A Dream DIY Office Studio: The Plans + Before

Sharing the plans for my bright and modern basement office studio full of hard working storage (plus all the before photos!).

Time for another design board! Yes, yes… I do have a few out in the world that I haven’t made reality yet. Yes, yes… we are working on another space anyways. And you guys, I’m SO darn excited about it. Since I started this blog 6+ years ago, I’ve been working from the kitchen table or counter, a desk in the baby’s room, a desk in the tv room or in our living room… I’ve worked on the patio during our renovation when there was no seating inside and from the bed when it was too cold for the patio and as I write this, I’m in what we thought would be our guest bedroom because those plans you see up there are underway! There was a very brief period of a couple months when our baby room (storage room) got organized enough to give me a makeshift office at our last place… but then we had the baby… and then another one. When we bought this house last summer, there was an unfinished storage room under our kitchen and we’re in the process of finishing the space so it can be my office studio!

It’s a long narrow space with a cased opening separating it into two rooms. So we’re making one half into a studio style space and one half into a more office style space and ohmygoodness I just can’t wait! 

Let’s take a look at what it looked like before we started demo, shall we?

This is what is going to become the studio space. The photo is taken from the cased opening and that window right there is becoming french doors so the kids can play in the backyard and I can work in the summer time. It’s a total dream picture and I’m sure in reality there will be much more screaming and wrestling coming through those doors than I imagine.

Since this is essentially a utility room, there’s going to be some random cupboard doors in the wall to give access to things like the sprinkler system, hot water shut off and fireplace clean out… but there will be drywall instead of pegboard and real insulation in those walls (woohoo!). This part of the room was rearranged this spring to make it an interim office for me so I’ve been working in this space, freezing my butt off (even in the summer) for quite a while. 

Part two of the space! This is the office part of the room. The furnace is directly to my left in this photo and the cased opening is right in front of it. The photo is taken from what will be the new utility room with the furnace and alllll that paint and tools. This makes the office side of things a little more narrow. We’ll be building a wall to wall desk to keep things tight under the window so it doesn’t feel cramped. I also made a last minute decision to put in a sink so I have a place to wash out paint brushes!

I feel like it seems bigger in these photos than it is (probably because of all the stuff in there- ha!) but the plan is to keep everything light and airy and neutral so that it doesn’t feel cramped or like a dark corner of the basement. To do this- we’ve partnered with my fave, The Home Depot Canada to make this dream space come to life. We’re painting the walls a beautiful bright white called ‘Bit of Sugar’ from Behr and the floors will be a vinyl for warmth and easy cleaning in a light grey woodtone. The one we chose is called Sterling Oak from LifeProof and it’s going down this evening!

Since it’s a bit of an awkwardly shaped space, we’re going to make every bit of it work hard. We’re keeping what would be the closet space open and moving our old dresser in there with open shelving above. Pegboard storage will go on one or more of the walls to hold tools I use all the time and we’ll be building out some custom storage. The wall to wall desk will have a storage cabinet separating two work spaces and I’ll also be building some rolling storage for my Cricut, so I can pull it out to use as often as I need. In the studio space, I need room to set up my camera so am keeping it pretty minimal but still packing lots of storage… just hiding it! We’re building a rolling craft table that has storage in the base and then around the cased opening (this is the project that most excites me/ stresses me out) we’re building built in shelving with a rolling barn door overtop to hide it. In my mind it’s stunning but I’m still working on logistics!

Other than the white and the grey? I’m hoping to add some texture to the space. Live edge wood tables, lots of plants, hopefully a beautiful rug (I’ve ordered the one in the design board!) and I am going to do a faux brick texture wallpaper on the wall that I’ll be recording against. Over the desk in the other side of the room, I’ll be hanging these beautiful sconces for a bit of decor without the clutter. The opposite wall will be filled with open shelving and supplies so it will be nice to have a clean surface to look at while working!

It’s a LOT of projects to finish and we’re hoping to get it done in the next few weeks. If you’re looking for me… I’ll be in my basement building, flooring, painting and more! I can’t wait to have this home office to put to work and leave my crafting mess out without leaving my family with nowhere to eat dinner. It’s going to be a dream, you guys! BIG thank you to The Home Depot Canada for partnering on this project- I’m so excited to bring it to life!

SOURCES FROM THE OFFICE STUDIO DESIGN BOARD:

• Wall Paint- Bit of Sugar from Behr, Furniture paint (green) Dusty Laurel from Behr
• Wall Paper- Graham and Brown from The Home Depot Canada
• Flooring- Life Proof Sterling Oak from The Home Depot Canada
• Rug-  Home Decorators Collection from The Home Depot Canada
• Chair- Wayfair
• Live Edge Desk + Table (DIY to come!)
• That chunky pull- Richelieu from The Home Depot Canada
• Light- Globe Electric from The Home Depot Canada