When every day is “bring your child to work day,” remodeling a basement to serve as office and playroom makes a lot of sense.

I’m a stay-at-home mom, and I wouldn’t take back my decision to be at home with my kids for anything. I’m very thankful that I’ve been able to do this. But, I do miss working outside the home and the conversation and interaction I once had with my coworkers.

I enjoyed the assistant editor job I held at the Michigan Electric Cooperative Association before I had children, and I still need to stimulate that part of me by exercising my brain with more than stacking Lego® towers, climbing laundry piles and tossing diapers into the waste basket.

On my small desk at home, I had a computer monitor, printer, keyboard, scanner, two digital cameras with their chargers, an iPAQ pocket PC, a telephone, and stacks of papers and CDs. This left me with little motivation or available workspace for my freelance work and hobbies.

I needed a home office with a real storage solution so all my books, idea files and supplies were close-at-hand. I needed room to spread out—space for all the office equipment I have and hope to have someday.

I needed two computer workstations so more than one person could work at once. My husband could use this for business or even his blog entries. And before long, our kids would be in grade school and in need of space to do their school assignments.

I also needed to add enough desk space for the kids to do the fun craft projects that overtook our dining room table. This meant I also needed storage for all their Play-Doh® and clay, washable paints, construction paper and art supplies.

I started pricing pre-made, modular office furniture, but didn’t find exactly what I needed. Instead, I found that built-in cabinets were not much more expensive than store-bought office furniture. And, by going custom, my workstation could be designed to suit our family’s exact needs. The desktop could even be made with an easy-to-wipe-clean surface of my choice.

I liked the location of my old desk, along the back wall of our family’s downstairs media room, and I planned to design a new desk that would stretch the entire width of this wall. Doing this would also maximize our available floor space.

Our media room is connected to the kids’ downstairs playroom. Most people would probably prefer a home office far away from kids’ rooms or TV rooms to avoid noise and distraction. But I needed to be near my kids. Supervising and entertaining my three boys is my full-time job.

This media room was already wired for phone and internet, and built with extra insulation for home theater acoustics (which would make it easy enough to shut out playroom or outside noise if I wanted to).

I took my time, and worked closely with a local building center. I changed the design several times over several months before I felt it was just right.

In the end, I chose to go even further and wrap more desk space and storage cabinets around the corner of the room. Raised cabinet and drawer knobs were changed to more simple, closed pulls that wouldn’t snag pockets or shirt sleeves.

A small snack center, complete with a microwave oven, was added for our home movie popcorn. So, an electrical outlet did have to be added there. A compact refrigerator would save me from running up and down the stairs to grab myself a soda, fetch snacks, or fill juice cups. And, it’s a great little spot for the kids to display their newest paintings and practice their spelling with their fridge magnets.

The walls were painted a neutral tan with a durable, washable paint finish. With limited wall space left for art work, I selected a colorful countertop called “Crayon” that brought in several fun patterns and artistic brush strokes. The kids could get paint or crayon all over the desktop, and you wouldn’t notice.

Plenty of grommets were drilled for tidy cord management. And, by inserting spacers hidden behind the unit—not placing the lower desk cabinets directly against the wall—electrical outlets and phone jacks were unblocked and accessible to grown-ups.

All work, no play? No way. This new office allows me to escape to work and play on the computer easily and guilt-free, anytime—not just when the kids are all asleep. They can do crafts, play and learn (I’m even teaching my kindergartner PhotoShop), or watch a favorite movie nearby. It’s nice to have co-workers to converse and interact with again.

I feel I’ve found a nice balance here between stay-at-home mom and working woman. There’s nothing more I need..except maybe a vacation… and a new excuse not to finish those baby books.

Former Michigan Country Lines staffer Tam Ewers contributes now from Missouri, where she lives with her family.