The basement casino is open for business.

Breif history:

When we moved into the house, there was nothing down there. Just a big open box with the concrete foundation walls on all sides. Staircase coming down in the middle, furnace & water heater on one side, laundry washer & dryer on the other.

This last spring, I, with the help of my dear ol’ pop, put up drywall walls to create some rooms. Walled off a furnace room, and also a laundry room.

These photos were taken Sept 25, 2006.

I posted those, so you can see what has happened in a very short time span, considering it’s only been one mere mortal working on it.

So, without any further ado, chadd’s new basement casino:

Welcome to the k2 Lounge!

Bar

New Bottle shelves (added Nov 22 2006)

Beer Tap (added july 2007)

Blackjack table

Craps

Poker

Entertainment center

Home Theater PC (added march 2008)

Jukebox (added april 2008) [update: now with backlit display art]

Random shots

There’s still a lot to do. Need more art on the walls, need to add kegerator behind the bar [update: wall beer tap added], add a sink behind the bar, add a couple bookshelves, trim out the drywall, start/finish the downstairs bathroom in the laundry room. Should keep me occupied for a while.

In the meantime, it’s done enough to be usable, my own little piece of Vegas in my basement. And, after the first party we had down there last week, I think it will work out well. But, i think i might have to initiate taking a rake from the poker table, or else i’m going to have to send back that volcano for the front yard and the flamingos for the back.

Plus, I have this awesome layout that I want to display.

I used the standard poker table building technique, documented fully here, as the basic construction method for the blackjack table playing surface. Pretty much the same process as building a round poker table, except it’s just a half a table.

Used 2 sheets of 3/4″ pine CDX ply to cut the half circles. The table itself is a circle on a 36″ diameter, so it ends up being 6′ wide. There are spots on the layout for 6 people, but I think the original table this layout was on was a bit bigger than a 36″ diameter circle, and when they cut the felt off the table, the cut it a tad tight to be able to make it that big again (plus my basement is going to be a bit cramped with all this stuff down there), so that’s why I went with the idea to shrink it down a bit. Plus there were a couple cigarette burns that got folded over and hidden in the process of upholstering.

The chip tray was created by cutting a rectangle into both layers of the table before I added the layout. I didn’t really want to spend the bling to get a custom sized locking metal chip rack so i ripped apart one of my cheap aluminum poker chip cases and pulled the “chip rack” out of it and just set it in the newly created rectangle on my table. Trimmed out the inside of the rectangle with 1.5″ trim (still to be painted and brad nailed in) and there you go. perfect chip tray on the cheap. To “fancy it up” a tad, I put down a piece of scrap volera and covered it with a scrap of suited speed cloth for the bottom of the chip tray. Makes it nice and easy to pick up chips when they fall flat. plus, it looks kinda slick.

The base was made by cutting out a 24″ radius half circle, screwing a crapload of studs to it, 6″ on center, and then setting another 24″ radius half circle on top. Covered the base with 1/8″ hardboard. Used some t-nuts to put the playing top onto the base.

The rail is 3″ wide and padded with 1″ foam. I documented the process more in my poker table building post, and if you need even more help, read the padded rail maker’s bible.

I used a 1/4″ headliner foam as padding under the felt. Feels really nice. Not quite as squishy as the volera I used on the poker table, but works really well for this situation.

Here is the table with the base upholstered using black moleskin fabric and a layer of batting underneath. I’ll be using the same material for the bar that will sit next to the blackjack table.

There are just a few minor additions left to do on the table. Dealing shoe, discard tray, some trim behind the table. And I was thinking of adding a money drop slot, since the hole for one is already cut in the fabric from where the drop slot was located when the layout was used at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Other than that, it’s done. And it plays great. Now I just have to get it into the basement.