Getting the most out of your basement living space

Since his trip to the UK, Adam and I have been talking about him gradually transitioning away from teaching so that he can focus on his career as a musician. The idea has me excited for several reasons - Adam's happiness and career satisfaction being number one - but there's also the added bonus of being able to reclaim some space in our basement (hence, why I'm mentioning it here).

Adam currently uses the basement as his teaching studio, but if he starts teaching less, he could share the space with Hannah, whose toys are starting to overwhelm our small living room. And dining room. OK, pretty much the entire main floor.

Pinterest via Lay Baby Lay

In terms of changes, the first thing I'd like to do is paint the exposed ceiling a dark colour to better camouflage the various wires, pipes and ductwork that keep our house in working order. I'd also like to add the same trim to the tops of the walls that you see in Lay Baby Lay's playroom above. It's something we've actually always planned on doing, but just haven't got around to yet. The walls will either stay the same pale, minty-green colour they are now, or we'll paint them out to match the trim.

via flor.com

I'm also obsessed with the idea of using FLOR carpet tiles to create a wall-to-wall area rug. I want something bold, colourful and fun - like the pattern above - and the tiles are perfect for our oddly-shaped room. This drawing is in no way to scale, but it gives you a pretty good idea of what I'm envisioning (that grayed out area is a bump-out into the room, the two openings are doorways, and that weird box in the wall by the couch is supposed to represent a window).

I'd like to replace our current hand-me-down shelving with an EXPEDIT (now KALLAX), or something similar, for Hannah's toys and books. I'd also like to add a kid-sized table and chairs to the corner (where Adam's desk - formerly our dining room table - currently lives) for drawing. We already have pegboard storage on that wall, and I've spotted lots of clever ways to store crayons, markers, etc. on Pinterest.

Adam's drum set will move to the back corner of the room (there's an electronic drum set there now, which we'll return to its owner) and I really want to DIY a built-in desk in the other corner, pretty much exactly like this one by Keep Smiling:

Pinterest via Keep Smiling

The shelves will hold all of Adam's stuff - and keep it out of Hannah's reach! - and a new computer could double as a TV screen, and be easily viewed from the couch. I'm thinking either a small pull-out couch or a futon, since extra sleeping spots are always good. I think there's just enough space for an open play area in front of the couch, which could double as a spot for Adam to practice guitar.

We'll need to wait for Adam's teaching year to wrap-up before we can start painting, but I think it's going to be a great summer project!