I readily admit that I’m a nerd, if you couldn’t tell from the cat castle entry. Let it be known that I’m the kind of nerd that wants a nerd space, so much so that when I bought my house I requested a partially finished basement for the nerd space of my dreams. Here we are, a few years in and finally started work on that space, slowly building my collection of created and found treasures that would lend themselves my goal of a recreational area that speaks to me. It may not be your thing, but it’s turning into mine.

I’m going to jump in and talk about some of the progress on one corner of the evolving nerd cave. So, this corner is in the “hallway” of the basement, it’s fairly dimly lit, but it connects the stairs, garage, laundry and the Drunkin’ Dragon a.k.a. our home tavern. The whole space still needs work on the ceiling, the floor, and the trim, but I just couldn’t wait any longer to create a space that makes me smile and allows the evolution of the decor to begin. This particular corner contains a few unrelated projects, but I’ll touch on each of them here. Hopefully you’ll see my vision start to emerge, even though my interests covered in other areas of this room span a much larger dorkscape.

Let me begin with the sign. I batted around a few options for signage for the connected tavern and ultimately went with existing supplies that will probably get beefed up in the future, it doesn’t quite have the presence I’m looking for with it’s current dimensions, so I’ll probably end up gluing it to a chunkier bit of round wood, but I had these circles for another project and had been a bit too excited to get started. I found the type and imagery online and transferred the lines by scribbling on the back of the print outs and tracing the front side to allow light pencil marks to show on the wood I was using. Once done I used my wood burner and watered down paints to tint the areas and finally stained over all of it. You can see it on the wall which is covered by removable brick wallpaper. I’ve never wallpapered before or wrestled giant stickers so I was a complete novice, but it was much faster than trying to paint bricks and it can be restored to boring down the road if needed.

The wallpaper was cheap and had too much repeat for my tastes and as I mentioned the space is dimly lit so I did lighten up the other items on the wall and a little bit of the wall itself. I was thinking that some green would be a nice contrast so I went with more chalk paint and rub and buff on that thrift store find. I’ve got some LED candles in there so we’ll have a bit of ambiance next time we have some nerdfolk visiting.

You can see a painted white on some of the “bricks” to break up the pattern and try to break up the darkness of the wallpaper. I also added some stone wallpaper in various spots in the hallway so you’ll see some of that as well.

Finally, I found what I think must be a one of a kind find, a combination bell and candle carved out of wood. It reminds me of pixie architecture It’s everything I didn’t know I needed with a chunky rustic flare that I felt fit in well with the entry to the tavern. The only downside is that it was painted solid black on a green backer board so I went to work. This is dry brushed with the same chalk paints and more rub ‘n buff sprinkled in.

That’s the progress of that corner of the basement with plenty more to come!

UPDATE: After posting this, I was fired up to finish beefing up the sign so I found a cheap wall-mount, uh… tray? I’m not sure what it was intended to be, actually. It was in the wood section of the craft store, I checked out all the wood circles both flat and inset. I ended up thinking the size and shape of this one were perfect. I figured the diameter would work and the depth would give it a “barrel end” look, so I jumped in face first. After banging the sharp edge a bit, I used thinned chalk paint, drew lines with a paint pen at this point so they’d be less clean than if I applied at the end, layered on rub ‘n buff, then stippled on some straight paint. Once this was dry and I had washed my hands a few dozen times, I globed on E6000 and wiggle-pressed the original thing wood disk into the center.

I’m fairly pleased with the results, but it may get some wood burning next time I take that tool out. I’m going to sit with it for a bit and see what I think. Hope you agree that it’s looking more fitting for a nerd tavern sign.