC condenser tube running through the outer wall

At the joint over the column, I'm going to try my hand at crafting a support and connection plate out of foam and finish/paint it to look like a steel/iron and hide the seam. I'm hoping to get started on the bar later this week after Christmas.

 

[shahnuli]

Had a great weekend making LOTS of sawdust :coffee: I took a break from the basement on Saturday and spent a few hours with the router, making the main cuts for an upcoming poker table.

View attachment 205887View attachment 205886

Then on Sunday, with the shop now mostly cleaned up, I started on the cedar plank ceiling. This was probably the one element of the room I've been the most nervous about, it's kind of a "new to me" idea in that I've never seen a picture of anyone doing this in a basement, and while the mock up area looked nice, I was still nervous about how it would look in the end. A better description of the idea is the in OP, but basically the idea was to tack small quarter round molding pieces to the bottoms of the floor joints to support floating cedar planks between the joints, effectively creating a ceiling that would:

• Hide the wires & pipes between the ceiling joists, but allow access to them for maintenance/future work
• Not reduce the overall clearance (a hair under 7' to the floor)
• Incorporate can lights
• Allow for installation of sound insulation, if possible, and...
• Not look like shit

I'm about two thirds of the way done, and it really came out nice:

View attachment 205880View attachment 205878View attachment 205879

The planks come in 8' length, so the approach results in a million cuts. But once I got a work station set up this went really quick, I was able to cut 3 panels at a time.

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The panels are nice and thin at 1/4", which made cutting around the can lights easy. The bottom of my paint can ended up being the perfect template to trace the cut I used my scroll saw for the circular cuts.

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And I finished up last night by painting the main drain pipe and the lally columns, I went with this neat "hammered" black paint, they came out looking pretty cool. I may end up painting all the HVAC duct work with this.

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Ceiling looks fantastic. What a clever idea and very functional too.

 

[doughboy63]

@Irish staining the ceiling to match the beam or painting white?

 

[DoubleEagle]

I was able to squeeze in a little work here and there the past few weeks, I made the covers for the center beam. These both give the beam a nice finished look and hide the array of wires for the AC condenser, TVs, speakers, etc.

Before:

View attachment 230819

After:

View attachment 230821View attachment 230820

Had to cut down the cover on the end against the wall to account for the AC condenser tube running through the outer wall

View attachment 230822

At the joint over the column, I'm going to try my hand at crafting a support and connection plate out of foam and finish/paint it to look like a steel/iron and hide the seam. I'm hoping to get started on the bar later this week after Christmas.

Love the train!

 

[Irish]

@Irish staining the ceiling to match the beam or painting white?

Neither, just leaving it as is with the two tone look. The color of the beam covers is pretty close to the color of the existing floorbeams, so in person it kind of looks like a big grid, almost gives the perception of more depth. The bar will be the same darker color. I thought about staining the planks to match, but the thought of staining and finishing all that area made me cringe, and I find that the lighter color helps to brighten the room. Since the ceilings are pretty low, I felt the darker color on the ceiling would make it look more cave like.

 

[Jeff]

Looking good!

Personally, I would never put carpet in a house. I grew up in a carpeted house and my first apartment had carpet (which I replaced twice in 10 years before changing to wood). After living in the tropics and spending time in Scandinavia during winter, I don't believe the "it's warmer" thing that people say about carpets. Our previous home had carpet in the bedrooms and only after we were getting ready to sell and all the furniture was removed, were we shocked at how dirty carpet was and despite professional cleaning, I had it replaced anyway.

Our house now has slate/stone downstairs and wood upstairs. I don't worry about animals, kids or drunks any more and it's such a relief. We have several large Central Asian rugs but they're easily replaceable and cleanable.

The only plus side about carpet is that it's relatively cheap and quick to install. Buy once, cry once I say.

Agree with Darson. Hardwood is best IMO. Put an area rug or Persian carpet down if you need something softer. Much easier to have cleaned or discard.

 

[Irish]

We had a very nice Christmas this year - I didn't have to leave the house on the 25th for the first time in..... ever I think. (y) :thumbsup: Soooo in addition to relaxing, the kids got to actually play with all their new presents. Santa brought them all the gear for their new video game setups in the basement - new TVs, mounts, a second Xbox, headsets and bean bag chairs. My youngest & I spent most of Christmas evening getting everything set up.

Area cleared out and ready to mount the TVs:

TVs mounted and hooked up (with the second best Xmas movie playing in the background :coffee:

Xbox hooked up and gaming in session lol

The area will also support the home theater, so I built a small stand/shelf to house the video game consoles/games/controls/etc and provide a place for the home theater center speaker to sit. It's not finished in this picture but here are shots of both setups:

Normal/gaming:

Home Theater:

In addition to taking down the trains to get back into poker mode, I made the support and connection plates to hide the seams in the faux beam covers. I had some leftover 1/2" XPS foam insulation, so I cut a few pieces to fit, hit them with a coat of black latex paint and then painted them with the same hammered steel paint that I used on the columns and drain pipe (needed the latex base coat because the hammered paint is enamel and melts the XPS foam). I used a few decorative nail heads to simulate rivets in the connection plates, it's a little cheesy but I think it came out pretty cool.

