Basement Renovation: Office / Craft Room – The Plan

ByChristine @ theDIYdreamer

As I mentioned last week Sébastien and I are finally going to start renovating our basement! Yay! You can read about it here: Basement Renovation – Where to Start. We can’t wait to get started, it’s going to be a fun project. However, before we can get started, we need to plan the renovation.

Basement Renovation: Office and Craft Room - The Plan

We’ve always wanted an office / craft room and figured this space would be ideal for that purpose. Before we can start the process, we decided it would be best to make a list of things we need to do.

Basement Renovation: Office / Craft Room – The Plan

– Remove everything from the space. (Which we have already started to do.)
– Remove the shelving that was installed by the previous owners.
– Remove the very old drywall.
– Clean up (vacuum everything including the spider webs. hehe)
– Replace the two windows with new ones. (We ordered the new windows yesterday, we should get them within 3 weeks.)
– Apply a Basement & Masonry Waterproofer on the concrete wall.
– Add power outlets to the space. (We have 0 plugs in this room, we want to add 6.)
– Add more lighting.
– Install DRIcore Subfloor.
– Install DRIcore SMARTWALL on concrete walls.
– Install Drywall on the rest of the walls.
– Work on the ceiling??

We’re not quite sure what we should do with the ceiling. Should we finish it with drywall or ceiling tiles? And we are thinking we may need to wait to to do it. Our upstairs bathroom (which is half taken apart, for renovation) is right above this space. We want to replace the bathtub and the plumbing, so if we finish the ceiling completely we will have to take it apart to finish the bathroom upstairs. What would you do? Would you leave it completely as is or would you partly finish the ceiling into the upstairs bathroom is finished?

Then we have another issue with the toilet/shower in the basement. The previous owner framed the wall behind them, however if we put up a wall over the framing, we no longer have access to the main water line. We are going to have to get creative with the wall. Perhaps we could put in a sliding door/wall so that we have access to everything until that bathroom is fixed up too?! Or put a curtain up? Or maybe we can make a closet leaving the back of it open to give us access, however I don’t want to lose space either.

As you can see, we have some work ahead of us. But it will be totally worth it! So, what I need from you…
Should we finish the ceiling right away or should we wait until the upstairs bathroom is finished?
What type of ceiling? Drywall or ceiling tiles?
And what would you do about the wall access to the water line?

Have a GREAT one!
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14 Comments

  2. Leave the ceiling until the bathroom is finished. Do put some kind of access to the main waterline. NEVER block access to things you are going to need at some point. We had a bad time last winter getting access to the water heater because the re-modelers tiled up to the door and then the floor was too high to easily open the door. Had to have a family member with a saw-all cut the bottom off.

  3. Wow, what a project! We have a basement that isn’t being used for anything but (messy) storage – I would love to utilize the space we have done there but not sure where to begin. Looking forward to following along.

  4. I prefer a drywall ceiling, finished with pot lights. However it usually depends on your piping and duct work, doesn’t it? Half our basement is dry wall and half are tiles. The tiles are where the duct work is, which makes it easier for utility workers (like my hubby) to work with when the time comes.

    I would do the bathroom first :)

  5. I agree with Leah. Do the upstairs bathroom then do the ceiling. Bathrooms can be messy chaos when you need to renovate. I remember someone we hired at our old house overflowing something as he was renovating the upstairs shower. That could have been a super crappy mess. This dri core product sounds like a great time saver.

  9. woo hoo! exciting stuff! i would either dry wall the ceiling, or, if you are going to wait to so something with it, get a paint sprayer and paint it black in the interim.

    as for the main, you could always add a cabinet door to the wall to give access, make it look a little fancier. its still kinda funny looking, but you don’t want to cover up stuff you need access to.

    Can’t wait to see what you have in store!

  10. Hey Christine!

    Perhaps finish the upstairs bathroom first? It’s probably best to tackle one project at a time and especially since the bathroom is already on the go upstairs.

    If you really want to do the basement finishing first, think about a ceiling tile system so you can access to your utilities in the future. Traditional ceiling tiles are not that attractive but consider new systems like Snap Clip Ceiling Systems which is easy to install and gives you that coffered ceiling look. http://www.snapclipsystem.com/

    You definitely need to maintain access to that line. But you can be totally creative in how you cover it up! If it’s a big section of wall, you can always try a sliding barn door like this example here: http://rusticahardware.com/barn-doors/

    Good luck and we can’t wait to see how your project comes along!

  14. Having a clear-cut plan before starting out any renovation is surely an important thing to do. You can not only save your time but as well as your money too. It is also important to know what or where does it need to be started. In this context, the bathroom should be done first before doing the ceiling. As for whether it should be drywall or ceiling tiles, this should be based on the piping or duct work.

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