My sewing room is in e basement and we're midway through finishing it. We did insulation and drywall, and we painted a generic pale color we had on hand, but my plan is to paint it a Caribbean-type blue this winter and to add lots of lighting when we do the drop ceiling. We have a sliding glass door that let's in some sun, but the "patio" (aka cement slab! 😉
is covered, so most of the sun is blocked.
Happy paint and good lighting, and you won't even be able to tell it's a basement!