After: Fortunately, the half wall was in the perfect spot to serve as the bar the homeowners had on their wish list. The first selection they made was the beautiful live-edge piece of walnut that serves as its counter.

“Once I saw the counter installed, I knew we could not leave the bar’s base as drywall because it looked so unfinished,” Bagley Catlin says. “So I suggested we wrap it in fluted walnut paneling.” Local company Blacksheep Woodwork crafted both the walnut counter and paneling.

Shop for a sofa

After: That window allowed Bagley Catlin to go dark in the bar area without turning it into a black hole. The cabinetry is rift-sawn white oak with a dark stain. The upper cabinets have ribbed glass doors. “This texture subtly distorts what’s behind the glass,” Bagley Catlin says.

Blacksheep Woodwork also crafted the bar’s live-edge walnut shelves and routed channels in the bottoms of them for LED rope lights. The lights wash down the backsplash wall and illuminate the countertop.

Find a local carpenter on Houzz

“The green tile is everything,” the designer says. The backsplash tile is ceramic with a crackle finish. “Installing crackle tile can be more labor-intensive. Because it can be porous, it needs to be sealed before it’s installed,” Bagley Catlin says. “The finish almost looks like it has waves in it, and it looks aged. There is a longer lead time on this tile because it is custom-made to order.”

This countertop is a durable quartz from Pental. Its gray coloring takes a back seat to the star of the room, the green backsplash tile.

Backsplash tile: Eliot Brazil crackle tile, Encore Ceramics

The flooring is composed of luxury vinyl planks. This is a good choice for a basement and has a hardwood look. The leather bar stools add a rugged Colorado touch.

Flooring: Prominence Plus Ash Oak, Shaw Floors

Browse bar and counter stools in the Houzz Shop

In the family room, custom built-ins were important and worth the investment. The carpenter included easy access to the water shutoff. The TV swings out to reveal it. A mix of closed and open storage in the built-ins allows for display up top, with room for things like games and extra blankets below. “This couple loves to travel and they lived in Japan for a while, so they wanted places to display things they’ve collected from around the world,” Bagley Catlin says.

“The green color and the dark cabinets on the bar side across the room are so intense that I knew we needed a color punch on the built-in wall,” she says. Sherwin-Williams’ Still Water anchors this side of the room in a deep blue.

Wall color: Natural Tan, Sherwin-Williams; trim color: Simply White, Benjamin Moore