I also added a bunch of shelves to the water meter closet for chip and card storage:

Spaced the shelves to fit USPS medium flat rate boxes . I have a few more sets that don't fit yet, but once the bar & chip rack display are finished, this closet should fit everything not being displayed.

 

[pedrofisk]

Sweet. Looking forward to hopefully fianlly making it over there in 2019.

 

[Irish]

I took a bit of break after new year's to catch up on other work, but have been finishing up the plans for the bar and finally actually got started. I'm probably waaaaay over engineering this, but considering how much stuff I'm attempting to incorporate into the bar, it needed to be sketched up pretty accurately. It's also my first shot doing any type of cabinet work, so I wanted to make sure I had all my dimensions and clearance correct. Here's the updated sketch (just the base cabinet pieces, face frames & doors not show for clarity):

It'll be a 7' long walk up bar with the following components:

• 2 under counter mini-refrigerators - one for soda/water/beer bottles and one for home brew kegs
• Full length tile counter top with small sink at one end
• Dual tap keg tower and recessed drip tray (drains to sink)
• Chip display cabinets for ~84 racks of chips / 14 sets
• Overhead liquor display / storage cabinet, cabinets for bar ware & other storage
• Built in custom humidor with Avallo Accumonitor humidification system
• Drawer for cards / dealer buttons
• Cabinet under sink for storage of kegerator CO2 cylinder and temperature control unit

For the base and overhead cabinets, I'm using a pretty simple pocket screw & dado/rabbet approach; while I do enjoy woodworking as a hobby, I'm not experienced to the point where I'm comfortable with the more advanced cabinet making techniques (and I don't have all the tools). The design I'm working with should just fit (vertically) in the space I have, it'll be really tight in a couple of spots. This area has the lowest clearance in my basement as it's furthest from the floor drain (highest floor spots). To make sure everything fits correctly, I'm building everything from the ground up - so I started with the base cabinets. I'm using cabinet grade plywood (oak veneered for the exposed sheets) and facing the frames with solid oak.

My Kreg pocket hole jig got a workout

Dry run for all the base cabinet fit ups. There are cabinets at both ends, with the framing for the counter top between them.

So far so good, everything is measuring spot on to the plan. With a little shimming here and there, the counter top was just about perfectly level, which is important as I'll be cover the counter top tile with a clear epoxy resin.

Gluing on the solid wood frames to the cabinets (didn't have enough long clamps for the job so I had to improvise )

 

[markleteenie]

I took a bit of break after new year's to catch up on other work, but have been finishing up the plans for the bar and finally actually got started. I'm probably waaaaay over engineering this, but considering how much stuff I'm attempting to incorporate into the bar, it needed to be sketched up pretty accurately. It's also my first shot doing any type of cabinet work, so I wanted to make sure I had all my dimensions and clearance correct. Here's the updated sketch (just the base cabinet pieces, face frames & doors not show for clarity):

View attachment 240394

It'll be a 7' long walk up bar with the following components:

• 2 under counter mini-refrigerators - one for soda/water/beer bottles and one for home brew kegs
• Full length tile counter top with small sink at one end
• Dual tap keg tower and recessed drip tray (drains to sink)
• Chip display cabinets for ~84 racks of chips / 14 sets
• Overhead liquor display / storage cabinet, cabinets for bar ware & other storage
• Built in custom humidor with Avallo Accumonitor humidification system
• Drawer for cards / dealer buttons
• Cabinet under sink for storage of kegerator CO2 cylinder and temperature control unit

For the base and overhead cabinets, I'm using a pretty simple pocket screw & dado/rabbet approach; while I do enjoy woodworking as a hobby, I'm not experienced to the point where I'm comfortable with the more advanced cabinet making techniques (and I don't have all the tools). The design I'm working with should just fit (vertically) in the space I have, it'll be really tight in a couple of spots. This area has the lowest clearance in my basement as it's furthest from the floor drain (highest floor spots). To make sure everything fits correctly, I'm building everything from the ground up - so I started with the base cabinets. I'm using cabinet grade plywood (oak veneered for the exposed sheets) and facing the frames with solid oak.

View attachment 240410

View attachment 240409

My Kreg pocket hole jig got a workout
View attachment 240411

Dry run for all the base cabinet fit ups. There are cabinets at both ends, with the framing for the counter top between them.

View attachment 240417

View attachment 240415

View attachment 240416

So far so good, everything is measuring spot on to the plan. With a little shimming here and there, the counter top was just about perfectly level, which is important as I'll be cover the counter top tile with a clear epoxy resin.

