Your house is, first and foremost, a home. It’s a place where you live, laugh and love in comfort and security while you make memories with your family. It’s also, however, an investment and as such the savvy homeowner is constantly looking for new ways to guarantee as sizeable a return on their investment as possible. But before you start tearing out your kitchen and bathroom suite to make expensive repairs, perhaps you should turn your attention to those underused and oft neglected areas of the home.

Those poor, undervalued areas that are all too often relegated to storage space. The humble basement is a prime example. Why waste valuable space on the storage of stuff that you most likely don’t need anyway? Here are some basement transformation ideas that could turn your neglected space into a USP and add value to your home.

Guest Suite

Converting your basement space into a luxurious guest suite is one of the (potentially) simplest ways of repairing your basement and transforming it into a functional living space. The beauty of the guest suite is you can upscale according to your budget and convert the space into something that’s charmingly spartan and minimalist or something a little more luxurious with hardwood panelled walls and a roaring fireplace. Basements are often regarded as cold and dank spaces, so in lieu of natural light you’ll need to play with your lighting and the tone and colors of your decor to create a sense of light, space and warmth to counteract the inherent limitations of converting a basement.  

Home Theater

Most of us enjoy a little time to ourselves to immerse ourselves in the escapism of the movies. Unfortunately, this is a simple pleasure that our busy lifestyles rarely afford us. Watching a movie on the sofa is to constantly face distraction from the kids, your personal devices and the plethora of household tasks that you can’t help noticing. If you want a dedicated space to watch movies, your basement could be transformed into your very own home theater. A basement lends itself well to the acoustic damping that needs to be created to replicate that movie theater sound, and there are many ways in which you can shape the space to create your ultimate home entertainment room.

Home Office

Those of us who work from home understand the value of a dedicated workspace that’s conducive to working productively while blotting out the myriad distractions of the home. Most basements are fairly well insulated from the noise and visual distraction of the rest of the home and so lend themselves well to the function of a home office.

You may face a difficult balance between aesthetic beauty and productivity. Obviously you’ll want to create a space that’s enjoyable to spend time in without being so ornate that your mind wanders. Make sure that the office has space in which you can spend “down time” to rest your mind. Natural light and access to nature are conducive to productivity so in lieu of, say, a view of the garden you should aim to fill your subterranean space with houseplants that do not require sunlight.