Basement finishing in Ann Arbor: a working darkroom

Featured project. Ann Arbor, Michigan

A finished basement built around one working darkroom

Basement finishing in Ann Arbor usually starts with an empty floor. This one started with a drain tile system already installed, so the new walls had to come back in a particular order and sit above that floor without burying it. What went in above it is a rec room, a laundry room, and a darkroom plumbed for a photographer who prints his own work.

LocationAnn Arbor, Michigan

ProjectBasement finishing and darkroom

InvestmentAbout $102,000

Completed2026

Finished Ann Arbor basement with sage green walls, wide plank luxury vinyl flooring, a drop ceiling with LED flat panels and an open stairway — The stair opening was kept wide, so the lower level reads as part of the house.

The basement this Ann Arbor home started with

Before this was a renovation it was a water problem already solved. Drain tile had gone in around the inside of the foundation, and that work leaves a basement in a specific condition: perimeter open, slab cut and patched, and whatever stood against those walls out for good. Plenty of Ann Arbor homes of this era land here, with a dry basement nobody wants to sit in.

The space was doing what unfinished basements do. Work tables, shelving hung off the joists, a ceiling mounted air filter, carpet tile underfoot.

Long view of a finished basement rec room in Ann Arbor with a wrapped structural post, sage green walls and warm oak luxury vinyl plank floor — The structural post was wrapped and painted to match the wall, not boxed out in white.

Basement finishing in Ann Arbor, planned around one room

Most finished basements get laid out around a television. This one was laid out around a darkroom, which changes the order of every decision after it. A room where prints are washed needs a drain, supply lines, its own switching, and a door that closes against the rest of the floor.

So framing came first, with the plan already settled. New stud walls went up in the main room, the laundry area and the darkroom, with plywood fire blocking every eight feet along the exterior walls and ladder blocking tied into the existing joists. Marcus and Joe built it out, and the log for their last day reads simply that framing was complete.

Getting trades to arrive in the right order is the argument for design build over a contractor assembling bids. The plumber knew where that drain was going before the walls closed, the only moment that information is cheap. Our process page covers how the sequence gets set.

Finished basement room with two daylight windows, drywall returns at the openings, sage walls and a doorway through to a hallway — Drywall returns at every window, instead of trim.

Second finished basement room painted a pale grey green with a small window, two panel doors and LED flat panels in the drop ceiling — A paler grey green sets the back rooms apart.

A permit on the wall and inspections on the record

This job was permitted through Washtenaw County under approved plans, and the permit describes it plainly: finish the basement, no bedroom and no bathroom, add a room for photography and a laundry room. Rough frame passed at the end of June, insulation in the middle of July, and the final building inspection followed once the finishes were in.

That paragraph does more work than it looks like it does. Finishing a basement is among the most commonly unpermitted renovations in Washtenaw County, and the bill arrives late, when a house sells and somebody asks what the county has on file. Inspected framing and a signed off final are the difference between finished square footage and square footage you have to explain.

It also constrains the design honestly. No bedroom on the permit means the rules governing one never came into it. Weighing a bedroom instead? Start with what Michigan code asks for, since an egress window is usually its first line, and our guide to permits a Southeast Michigan project needs sorts out which jobs trigger which reviews.

Basement utility room with exposed joists, a block wall, a gas water heater, wire shelving, a stainless utility sink and a floor drain set into new vinyl plank — The utility room stayed unfinished on purpose. The floor drain shows in the plank.

The darkroom, and the sink that is not there yet

The darkroom is the pale room at the back, and what it holds is deliberately unglamorous. A recessed box carries the supply connections, and below it a capped stub and a shut off wait at the height a sink will sit. From there a new vented drain line runs to a tie in on the existing stack, sized for a wash sink rather than a hand basin.

No sink is installed, and that was the plan. He is supplying his own, so the work stopped at a rough in with everything capped. Better that than guessing: the room takes the basin he actually wants, and nothing has to be reopened to fit it.

One change order is the whole job in miniature. Partway through, he mentioned the supply box sat lower than the print table he works at. The connections were raised to meet the table and the drywall cut back and repaired, a small piece of carpentry bought late on purpose, because the man who stands at that table was there to say so.

Lighting followed the same logic. Rather than one fixture centred on the ceiling, the room got flat panels in the grid and switched ceiling outlets on either side, so a safelight hangs where the work happens. Planning light around a task instead of a room is most of what lighting design is.

Basement darkroom with pale grey walls, a recessed supply box raised high on the wall, a capped drain stub with a shut off valve below it and a door open to the hallway — The raised supply box, with the capped stub waiting below it.

Darkroom wall with three flush access panels, a recessed supply box and a capped plumbing stub below a drop ceiling with LED flat panels — Access panels where valves and cleanouts sit behind finished wall.

Basement stairway with luxury vinyl plank run over every tread, painted white risers and skirt board and a wood handrail — Nose molding at each tread, so the floor does not stop at the bottom step.

Floors, ceilings and the finishes that tie the level together

Wide plank luxury vinyl runs through every finished room, into the utility room, and up the stairs. That last part matters more than it sounds. A stair finished in something else is the seam where a lower level starts feeling like one, and running the same basement flooring over the treads removes it. Vinyl is the honest choice down here anyway, since it does not care what a Michigan basement carries in August.

Overhead is a drop grid, part new and part repaired. The main room already had grid worth keeping, so it was patched back rather than torn out, and new grid was run through the laundry area and darkroom to match.

Walls took Sherwin Williams Emerald, sage through the main room and a paler grey green behind. Baseboard, casing and interior doors went in around them, the trim and millwork that stops a framed basement reading as a framed basement. The laundry room picked up a box and a drain, and the utility sink was set and connected.

Two items rode along on the same contract from outside the basement: a garage window replaced and trimmed out, and the main floor carpet swapped for a low pile in a soft cream. Grouping small work with a large job is how small work gets done at all.

Main floor living area of an Ann Arbor home with new low pile cream carpet meeting dark hardwood at the entry and a leaded glass front door — Upstairs, new carpet meeting the existing hardwood at the entry.

How the lower level reads now

From the bottom of the stairs the floor runs unbroken into a sage green room with daylight at the far end, a wrapped post in the middle, and a ceiling that is lit rather than merely covered. Off the back sit two paler rooms and a door that closes on a darkroom, then a utility room left honest, block and joists showing.

None of it pretends to be an upstairs, and that is the part worth copying. A finished basement that admits what it is ages better than one dressed up as something else. A bedroom or a bath down there instead makes it a basement guest suite, a different set of rules and a different number. For a lower level that went the other way, toward a game room and a bar, see this Ypsilanti basement.

Have a look at the other featured projects, or tell us what you are planning.