The 2020 Basement Office

Back in the start of the pandemic when I was pregnant and my partner started working from home, I really needed motivation to get going on the office portion of our basement project.  Technically, it serves as the fourth bedroom in our house, and it's a really great space.  More on the start of this project here, and the first iteration of the big kids' bedroom is here.  

Currently, with the attic in shambles and our old storage now a bathroom... it's acting more as storage than much else.  My partner also prefers to work where the house action is, and even switched jobs to make that happen.  So, this room is flexible.  I'm going to bring it back to the 2020 One Room Challenge when I finished it as an office, and had it ready to go.  I used the One Room Challenge to really give me some extra motivation not to ignore this room while we were finishing the bedroom for the big kids to move downstairs.  Truth be told though: I still have to finish the closet, and might make a few more adjustments along the way.  

Wall Design

In both the kids' room and the office, I wanted to add wainscoting similar to the upstairs kitchen and bathroom.  The measuring it out meant meeting the proportions of the upstairs rooms, but not the measurements.  Luckily, when we did measure everything out, the width of the wallpaper was just about the height the upper walls should be.   So, instead of running the wallpaper in small vertical squares, we just ran it in one long line around the room.  The RoomMates Decor wallpaper pattern was then turned horizontally, which helped elongate the room and de-emphasize the low ceilings.  

Like the kids' room, we kept the ceiling and the upper walls the same, light wallpaper and added a tonal contrast to the wainscoting.  This time, we used Sherwin Williams Oakmoss (SW 6180), which gave us the deep, muted look we wanted in an office.  Then it was adding the plate rail-inspired picture ledge at the top of the the wainscoting and the rest of the trim.  

The Details

The rest of the room went together with different finishes that felt like an old, sophisticated work space.  I wanted all the Zoom Meetings to have the best background possible.  While the room itself was essentially brand-new, none of the things that filled it were.  The desk chair came from my grandma, and the comfortable cane chair came from a friend's grandma.  The Formica filing cabinets were free and painted white to match.

The desk came from my university.  My mom and I were snooping around some of the old buildings during a renovation, and all the furniture moving to new offices were labelled with their future locations.  This desk... had nothing!  So, I left a note in it that if it didn't have a home at the school, I'd give it one at my house.  It's a great desk!  Even if the inside of the second drawer smells like pickles. 

Future Planning

While this has been a great office, there are still things that are necessary to shift.  The biggest one is actually finishing the closet (does that count as a 95% project?).  I stalled out on this one knowing that the storage room that existed in 2020 would eventually become the basement bathroom, and the storage room door would be the perfect closet door in here.  So, now I just need to execute that change.  

I also currently have a daybed in the family room that will eventually be a guest room bed in here.  It has a trundle, so it can act as a twin or a king size bed.  Very nice for us!  Either way, we'll prep this to act as an office or another bedroom as our family needs continue to shift.  One great thing about what we've done with this house is keeping things flexible for what life throws at us.