Considering the strong trend towards working from home this year, many homeowners have been searching for at-home alternatives to the traditional office. However, between children, pets, and daily household chores, there are many opportunities for distractions to steal your attention away from working while at home.

This is why we have seen an increasing number of WFH’ers creatively transforming quieter areas of their home into designated workspaces. One of the most popular and practical solutions is building a basement office.

Downstairs and away from the daily functions of a family home, the basement office is the perfect answer to working from home. Here are five of our top tips for building your dream basement office.

Choosing the Perfect Spot

The primary intention of setting up a basement office is to isolate yourself from distractions. Naturally, you should look for a space in your basement that avoids high-traffic areas.

If you have the space, a separate room in your basement with a fully-functioning door is an ideal spot. However, if your basement is largely open-concept, look for a quiet corner away from staircases and entranceways.

Installing Sound Insulation

Minimizing distractions throughout your workday is crucial for productivity. Ensuring your basement office is as sound-proof as possible is key to maintaining a peacefully productive atmosphere.

Solutions like sound dampening insulation for your basement’s common walls, ceiling, and ceiling joists reduce sound pollution from outside your home office. Easy-to-install acoustic panels are also valuable for interior noise control, as they avoid your own voice on phone calls and video meetings sounding echoed and tinny.

Lighting Matters

As basements are generally one of the darkest places in a home, ensuring your basement office is equipped with ample light is important for both your productivity and health.

Look to position your home office close to any upper windows in your basement to capitalize on the natural lighting available — it will help you fight fatigue and long-term eye strain and will make you appear more natural on video calls.

Supplement natural light in your basement office with dimmable, preferably recessed, artificial lighting. To reduce potential glare on your computer screen, consider anti-glare screen attachments for optimal focus.

Finding Functional Furniture

Investing in a comfortable, ergonomically-designed desk chair is essential to reducing the number of ill-effects that sitting — especially with poor posture — can have on your health. Consider installing a standing desk in your office, allowing you to alternate between sitting and standing over the course of your day, alleviating back pain and muscle soreness while increasing blood flow.

Plan Your Backdrop

Even though you may not work in a frequently client-facing role, it’s always a good idea to plan for the possibility of needing to take video calls or meetings. Even while working from home, you need to be able to look professional when the situation arises, and that goes beyond just combing your hair.

Having a clean, simple backdrop to sit in front of while on video meetings goes a long way towards appearing professional and trustworthy. You don’t want to have a load of laundry or a myriad of children’s toys behind you when talking to clients or coworkers.

Use a neutral color for your backdrop, then liven it up with subtle yet visually appealing details to add personality, such as plants, tasteful art pieces, or a few relevant books.

Are you finding life Working From Home a little cramped? Your ideal home — and home office — is out there, let us help you find it. Contact us today to start your search, then check out our search all listings page to get a sense of what’s already on the market.