Part of my new collection of zombie movies included motivation to refurbish my basement den with some real horror movie love. Besides, I needed a neat way to showcase my 200+ zombie movies (and that number keeps growing) plus other non-zombie horror and sci-fi movies. I had an old sofa set down here that reached the ripe old age of ten years and the springs quit on them a long time ago. Thanks to my wife’s new job and much higher paychecks, I could afford to spend some money making the den more enjoyable for me.
First, I got rid of the old couch and love seat. That was no easy task considering they barely fit down the stairs. Fortunately, my younger son Ethan is taller than me and a strong dude, so we were able to get both sofas up the stairs and into the garage. Thanks to my wife’s craftiness, we managed to rid ourselves of the sofa set to an older woman who desperately needed a decent-looking set to furnish her apartment. She came with her truck and after loading them up in the bed, I waved goodbye as I rubbed my aching back.
Since I needed a place to sit, I spent a decent amount of money on Amazon and bought two movie-theater-style fake leather recliners. These aren’t too expensive and I’m sure they’ll wear out in a few years, but that’s OK with me. They look fantastic and take up much less space.
Next, I needed to do something about my now-vacant wall where the love seat once sat. I started by ordering posters of my favorite zombie movies: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Zombie, Day of the Dead, City of the Living Dead, House by the Cemetery, The Return of the Living Dead, and Zombieland. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an 11×17 inch poster for Fulci’s The Beyond. I’ll be replacing Zombieland with Shaun of the Dead soon. Regardless, the wall already looked better.
I used a Closetmaid/Rubbermaid shelf bracket system to hang two shelves above the posters exclusively for my zombie movies (which at the time only numbered around 50). I’ll need more shelves soon as those eBay and Amazon deliveries come in…
Since Ethan and I are the only ones that watch TV in the den, I didn’t need any additional seating besides the two new recliners, so I bought a bunch of inexpensive Walmart bookshelves and lined the wall with them. They have 3 shelves and are the perfect height to set up some of my new collectibles. That’s still a work in progress.
I also changed up the wall where the TV is mounted. I bought longer ‘L’ brackets and hung my projector screen higher and further out. I made the rest of the wall Lego-themed showcasing the bigger Lego sets Ethan, Evan (my oldest son) and I built. I think it came out pretty good.
I even bought wood-patterned duct tape to cover the electrical conduit against the wall. It blends in nicely, although I haven’t finished taping the conduit off completely. I’m still waiting for a new floating entertainment center to arrive to mount below the television. I’ll update this post with a pic of that once I get it installed.
As for the rest of the room, it’s a bit chaotic. I’m still cleaning up and breaking down boxes left over from the shelves I bought. Recycling this stuff will likely take a few weeks since the bin is already overflowing with my kids’ presents. No biggie, right?