Do you have a big, cold, wasted basement under your house? If you do, this is a great opportunity to turn that room into something exciting and in some cases even free up more room upstairs. Basement design ideas are as good as you want to make them. The more you use your imagination, the better ideas you will come up with. Here are 7 time tested basement ideas that can add to your home and make it an exciting place to live:

1. Basement Home Theater - Or maybe just a big TV room if you choose. With the proliferation of reasonably priced LCD flat screens now. this basement design idea is one of the most popular. If you turn your basement into a movie/TV room you can set up great speakers and have a great movie experience whenever you want. It may even save you money on movie tickets!

2. Basement Workout Room - More and more people are buying tread mills, weight sets, and elliptical machines and what better place to put them than in the basement. Do up the room nicely and you have yourself your own private gym!

3. Basement Workshop - If you have enough lighting and door space to get things in and out, a basement workshop might be right for you. Working in your basement in the cold winter months would be a lot nicer than in that cold garage.

4. Basement Bar / Entertainment Room - If you don't have enough space to entertain upstairs, you might consider moving the party downstairs. This is a great idea for some smaller houses. If you can put in a mini kitchen in the basement and some fun furniture you are ready to party!

5. Basement Office - Many people need to work at home in today's modern world and moving the office downstairs to the basement is a great idea to separate work from play. Making a basement office also frees up a bedroom or the den where the office was.

6. Basement Game Room - Put in a pool table or a ping pong table along with a big TV and you have yourself a game room for everyone to enjoy. Adding a pinball machine will really add to the ambience of the game room!

7. Guest Bedroom - Turn your basement into the guest bedroom and free up a room upstairs for yourself. This will work best if the basement has a bathroom and a shower of course.

These are just some of the basement ideas you can use to make your basement into a room that is used instead of one that just sits there empty.