Ever since we moved into our house a few years ago, we’ve been trying to figure out what it is we really want to do with the basement. We’ve always known it was going to be our gaming space, but it sort of turned into the space where we shoved leftover furniture at one point.
A couple of weeks ago, we finally got the chance to try something new.
Because my work office was moving to a smaller space, they sent out a memo that they’d be giving away all kinds of office supplies—and even things like desks. We decided the time was right to change up our gaming setup, rented a truck, and set out on an adventure to find some new desks.
Our original setup
For years, we’ve kept our desks side by side. It’s something we first started doing in our little basement apartment, where we had limited options for how we could arrange things; it gave us a nice gamer central area that was separate enough from the rest of the apartment.
Over time, we grew to like that setup—I suspect because we felt a little like pro gamers, sitting in a row like an eSports team would.
When we bought our house, that stayed the status quo for our desks. As Sekan started getting into streaming, though, we found little ways that the arrangement didn’t quite work for us; I’d always have to cross over his camera to get to my desk, for example.
The plan
Though I work from home now, this was the same office I used to go into every day before the pandemic, so I was super familiar with the desks we were grabbing—their L shape, their total lack of proper cable management, and the same sort of orange-y oak colour I was so keen to deal with in our bedroom furniture.
I knew we weren’t going to be able to keep our same side-by-side setup with the new desks, mostly because the measurements just didn’t line up with what we had. We also had to consider where we were going to need the outlets to be, and how much of the room they were going to take up.
On top of that, we decided that since we were moving things anyway, we’d finally paint the basement walls like we’d been meaning to. An ambitious addition to the to-do list, but one we thought would be well worth it.
After much measuring and figuring, we came up with a simple plan:
- Get rid of the old desks and a shelf
- Paint the basement walls
- Move the couch
- Build the desks in a T shape so we were facing one another
A little extra work
I already knew when we got them home, I was going to want to do some work on mine, at least, so it didn’t just feel like I was at the office.
Luckily, I had some leftover paint and bonding primer from another project I did, so after a couple nights of making a mess in my kitchen, I have to say I’m pretty happy with the result.
The new setup is working better than we’d hoped, too. Now, I can make little faces at Sekan right through the gap in my monitors, and he has his own little office space for his stream that doesn’t get any background traffic.
It’s definitely turned into a nice oasis for us, and even Harley loves that she has much more den space under both our desks now!
YOUR TURN
