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Sunday, March 24, 2013

New Project: Basement Office Game Room

A while ago I blogged about turning an empty zone in our basement into a game/craft room but it was put on hold due to other priorities. I am thinking about it again and this time have decided to go through with it.

This is the space I referred to, a pretty good-sized 15' x 10' area. It's the zone outside of my husband's media room, a.k.a. his man cave.

I know I absolutely have to do something when I noticed the space had been turned into a warehouse of late, my wall of shame.

We think we are going to need an extra office so we've decided to turn the space into a basement office/game/craft room. Essentially this is going to be a very flexible and versatile space that will get a lot of use in the future. We would have cabinets run along the 15' wall, put a rectangular table in front of it for game nights or crafting. So here are the options along this long wall.

Option 1: 2 x desks, 1 x built-in bench, and upper wall cabinets. This option is symmetrical and may look the best.
Option 2: 1 x desk, 1 x built-in bench, and upper wall cabinets: we really don't need two desks down there, plus the desk on the right side is going to be too short for it to make any practical sense.

Option 3: similar to Option 2 with 1 x desk, 1 x built-in bench, but NO upper wall cabinets: we really don't need the extra storage from the upper cabinets, and they are usually not deep enough to store anything else but books. Also, our basement ceiling is not exactly that high (touching 8'), so adding wall-to-wall 30"-tall cabinets might be too overwhelming. What we can do though down the road, is to add some wall shelves.

Option 4: 1 x desk, NO built-in bench or upper wall cabinets: I also thought of this option in which we'd go with a very long 5-foot desk centered around the window, flanked by base cabinets. We can still add a long rectangular table in the front. However, this design would require a continuous 15'-long countertop. Assuming we were able to get it custom made, we still wouldn't be able to get it down to the basement (or through the window). We are also concerned that there's not enough support in the middle where the desk is and I don't want use any metal legs.

At the end of this exercise, it seems like we have a clear winner without having to compromise aesthetics or practicality. Could you guess which one we've decided to go with? Which option would you choose?