Basement office
ltomera
9 years ago
We recently moved into a 1004 sq ft home with one bedroom and one bath. There was a small workroom in the basement we converted to a home office/ project room. Here are the results!
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PRODytecture
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Do you have a home office?
Comments (19)I work full time from home although I do travel to visit clients from time to time as required. The room I use was meant to be a dining room - though it is too small to be a proper dining room. It is only 9 feet by 17 feet and has 2 doors (kitchen and living room access) taking up valuable wall space. Luckily in my industry I don't need too much in the way of filing cabinets, so just 2 do the job. I have 2 desks in there plus a number of other basic office style cabinets I bought flat pack years ago. The room also has to house my tools (a lot) and I tend to keep my bicycles in there too, which I shouldn't as it makes it overcrowded. There is a store for the bicycles but it isn't convenient to use. If I have visitors then I either put the bicycles away in advance or we use the living room, which is more common. My wife works in an office and our son is grown up and not living here, so no clashes there. For most of my work I simply need a notebook on wifi and a mobile phone but the office has a couple of pcs, a multipurpose all in one colour laser printer and a shredder. The second desk is used as a work bench when working on stuff that needs testing and/or repairing. I deal in high tech small equipment. No stock is held, which is good for cash flow and for keeping security risks down. I love working from home due to convenience. I deal with companies all around the world so working from home means I can leave off and when I need to connect in real time to people the other side of the world I just walk back through into the office again and everything is there. To me that is better than having an office and then either having to go back there for a 10pm video call or have it from home and find the details I need are in the office. What I dislike is the lack of company. It can be lonely working from home. My wife works in a large company and they have all sorts of facilities for the staff. Gym, squash courts, room for health classes (yoga, Tai Chi, Chi Qong etc.), cafeteria and so on. They also have all sorts of clubs and other team activities. I miss that side of office life, but then not many get to work in such large office communities. The setup works for me but I don't think working at home would suit everyone. You have to know yourself quite well before making the change....See MoreBasement Conversion
Comments (12)Well we did the same thing but on a smaller scale as the space was kind of already in place although we had it tanked. We used a non RIBA architect who was recommended by someone who's in the trade, would never do that again and we didn't carry out checks due to recommendation... We've got windows in our basement below street level but I really regret not excavating one of them with garden access. If you don't have windows then I agree with Jonathan plus also think about fire exit. We also had to dig up our patio to get our sofa in so think about the staircase!! Given the size you may also want 2 staircases? Ours is split into a utility room with small store cupboards (room was already there when we moved in), then we have a large room with 3 areas with a pool table, tv and sofa, then a bar with table and seats etc. It works brilliantly as a party space for all ages plus somewhere for my husband to watch sport at weekends and everyone raves about it tbh. We also have an old corridor that we hope to convert if we have the money at some point to a wine cellar (not quite sure how the wine is being funded either!!). We did consider a gym space and decided against it although my husband now wants one a year on! If you have sufficient space upstairs for living and sleeping I agree with Jonathans suggestions which are similar to what we have which I think work brilliantly for a basement. Costs went over budget by at least 25% so blew my contingency! I also made the decision to have radiators run off electricity rather than extend the central heating, not the best decision and in the end not financially either! The work also caused a huge amount of dust/dirt. I think typically you would start a house refurb from the top down (?) but not sure if you'd also do that if you have a basement although it depends if you excavate obviously....See MoreHome Office Renovation Project
Comments (6)I think that since it is a start up company - it should be modern but fun and creative and because it is a basement space it would be good to use white furniture with a splash of colours. Lots of plants no homey feeling would help to maintain wellbeing of the staff. Ikea has some impressive comfortable office furniture much cheaper than big office furniture companies. http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/ikea-business/team-project-today-write-up-tomorrow-1364315914684/ http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/ikea-business/designed-for-focus-and-function-1364308449929/...See MoreBasement escape from lightwell
Comments (3)Presumably the basic problem is that the stairs from the basement storey exit via the kitchen and if a fire broke out in the kitchen the means of escape from the basement would be completely cut off and anyone in the Basement would be trapped. Its not really just a building regs issue - its a genuine safety concern. Pretty sure most house fires break out in the kitchen. If the stairs exited straight to the entrance hallway you would not need the alternative exit via the front lightwell. Building Regulations Approved Document Part B Volume 1 is the relevant legislation. You can access it online. I have never heard of a ladder being acceptable - what if you were disabled? The only alternative that you have is to make the main stair safe; either by building a wall between it and the kitchen, or there may be an option to look at a fire suppression system such as sprinklers/misting to create a safe route out. I think if it were my house I would put the stairs to the basement underneath the stairs up to the first floor and swap the WC on the Ground Floor and the Utility in the Basement with the current stair location. By the way the double sliding doors on the Ground Floor ought to be FD30 - 30 min fire doors. They are hard to find, but I know SELO make them: https://www.selo-uk.com/products/pocket-sliding-door-systems/...See More
Lucy Comstock
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bchboy6
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A Lean
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Christine Amey
9 years agoFrancine Allaire
9 years agoltomera
9 years agoThank you for all the comments, surprisingly the basement is very dry! We do have a humidifier for the summer in the laundry area. We installed a radon system and the fan keeps the air moving under the concrete. Carpet tiles would be a good addition, that way the chairs don't get hung up on an area rug. This is a multipurpose project room- sewing, bills, photography, painting! I want to be able to sweep up the floor easily!
Here are photos from the rest of the basement. The egress window was recently installed and needs to be framed out. A TV will sit on top of the black, six drawer dresser. We can't afford to "finish" finish the basement so we went with the "unfinished" finished basement look! We have three grown children who visit occasionally and now we can sleep five down here. Upstairs there's only 1000 finished square feet.you also be adding a couple of radiators this summer.
ltomera
9 years agoltomera
9 years agoltomera
9 years agoThese were the photos I used for inspiration- I forgot to mention a bathroom will be added down here well and I really like the one in this photo! One thing I really really like are the light filtering shades on the basement windows. I think they look simple and classic and are easy to open and close. One will be added to the egress window when it is finished. We have a long honey-do list.
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