Gluing on the solid wood frames to the cabinets (didn't have enough long clamps for the job so I had to improvise )
View attachment 240418

Nice work! Love Kreg pocket screws, always use them too! Can't wait to see how the rest of this build goes, GLWB!

 

[DoubleEagle]

Awesome some job by the craftsman you are!

 

[Chile85]

@Irish, what rendering software are you using here? Is it freeware by chance? Just had a kitchen 3d render done today and was half tempted to ask the guy to model my basement too . Probably would have asked why there were no cabinets and what this large oval table was doing on there.

 

[Irish]

@Irish, what rendering software are you using here? Is it freeware by chance? Just had a kitchen 3d render done today and was half tempted to ask the guy to model my basement too . Probably would have asked why there were no cabinets and what this large oval table was doing on there.

Unfortunately not freeware, its a CADD software called Microstation. I'm a structural engineer so I have access to it at work.

 

[Chile85]

Unfortunately not freeware, its a CADD software called Microstation. I'm a structural engineer so I have access to it at work.

Dang, ok thanks!

 

[jlb2782]

Caught up with the build. Looks amazing. Excited to see that humidor filled up!!

 

[Irish]

Base cabinets assembled, stained, finished & installed, time to start on the chip displays.

I also lined the humidor with spanish cedar, and the new humidification system came in this week too

 

[Trihonda]

I noticed you mentioned running cable for the subwoofer... What did you use, if you don't mind me asking? I've had some success using RG-Quad cable, converted to take an RCA connector.

 

[Irish]

I noticed you mentioned running cable for the subwoofer... What did you use, if you don't mind me asking? I've had some success using RG-Quad cable, converted to take an RCA connector.

Nothing fancy, just a Y adapter like this:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Onn-Audio-Y-Adapter-6-Inch/539030788

coming off the reciever to an RCA extension chord that runs in the ceiling & wall to the sub. Works fine.

 

[Trihonda]

Shesh, how much that cable set you back? Those hi end sub cables aint cheap at length... That's why I used the quad cable... A 50' run cost me around $10 (including the RCA crimp connectors)

 

[Irish]

Shesh, how much that cable set you back? Those hi end sub cables aint cheap at length... That's why I used the quad cable... A 50' run cost me around $10 (including the RCA crimp connectors)

I already had a 30' RCA extension chord that was long enough, but they run like $4 :

https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021803&p_id=2009&seq=1&format=2

I'm not a super audiophile and the reciever is probably 15 years old, but it sounds great for movies.

Y out from receiver connecting to the RCA extension:

Rca plugged in at sub:

 

[jlb2782]

Shesh, how much that cable set you back? Those hi end sub cables aint cheap at length... That's why I used the quad cable... A 50' run cost me around $10 (including the RCA crimp connectors)

Yep. I work for a cable company, so I get mine for free. But you're right, best sub cable you can get right there.

 

[Irish]

Made great progress on the chip displays this week. There will be 3 separate cases, two with 4 chip bays and one with 6 chip bays. I made these completely from oak veneered plywood and edge banded the exosed edges, nice and heavy duty to support the weight of a bunch of chips. Each bay is sized to accommodate 6 full racks with just enough room for some clearance to get you fingers on each side to grab them.

Dry fits:

I stained and finished the panels first this time. Then assembled them. I also routed a channel on the base piece of each bay to flush mount the sliding door hardware.

I put out some of the stone tiles for the countertop as well, the colors all match nicely.

 

[CraigT78]

Where's the kegarator?

 

[Irish]

Where's the kegarator?

Going in the open space next to the other mini fridge. I haven't done any of the cutouts for the sink, drip tray or tower yet.

 

[DeeVee8]

Smell the awesome. I hope you hid a poker chip or two in the walls like a time capsule so future generations will uncover this poker oasis. Keep the pics coming!

 

[pedrofisk]

Going to be the envy of many a member.

 

[Anthony Martino]

SWEET! Saw you mention the #2 Christmas movie (Scrooged) up above

Assuming #1 is either Christmas Vacation or Die Hard?

 

[Justin Olson]

SWEET! Saw you mention the #2 Christmas movie (Scrooged) up above

Assuming #1 is either Christmas Vacation or Die Hard?

ELF has become my families #1

 

[Irish]

SWEET! Saw you mention the #2 Christmas movie (Scrooged) up above

Assuming #1 is either Christmas Vacation or Die Hard?

Yessir, Christmas Vacation is #1, I'd put Die Hard in the top 8ish. I introduced my boys to Die Hard this Christmas, much to the chagrin of my wife lol

ELF has become my families #1

Also in the top 8. My ordering seems to changes a bit every year, but Christmas vacation and Scrooged are always 1-2. The others include A Christmas Story, Bad Santa & Gremlins.

 

[Chippy3]

Looks great! Love watching it unfold. Can’t wait to see the finished product!