Lower Level Great Room Design at The Ridgemont House

Hello dear friends! I'm back with another space in our Ridgemont Lake House project.

If you're just joining now, over the last several weeks I've been overviewing our design plan for each space in this project. You can see an overview of the full project scope here, and here are the links to the individual spaces I've already showcased:

Main floor great room
Main floor home office
The sitting room (aka the dining-room-that'snot-a-dining-room)
The entryway
Upper deck

And now, lets dive in to one of my favorite areas in the house!

The Lower Level Great Room Design

The lower level great room is a MASSIVE space, particularly for a lower level. With 12 foot ceilings and an almost identical square footage to the main floor great room, it's essentially a second little home down there!

Here are a couple photos of the empty space:

Ridgemont House lower level with dark wood floors, white walls, and ceiling beams. Bright light from windows and doors overlooks a waterfront view.

You can see the massive windows and slider that look out onto a paver patio with a nice view of the lake, a wet bar with space for seating and serving, and a giant open floor plan perfect for creating multiple zones.

Spacious empty lower level great room at the Ridgemont House with wooden floor, black ceiling beams, and white walls. Features a staircase, kitchen area, and pendant lights.

This area has a nice neutral wall paint, black open ceilings that hide a lot of the electrial work up there, and wood look luxury vinyl plank flooring. I love working with a very open space like this because it lends to a lot of creativity and flexibility. Next you'll see how we broke this space up into four distinct zones.

The Lower Level Great Room Furniture Layout

For the lower level great room design, I broke what was a massive open space up into four zones:

The living area
The dining area
The bar area
The entryway

The design needed to be cohesive, of course, but I wanted each area to feel distinct. This layout also shows how the interior space connects with the large outdoor patio, as well as the last of four total bedrooms.

Lower level floor plan showing patio with fire pit, guest bedroom, bar, dining, and living areas. Text reads "Lower Level | Full Furniture Layout."

Individual Zones: The Living Area

I started with the living area because these always have the largest number of pieces, and they tend to be the most utilized, so it's a good kind of area to ground your design style wise.

I wanted this space to contrast the upstairs living room, which oriented more toward the center of the great room, so I opted to face the sectional toward the windows to take advantage of the view. The back of the sectional also helps create a boundary for this particular zone.

Living area floor plan showing furniture layout: sectional, sleeper chair, tables, rug, TV, and lights. Labels highlight each item.

We needed one additional sleeping space for the rare occurrence when everyone is home at once, so we opted for a custom twin sleeper chair in this space. I grounded the area with a large 9 x 12 area rug, and used a round coffee table to break up all the straight lines.

For the media wall, which is incredibly long AND tall, I chose to do two matching consles side my side to give the look of one incredibly long console. The TV would be bookended with two large matching lamps, and accented with some some accessories on the consoles.

I planned to swap out the dungeon-ie chandelier and added in a floor lamp over by the windows. I also planned for new Window Treatments, some small accent tables and benches as well as some additional accessories as well.

Lower Level Living Room Furniture Design Plan

My client had a lot of green in her inspiration images, however, with so much blue in the upstairs cabinetry, Green didn't feel like the right choice up there. This area was my opportunity for that! We chose a gorgeous velvet fabric for the custom sleeper chair, and went with a neutral on the large L-shaped sectional.

Since we had dark brown floors, I chose lighter, neutral tone wood for the media consoles, and brought in some black with the coffee table to tie in the black ceiling. I wanted to do a mix of medals in the entire great room, so you'll see a mix among the lighting. Here, we opted for an updated take on a sputnik chandelier in a gold tone.

Living room design with olive sleeper chair, beige sofa, round table, 75" TV, wood console, gold chandelier, and potted plant. Text notes layout.

We tied in the floors with the small wood, accent tables and benches, and added some texture in both the bench seats, as well as in the consul shelving below. Since this is a vacation home, I chose some nice pho plants for their accessories, and grabbed a couple neutral but textural accent pillows as well.

We also planned for Window Treatments on the large bank of windows to bring in some light control as well as texture and softness to a very industrial feeling in space.

Modern living room design with olive chairs, beige sofa, wooden coffee table, and greenery. Text: "Lower Level Living Room."

Above you can see our secondary option if we decided not to do the sleeper chair. These were slightly smaller and scale, and had a nice shape and wood tone to them, however, we felt functionally it would make the most sense to utilize the sleeper chair.

Individual Zones: The Dining Area

The dining area layout is pretty straightforward. On the large wall that sets back by the staircase, we planned for a very large sideboard that would be home to a lamp, some accessories, and would also ground a massive colorful piece of artwork.

Floor plan of a lower level dining area with a table, chairs, pendant light, sideboard, oversized art, and faux fern vases.

electrical in the ceiling was a little tricky since everything is exposed and moving the lights could pose some tricky electrical problems. So, I opted to use a light over the dining room table that could be swagged from the original mounting point to hang centered over the table.

