Is there an interior designer in the house?

[Toonces]

Long shot, I know, but we Grogs are an eclectic bunch.

[Barthheart]

What are you looking for? Painting or renos? Drapes or furniture?

[Toonces]

The house I bought has a "flex room" that's 20x13 feet.  Right now it's being used as a workshop; plywood floor and a rather rough looking ceiling.  This room has to serve as a home office as well as a guest room and family room...basically a man cave that I'll be more or less evicted from when family or Mirth visits.

It's essentially a blank slate, so I'm trying to get ideas what to do with the room so it will look classy. 

I know this isn't much help, but I'm looking at pictures online and I don't even know where to start.

[Toonces]

This is the only picture I have of the room.

[Jarhead0331]

WTF? You've got some impressive shop tools. Do you make furniture, or your own surfboards too?

[Barthheart]

I'm not an interior designer by trade but I've done most of the space deign in my own home, including finishing my basement. Star is probably your reno guy more that me but I can usually come up with space layout designs.

20 x13 is a large space. I guessing it's ground floor as I don't think your new local has basements. Many windows?

You mentioned office space, family room, and guest room. What furniture do you want in the office space? Just a small computer desk and chair or more? Family room - large screen, stereo, couches chairs?Can guest sleep on pull out beds? What kind of lighting do you want - gaming clarity, theatre quality, both?

Once you start listing what you think you want/need you can usually come up with a plan fairly quickly. How are you with visualization? Can you hold a paint swatch and picture the whole room that colour? Can you visualize different piece of furniture in different spots?

I've also found that inexpensive home design software helps a lot. I use Chief Architect Home Designer Interiors software. Fairly cheap and lots of tools to use.

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/home-designer-interiors/

[Barthheart]

This is the only picture I have of the room.

That's a great space.

[bbmike]

+1! Yeah, you wouldn’t want mirth in there. 

[DoctorQuest]

He could just sleep on the table saw.

[mirth]

It wouldn't be the worst place I've slept.

[Toonces]

LOL.  That's not my stuff; that's the current owner's stuff.  I'm still in beautiful Rhode Island.   

Barth, this is what my man cave/basement looks like in my current house.  The futon couch has to go into the new room as that's the guest bed; it folds out into a queen-size bed.  For now we're keeping the monster TV, although that might go once we get to our new house and figure everything out.  The bookcases are cheap Walmart pressboard crap, and while I'm taking them for now, one of the things I want to do badly is to get some nice, real bookcases so I can get all my books out of boxes and onto shelves.  I probably have two more full bookcases worth of books that are simply in boxes at this point.

The elliptical is gone.

The Obutto is a tough one.  I plan to take it, and perhaps keep it in the new room.  Ideally I'd like to move it into the garage because it pretty much clashes with everything.

The desk is gone and will be replaced.

So basically I have to keep the futon couch for now, the TV for now, and the rest is to be replaced.  I good reading chair, and matching desk and bookcases are budgeted for.  I'd really love to even set up a miniature library-themed room maybe...I'm just having trouble envisioning it.

We're going to be doing the rest of the house in a beach theme, which doesn't mean this room has to match the rest of the house, but it probably shouldn't clash too badly.

I guess now you see the scope of my problem; I have no idea what I really want.

[Sir Slash]

Need an Interior Decorator? I'll send my wife right over. 

[Toonces]

To answer the rest of your questions: I can't remember if there are windows on the front of the room beyond what you see.  The door and windows you see open to the backyard, the door leads to the garage, through which you have to traverse to get to the house (or go around the backyard).

The house is mostly hardwood with some cream-colored area rugs.  I'm thinking to put hardwood down in the flex room, but I could go with carpet.  The ceiling throws me.  The interior of the house has wood beams on the ceiling that look awesome.  I like the idea of that wood ceiling in the new room, but I think a better option might be to just sheetrock it over.  Then what kind of lights?  Recessed?  Hanging?  Obviously the big shop lights have to go.  I'd prefer something optimized for an office/living room than for gaming. 

[Toonces]

I hate that futon couch, but it was really expensive, and I can't afford to replace it just now.  I'd love to get a murphy bed for the room, but that's just going to have to wait for the future.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this is of any use, but you see why I'm asking.  Again, I'm not even sure where to start.  This is the first time I've ever had the opportunity to actually finish a room in my way, and I'm at a loss.

[Barthheart]

Flooring: I'd definitely go with some kind of wood not carpeting. Yer in the tropics now and not worried about the cold. Even laminate flooring, which is easy to install and usually cheaper than real hardwood, would do you well. Get the thicker laminate as it lasts longer and looks nicer and has much less of a hallow sound to it. There are some great products out now that even look like real hardwood with fake groves between boards. Did my wife's office with that and it's hard to ell it's laminate unless you get up close.

Ceiling: That's a tough ceiling to work with. You don't want to add too much to it as you'll lose a lot of head room. Simple drywall, sheet rock to you, would be the best bet. Then you can put low voltage LED pot lights in. They take up very little space and won't over heat your space.

With a 20x13 space think of it a two 10 x 13 spaces in open concept. Divide the room with the couch/futon facing the TV on an end wall. Put your desk at a window and then run bookcases around the other end wall, the one with the door to the garage. In 10x 13 you can have a desk and chair and a separate reading chair with a dedicated reading light on a pole behind it. Ikea book cases are not expensive and sturdy. I've been using them for game a book storage for about 20-25years now.