Featured Homes
Family Bonding
A Leawood couple shakes up, not stirs, their lifestyle with a basement finish in 007.
BY
Andrea Darr
PHOTOGRAPHY
Alistair Tutton











The theme is Bond. James Bond.

A spin on the megahit franchise has transformed a boring basement into a foundation of fun. This space is packed with all the telltale signs of a blockbuster movie set, but the car chases and explosions are reserved for the big screen — in the private theater room, of course. There’s no government conspiracy here, just a young family conspiring to have a good time.

After buying their award-winning, Tuscan-style home, built by Bryant-Ratliff Construction and styled by JoAnn Romano of Architectural Elements, the homeowners decided to finish their lower level in a unique way.

“When they contacted us to finish the basement with a really ‘cool’ design theme, it was a natural segway, because they are in the business of technology, to complete the basement with a Casino Royale or ‘James Bond at the Bellagio’ flair,” JoAnn says.

And just as easy as it is for Bond to pick up the ladies, it was for the group to conceive ideas. There would be moving parts, hidden messages and secret rooms.

The first space seen when coming down the stairs is a decked-out bar. LED lights behind chipped glass columns outline the base of the peninsula with a lit glass sink at the end. A custom glass tile floor mimics the shape of flowing water under retro-style bar stools. The wall behind the bar features a waterfall and glass shelves that hold stacked stemware. Wine reserves are stored on a nearby wall, or is that a door? Push just right and it opens to a fully hidden kitchen with pass-through cabinets for easy bussing. Entertainment isn’t far away, either, it’s just out of sight. A click of a button raises a flat-screen TV from behind the counter in front of a stainless steel backdrop, which, if inspected closely, shows the numbers “007” on its brushed surface.

Other hidden images are concealed on the ceiling of the “Think Tank,” a vibrant study and play space for the kids in the family. JoAnn painted scenes of space with an extra dimension visible only with the aid of blacklights. With the lights off, aliens appear!

The living room is more straightforward — in the way that what you see is what you get, but it, too, has special features. One is the Tureen fireplace, a modern Euro-styled design with a ceramic bowl and river rocks that spit out a flame. The other is a three-dimensional wave wall panel with a metallic finish. “It’s totally unconventional styling,” JoAnn notes. 

While the conversation area is made for relaxing, the next room requires one to enter with a poker face. The game room is serious business with custom poker and black jack tables like those found on casino floors. A fine art mural of a shark tank seals the “card shark” deal.

“Every Bond movie features a shark tank or a piranha tank,” JoAnn says. And guns, so a built-in bookshelf pulls out to reveal a hidden (painted) arsenal. And martinis, so a round martini bar revolves 360 degrees between the game room and theater room, maintaining complete access to bottles on the shelves or in the undercounter fridge. The other side is a “now showing” kiosk.

The theater room seats eight in a double row of fully reclinable leather seats. Movie-goers (or TV-watchers or game-players) can enjoy the 120-inch projection screen or reflect on the fiber-optic night sky with shooting stars and cycling colors or the fine art mural of Venice canals.

Just as Bond was a secret agent, the homeowners prefer to remain anonymous, but they love to share this space with family and friends. “We wanted to have the house that all the kids’ friends wanted to come over to,” one of them says.