Tag Archives | Ideas

Bedroom Office Ideas, Tips, and Designs

It’s not the best place in the house to have as an office space, because the work clutter can make the bedroom a bit of a stressful place (which can disrupt sleep). But here are a few quick tips and ideas for turning a bedroom into an office and making it a great working and sleeping area.

Top Bedroom Office Ideas and Design Tips

Fitting a Desk: You don’t really need to have much space in the bedroom to fit in a home office. A tiny, well organized desk up against the wall will do for most people as seen in picture (1). You can even combine the home office with existing bedroom furniture – like using a dresser that has a pull out or pull down tabletop (2). Or if you have more space in the bedroom, arrange the desk to face outwards so you’re not looking at a wall just like in pictures (3 – fitting a mirror makes the space feel larger) and (4).

Covering Up: Being able to close off the office space when it is not in use would be ideal. This can be done with curtains, screens, or placing book shelves in between the office space and the bed area.

Another idea is to fit the home office between closets (5), or inside a closet (6). This is a great space saver for smaller rooms. Have a look at our post for designs and ideas on fitting an office in a closet (aka a cloffice) anywhere in the house – Creating a Workspace At Home: Closet Office Ideas.

Storage: You’ll want to keep everything contained to one location as much as possible – so that you can also enjoy the room as a relaxing bedroom, and not just a work space. The wall above the desk can be made for great storage – by hanging wall shelves (7) or peg boards (8). A closet can be used to store work items, and the inside of the doors can have calendars, white boards, and pegboards fitted. In picture (9) a bench doubles as a filing cabinet, and hides all of the paper work when not in use.

Lighting: To make it a comfortable work space you’ll want to have a good amount of lighting. Setting up the desk by the window is a great idea as you’ll have tons of natural lighting during the day (10). Table lamps or having a track light fitted to the ceiling (one that can have the lights angled to different parts of the bedroom) work well during the night. 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10

Here are some more home office posts to get ideas from:

March 6, 2013 in Bedroom, Home Office

Ideas For Turning a Basement Space Into A Home Office

(1) The first thing to decide when creating a home office in the basement is how much space you want it to take up. If you have a large basement you could create a separate room for the home office, and the rest of the basement can be used as a family room, gym, entertainment room, etc. One way to close off the office is to build walls, but a simpler way would be to hang up curtains. Or if space is limited, how about creating a closet office (Creating a Workspace At Home: Closet Office Ideas)?

(2) Storage is one of the key things to plan out with a home office. Popular ideas are to use either floating wall shelves or free standing book cases, or have cabinets built in. (3) & (4) Then there is the desk itself. The easiest way to go about this is to buy a free standing desk. Or you can go down the custom building route and have a desk built into the office space (kitchen countertops are a good choice).

(5) This new desk space will need a good amount of lighting to make it a comfortable working area. Recessed ceiling lights or hanging pendant lights would be an ideal choice, along with table and floor lamps (Design Guide: Basement Lighting Ideas and Options). To get some daylight, the basement office space would need to be placed near any windows. If you are remodeling the basement and tailoring it to a home office, remember to place electrical outlets in convenient locations.

Other unique decor and basement office ideas to consider: Picture (6) shows a wall covered with chalkboard paint. (7) Other wall decor ideas include hanging up maps, putting up a photo frame layout, or a painted or textured wall (Decorating Basement Walls: Ideas from Stamped Concrete to Chalkboard Paint) (A Palette Guide To Basement Paint Colors).

(8) How about using the space under the stairs to create an office nook. 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8

February 7, 2013 in Basement, Home Office

Luxury Basement Interior Designs

What are the elements that makes up a luxury basement design? 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8

The amount of space they take up (the larger the better)
Great lighting (lighting can transform an ordinary space into a designer one – check out our post here (Design Guide: Basement Lighting Ideas and Options)
A basement that is not closed off from the rest of the house like the one in photo (5)
Special modern features like a bar, a swimming pool (or windows looking into an outdoor pool (pictured here)), a home theater, a virtual golf course, a gym, a kitchen, or a wine cellar (3 Ideas for Basement Wine Cellar Designs).

February 7, 2013 in Basement

Designs and Ideas For a Basement Home Theater

Designing The Space

Are you going to go all out and get a projector (picture (1))or go with a large flat screen and have more of an entertainment room as seen in picture (2)? If you go with a projector, and you have the space, then it would be ideal to close off the basement home theater and soundproof the walls (3).

Creating the Mood

If the theater is going to be in an enclosed room, then you’d want to have it in an area that doesn’t have any windows as the light would wash out the image. Blackout curtains would be a way of blocking off any windows. When it comes to lighting, wall lights make a space feel grand and would feel right at home in a basement theater setting (4) – as well as cove lighting (Design Guide: Basement Lighting Ideas and Options). A dimmer switch hooked up to the ceiling lights would let you control the level of lighting in the room. Or how about installing a fiber optic constellation ceiling (5).

Seating Choices

When it comes to seating choices there is the traditional theater seating arrangement (rows of recliner chairs) or there are more informal ideas like having a pit or a cushion mountain (6).

Going All Out

(7) Ideas for special touches include having a popcorn stand or movie memorabilia decorating the walls. 1/2/3/4/5/6/7