Are you ready to FINALLY see how the tiny basement office my husband and I built turned out?

I know it’s been a while (oh um like a year), so I don’t blame you if you need a refresher. I’ll recap. You can add your own theme music in your head. Last season, on DIY in PDX…

Originally, this corner of our basement looked like this:

Minus the crowbar, and that cabinet on the floor was on the wall. I’m sure you can picture it.

This was Steven’s office space, and where we stored some random basement stuff like extra canning jars, etc. Here’s my first post on the project, if you want all of the dirty details.

The most important parts were that due to the pandemic, Steven was suddenly working from home almost all of the time, and this office wasn’t cutting it. Yes, it was cold and ugly, but the bigger problem was the laundry machine, dryer, and sink just out of frame on the right side. With the lack of walls, they were too loud and therefore unusable while Steven was on video calls (which was a lot).

So we decided to turn this end of the basement into a tiny office. Because it was Steven’s office, it was a collaboration. I suggested ideas, and we worked together to make them happen in a way we would both be happy with. Which means that I didn’t get to do everything quite exactly as I pictured. But we both love how the space turned out, and that’s all that really matters.

We built walls, resurfaced the concrete foundation walls, scraped off popcorn ceiling, painted, added moulding, leveled the floors, and added a pocket door. Mostly while Juniper napped, or while my mom watched her. It looked like this:

You can see more of the progress here.

And then I left you hanging. There were lots of tiny details to finish up, and I wanted a few small pieces of decor that I couldn’t decide on/were delayed. Plus, this space is very small and dark and thus ridiculously hard to photograph. But this office has been done and in use since at least last summer.

Let me take you on a tour. You walk down into our basement, past the ugly furnace, water heater, and laundry area (someday I’ll show you those, but not today), and come to a wall with a beautiful wood five-paneled door.

Why yes, it is a salvaged vintage wood door that we cut down and converted into a pocket door. And don’t miss the wood door casing that I constructed to go around those lovely electrical conduits.

Slide that pocket door open, and you walk though a portal into a luxury basement office with an “old-world-library-meets-film-nerd” vibe.

The popcorn ceiling is gone, the wall texture looks like plaster, and beneath that cozy rug is a nice smooth floor.

Since this is Steven’s office, he had final say on all of the art and decor. The art on this side of the room is vintage Japanese movie posters for Akira, Hausu (House), Fargo, and Blade Runner. This standing lamp was my idea, though. There’s no overhead light in here, so the room definitely needed a lamp with diffuse lighting. The dimmer-switch-controlled white frosted globes on this lamp were perfect for the space.

Steven wanted a leather Chesterfield couch in here, but I was afraid that it would be difficult to find the right size for the right price. I spied one on the Instagram of a local vintage store, though, and he went to take measurements. They said it was in a lawyer’s office for decades, so it was nicely broken-in and comfy, and seemed like it would be a perfect fit. When we got it delivered, though, we discovered that without removing the feet, it was impossible to fit it though the upstairs doors to the basement. And The. Feet. Would. Not. Come. Off. They weren’t screwed in place, just wedged, and after a ton of prying and malleting and wrangling, we FINALLY got them off. (This couch is never leaving this basement.)

See that burgundy/red pillow? I had to hem the curtain panels, so I used some of the extra fabric to sew that pillow. Waste not want not!

The other side of the room houses the workstation. Why yes, that is four screens, one of which belongs to a CRT TV. The art on the wall is framed Laserdisc sleeves, plus the rose cross-stitched piece done by Steven’s Grandma Eva. He kept the same vintage mid-century modern desk that he’s had for years.

And let’s not forget that cabinet I made to cover up the electrical box.

I love a good before-and-after, so here’s as close as I could get to the same view.

Before:

After:

Even though the electrical conduits are still there, I think they’re a lot less noticeable now that everything is painted the same color. And no more random spray foam on the walls!

The last thing I’ve thought about doing in this room is painting the vinyl window frame. The bright white window would look much better black. With the curtains closed most of the time though, it’s hard to get motivated to get around to it. Plus, painting vinyl windows is kind of iffy, so let’s be honest, I’ll probably just leave it until we want/need to replace the window.

Having this office has been a big upgrade for our lives. Steven told me that a lot of people on video calls have mentioned that if they didn’t know better, they’d think he was using a fake Zoom background. Which I’ll take as a compliment.

On this project we learned how to do all kinds of stuff we’d never done before, like build walls and hang drywall. I hope that your takeaway is that even if you’ve never done a particular home improvement project before, you can totally jump in and figure it out. If you’re scared, just read/watch as much as you can until you have it figured out. There are tons of resources online for how to do nearly anything you want. You’ll save a lot of money, and you won’t have to wait for contractors. And then you get to brag to anyone who will listen that you did it all yourself. 🙂

Sources

• Paint: Miller Paint “Delicious”
• Vintage door from Reclaim NW
• Door hardware: Vintage, and House of Antique Hardware
• Floor Lamp
• Rug
• Curtains
• Curtain rod brackets
• Round Pillow
• Embroidered pillow: Sewn by me
• Burgundy pillow: Sewn by me out of extra curtain fabric.
• Art: Vintage
• Blanket: Vintage
• Desk: Vintage