This post is sponsored by Mohawk
Remember when I promised to show you my office? The photo above is a corner of my last office in our old house. Tomorrow I’ll be sharing an “after” progress report of my new office with the brand new flooring. Yahoo! This basement makeover has been a long time coming.
Homes evolve and ideas change—sometimes faster than I can keep up. Since moving, our vision for the way we’ll use the lower level and the new office has expanded. Today I’ll recap how our previous office looked before the renovation and explain why we needed more creative space so you can get the full picture.
If you’ve been visiting The Inspired Room for a while, you probably know I run my business from home. In case you’re new here: my business, The Inspired Room, began as this blog, but it has grown into much more. I’ve written five published books on the home (with more on the way), contribute articles to other sites, style rooms, photograph spaces, and collaborate with brands. I also lead a small but growing team for our recently launched home and wellness brand, Pure & Lovely.
My daughters are involved in the business and help keep things running, which I’m very grateful for. My middle daughter, in particular, has worked full time with me for the past few years. She’s a creative, motivated leader—just like her sister—and their involvement makes expanding the business possible.
As our projects and ambitions have grown, so has our need for dedicated creative space. In our old house we had a small office with an adjoining garage area used for storage and projects. Replacing the original carpet with hardwood made the office so much nicer to work in. That transformation inspired us to pursue a similar upgrade in our new home.
Once we settled into the new house, it became clear our plans would require more room than we’ve had before. We started considering more of the lower level as a potential hub for our growing “headquarters.” The first step was to carve out a dedicated office.
Here’s the space we started with:
The basement was a large open room—great for cartwheels, not so great for focused work. The old carpet had seen better days and the openness didn’t provide the quiet I need for concentration. I’m easily distracted by sounds and activity, and it’s important for my well-being to have a calm, beautiful workspace. With kids and pets around, finding a peaceful room to work in makes a big difference.
We decided the back corner left of the stairs was the best spot for a quieter, more beautiful office. A couple of new walls, a door, and fresh flooring would make the area functional while still preserving the openness of the rest of the lower level.
I was initially worried that partitioning the space would make the basement feel smaller or darker. To test the layout, we used tape on the floor to visualize the new room. The experiment showed that adding a dedicated office would actually make the entire lower level feel larger and more useful.
We loved the Mohawk flooring we used in our previous home and chose Mohawk again for this project. To match the style of the new house and the look we wanted for the lower level, we selected a laminate called Concertina in Smokey Chestnut.
When we revealed the new flooring in the family room portion of the basement, the warmth and transformation were immediate. The flooring changed the feel of the whole lower level and inspired new ideas for how we could use the space. Good flooring makes a room feel refreshed and sets the stage for everything that follows in a renovation.
Below are some progress photos that show how the space evolved from rough beginnings to a room that’s starting to come together. These snapshots capture the build-out and early flooring installation so you can see the incremental changes.
These are pretty rough progress shots, but it’s been exciting to watch the room take shape. The flooring was still in progress the last time I shared an update, but tomorrow I’ll post a full progress report with after photos of the new office flooring and share the next steps for expanding our creative space. I can’t wait to show you what’s next!