If you have a basement that has a bathroom, you might have a suitable area for an extra guestroom. Many houses may not have enough rooms upstairs for all the kids and a guest and so one of the pracical basement ideas is to turn it into a bedroom.
One of the first problems though with a turning your basement into a guestroom is to figure out the heating situation. If you are going to use it as a bedroom, you need to make sure the basement has some insulation in the walls. Additionally, even if it does, you may find it exremely hard to heat in the winter.
In the summer time, a basement bedroom or guestroom will work great because it will be hot outside but naturally cool at the bottom of the house. In the winter though, heating your basement to a degree that it is livable could be expensive. you may have to have a stand alone heater or heaters to do the job. Radiant heat downstairs might also work well but that could be too expensive for many budgets.
Another problem you might have is installing ample lighting in your new basement guestroom. Many basements are partially or totally underground and thus have very little natural lighting. This means you will probably have to have several bright lamps or ceiling lights to give your guests enough light to see.
The color you paint your basement walls can either help or hurt the lighting. If you paint the walls a dark green or black, it will make the room look that much darker. However, if you use brighter colors it may help with the poor lighting situation many basements face.
As mentioned at the outset, a basement bedroom works best if you have a bathroom on the same level. If not, it may still be doable but having a bathroom with a shower is best for anyone staying down there. The more complete a room you can make the better and the more it will help with resale value as well.