I again wanted this area to contrast the upstairs, so instead of upholstered chairs, I opted for wooden chairs that were slightly smaller scale down here. These will be used likely less than the upstairs, so they didn't need to be quite as comfortable for lounging for long periods of time

I also went with a slightly more modern style table with an oval shape that would tie in nicely with both the coffee table, and as you'll see in a minute, it's the same tone as the ceiling.

Lower Level Dining Room Furniture Design

The design of the space is simple, but I think it will make quite a statement in the space space. Since there's not a lot of color in this area, I wanted our one opportunity for a large piece of art to really pop.

The sideboard brings in an element of texture, and the chairs and sideboard are tied together with a similar wood tone. As I mentioned before, the black dining table will tie in with the black coffee table, as well as accent and balance out the large black ceiling.

Modern dining area with dark table, six chairs, hanging lamp, and art on white wall. Vases with greenery and candlesticks on sideboard. Text: Lower Level Dining Area.

I mentioned also wanting to mix metals within my light fixtures, so here I've opted for a pendant with a white metal finish, as well as a white woven look. You'll notice that each zone in the lower level will have different tones of lighting to add interest and layers.

Individual Zones: The Bar Area and Slider Entry

Here you can see our layout for both the bar area and the entryway that walks out to the lower patio. I imagine that this area will be high traffic, so I wanted to leave a nice open walkway while still making it functional.

Beside the slider, I selected a large chunky bench for easily removing or putting on shoes. I've included a floor lamp over here as well to bring some warm light to that area in the evenings. I've also included adorable natural entryway rug to help with tracking in dirt from the patio and yard.

Floor plan of a lower level bar and entry with labeled items: bench, floor lamp, art, pendant lights, stools, console, entry light, and rug.

Well, I am a big fan of open concept, designs, one thing they often lack is storage! Behind the sofa, I included an extra long console with closed storage inside. My thought is that this could be a great place for either games, extra linens, or possibly items they plan to use outdoors that would need easy access from the slider.

In the bar area, we selected new bar, height, stools, new custom length, pendant lights, and an oversized piece of artwork.

The Bar Furniture and Decor Design

One of my two clients is an airplane mechanic, and this bar specifically they wanted to be designed with a nod to that industry. When working with themes, subtly is key! I found a nice rape canvas highlighting, a painted airplane, and chose lighting that felt like it nodded toward something you would find in an airplane, but wasn't overly obvious.

Minimalist bar with gray stools, black pendant lights, painting of an airplane, and "Lower Level Bar" text on a gray wall.

Similarly, with the barstools, I chose finishes that felt more masculine and mechanical compared to the upstairs stools, which were a lighter, leather and gold metal finish.

The Slider Entry Furniture Design

As you can see, this space is all about mixing wood finishes and metal finishes. Again, we've brought in a black stained wood in the consul to tie in with the dining table, coffee table, and ceiling, and you can see in this light fixture, we have some gold elements and some woven elements for texture.

Dark console with books and lamp, wooden bench with plant, large window, woven chandelier, black floor lamp, textured rug. Text: Lower Level Living Slider Entry.

The lamp base springs in some interesting texture as well, and well the entry rug is neutral, it's quite textual as well. Texture is key in spaces that are not overly colorful to help them avoid feeling flat! And, it's always great to mix up your wood tones so the space doesn't end up feeling matching match. Here, you'll notice we brought in a warm, lighter wood tone with some dark knotting in the wood.

The Lower Level Great Room Design Full Look

Once I have shown my clients the individual spaces, I like the showcase the spaces altogether as a full look so they can see how everything works together.

You can see that while the space is cohesive, each area has its own distinct, feel due to the unique lighting in each area.

Living room design board with furniture: couches, chairs, tables, lamps. Neutral tones; text reads “Lower Level Great Room Full Look.”

This space was super fun to design and it may be the space. I'm most excited to set up on installation day!

There's a lot of really fun and unique pieces down here, and lower levels spaces where you can be a little more playful since one, you are often starting from a blank slate, and two, since it's a secondary area, you'll be less likely to grow tired of something a little more bold.

Up Next...

Next week we're taking a look outside at my client's kid's bedrooms and jack-and-jill bath. These spaces needed to function well for both my clients children (middle - high school aged currently), as well as feel elevated enough for guests.

Stay tuned!

Work with Lauren Figueroa Interior Design

Lauren Figueroa, a Michigan based interior designer, smiles softly indoors, wearing a beige sweater. Warm light highlights her blue eyes and curly hair, creating a calm mood.

Lauren Figueroa is an interior designer working with folks in West + Southeast Michigan and NYC, known especially for her unique and speedy Designed in a Day service.

LFID works with clients from Detroit to Clarkston, and all the way to Grand Rapids, Holland and Traverse City, and most recently, NYC. I pride myself on creating bespoke, people-centered spaces—because after all, the people you love is what this life is all about!

Twelve Foot Ceilings in a Lower Level? Yes Please! The Ridgemont House Lower Level Great Room Design