Basement Blues

We have the basement blues... literally. We have painted the basement twice and still aren't happy with the color. Drew has his heart set on a grey color and both times the walls have looked blue. The first time we painted it turned out a baby blue which was not even close to the color we picked out. I then suggested we paint the basement the same color is our bedroom since we know we like the color. That color still didn't look right. We then tried changing the light bulbs. We picked up some of the reveal light bulbs to get rid of the blue tint. It didn't help. We've discussed a lot of other options including painting all of the wood work white. I think it would help a lot with our color issues as well as make the basement more cohesive with the rest of the house. Unfortunately, I don't think it will be an easy or quick process. I keep dragging my feet because I am not looking forward to sanding all of the wood.

But now, we've reached another road block in our basement plans. Originally, we both envisioned a sports themed basement. Right now it's looking quite patriotic. As Drew's sister is moving and downsizing so we've taken in her red couches - as well as her flag pictures. 

The coloring in this picture is horrible!

Of course, we are a patriotic family, but the red couches against the blue-ish walls and the flag pictures are a little too much. We still aren't sure if we are going to keep the flag pictures. We need to re-envision our basement and take it one step at a time. My current suggestion is to take down the wall paper (on the one wall) and paint all the walls white. The couches add a lot of color and if we put pictures on the walls that will add even more. I think the walls can be neutral. If we do remove the one wall of wallpaper and paint the walls white then we would keep the wood as is. Eventually we could redo the bar top and I think it would be enough of a change to make the basement feel a little more updated.