The year 2020 held some challenges for us, as I’m sure it did for you too. March came, and all of a sudden, things were shutting down, our offices were moved home, I started teaching online, and while a lot of things were placed on hold, a lot of things also became busier. As a result, you didn’t hear much from me last year - especially as school began in the fall.

Of course, this didn’t mean that home projects weren’t happening. As you know, we bought our first home in 2019 and last year gave us the great opportunity to work on a bunch of house projects that we wouldn't have had the time to do otherwise.

One of the bigger projects (besides the kitchen, which I cannot wait to start renovating) was the basement. We had planned on waiting to update it, but it just sort of happened that we were able to begin on adding some personalized touches.

We are far from finished down there, but we have definitely made some progress.

J, as you likely do not know, has a slight obsession with space and space travel. We decided that giving our multi-purpose basement a space theme was a no-brainer. No, it’s not going to look like a cheesy nursery when we’re done, but I’m already loving how it is turning out.

First, we painted the walls black. Yes, black. We toyed around with this for a long time and thought about doing just one wall, but ended up completing the whole main room. It looks great. Perfectly moody and classy at the same time. We love how it turned out. Paint is such an inexpensive way to update a room, and this was no exception. It took us about two days to finish and we love the result. Even though the basement is still virtually empty, I still go down just to enjoy the atmosphere at times.

Next we added some not-so-subtle pieces of art. For our main piece, Photowall came through for us yet again. If you remember, last year we ordered a wall mural from them for our master bedroom. This time, we went with a giant poster to go with our theme. It was pretty simple to assemble (took less than ten minutes!), and looks fantastic.

Photowall sent us this gorgeous poster and is offering our readers 25% off this month only when you use the code maplealps25. If you’re looking for an easy but bold way to transform your space, some nice wallpaper, a mural, or even a canvas print might be for you!

We are still waiting on some furniture to arrive for our new “Space Place” thanks to shipping and demand. It will take a few months for it to arrive, so be sure to stay tuned in for more progress posts.