Hi there! We just started finishing the basement on our old bungalow and need some advice for furniture placement for staging and selling. We are putting the house up for sale in a month or two, so we are not moving any walls, just finishing up the floors and ceiling, and a fresh coat of paint. We had a furnace installed when we first moved in two years ago, but that means an 18" bulkhead with lower ceiling height along the one wall in the bonus space, as you can see in the picture (78"h, only under the bulkhead, the rest of the room height is decent at 7'6"h)

The pic is to scale, 1square= 1sf, and all the windows in the basement are 36"w x 20"h, pretty much at the ceiling height. We are thinking to set up the bonus room as a home office/craft studio (I sew), or maybe an office/workout space. For sure we would like one desk, 60"wide (non-negotiable on the width because it will fit perfectly in our next house) but everything else is up in the air. We homeschool so I need the desk (which can certainly double for occasional sewing), and I strongly feel that having a work-from-home space will appeal to many potential buyers.

The sketched furniture in the rec-room is our reclining sectional facing the TV, and an IKEA Hemnes daybed for guests, which is "good enough" for our family for the next few weeks, but we can switch up the actual furniture for staging. It's the only TV in the house so it does have to be a rec room.

Upstairs there are 3 bedrooms, however one bedroom is quite narrow, 7.5' x 12' and has the patio doors out to the back deck with BBQ, so we are open to the idea of turning that bedroom into the home office and using the bonus room as something else, or maybe have two offices? The basement bedroom does have egress windows so currently our house is 3+1 bedroom. Does "heads in beds" still apply here for staging?

Open to suggestions. We are hoping to sell privately although I will be staging as best I can so it looks great in pictures. We won't be staying at the house when it comes time to sell, so other than the one desk, the layout doesn't really need to work for our family, just want to maximize the appeal to potential buyers. Thanks for your ideas!