Basement Office Plans

I know a lot of people are working virtually from home these days, but Matt has been telecommuting for more than decade. Because of the nature of his job and also the nature of our noisy household, he's spent most of those years working out of a bedroom at his parents' house. They spend most of their time in Florida, so it gave him a quiet, comfortable place to work.

When the pandemic started, though, he moved his office to our basement. It was mostly just to help me out intermittently with distance learning, but he also wanted to be out of the way whenever his parents came home to their house. And while it's worked out for the most part (though not without the occasional struggle), he doesn't love his work set up.

Our basement is about 70% finished - the other little bit is a laundry/utility/storage room. There's a finished, closed off room in one corner that used to be my craft room. I'm not as crafty as I once was - I like to embroider and I occasionally bust out my sewing machine as needed, but I don't really scrapbook or make much of anything else, anymore. It has mostly become a disorganized storage room, and it seems silly that we haven't take advantage of that space better.

And so, this is what I've come up with to turn that underutilized craft room into a home office.

There's a chance that he could still decide to move his office back to his parents' house in the near future, and that's mostly an option to explore because of what it would mean for our basement storage. Not sure where we will put everything that gets displaced from that room, so that's part of the plans.

My overall vision for him, though, is some good quality waterproof laminate flooring, a "zoom wall" painted Smokey Blue with a wood carved map displayed on it (he loves maps), and using the elements of travel and the outdoors to decorate.

One of my plans is to make a collage of sticky tiles out of photos we've taken on vacation over the years. He hates being stuck underground - cold, unaware of the weather - so I thought bringing some of the outdoors and memories of travel locations to his space would be helpful.

I'm hoping that other little upgrades (like replacing the cheap ceiling tiles with classier ones, upgrading outlet covers, and improving light fixtures) will make the room feel more cozy and inviting, too. 

So, anyway, nothing is set in stone yet, and we have multiple projects going in other areas of the house that need our attention first, but this is what I'm working on once all of that is taken care of. We're also hoping that designating an actual office space will increase the value of our home if we finally get the opportunity to sell. 

Any basement office tips I should know about?