My sewing room is in the basement also and the rafters had been painted black.............YIKES!!!!! So I had them painted white......took a couple coats to cover the black, added shop lights going cross ways instead of the length of the room and painted the walls which were covered in chipboard a creamy yellow. I have only two small windows on the south side so not a lot of light coming in. I like the idea of making a attic window wall hanging but I have little wall space that hasn't been filled up with pegboard to hold all the threads and stuff we use in our hobbies.