Yes, you could put furring strips on the wwall and then drywall (and even tape it nicely). But if looks aren't that important, why not leave the walls alone, or paint them, then add use some nice lighting. You could even get a concrete finisher in to spiff up the floor. My friend did a basement "on the cheap" by painting everything, including the exposed ceiling joists. With some good lighting it turned out to be a surprisingly nice space. She used strong wall colors for effect (think tropics).

If your planned ceiling height is 8'-0, then your floor to floor height will need to at least be 9'-0. That doesn't account for forced air duct horizontal distribution which may be 12" or so lower than the bottom of the floor joists or beams. You will need to check the necessary structural framing required to support the floors above the basement, and how HVAC will be accomplished in the basement in order to verify how you will handle the basement vertical dimensions. Just assuming that 9'-0 floor to floor will be sufficient is how low basement ceilings often result, since the framers and HVAC crews may not pay know or care about your preferred ceiling heights. They simply take the room they need for their trades and leave the owner with the result. Good luck with your project.

With pleasure, nanny----they were purchased online from Grandinroad, the less expensive arm of Frontgate. They were very reasonable, well made, and (surprisingly) actual leather. For the price I was expecting pleather :-) I have linked to them below. Here is a link that might be useful: Grandinroad ottomans

The smoothness of a paint coverage depends almost as much on the applicator as the paint. Adding Floetrol will help greatly in getting a smooth finish. Using a $25 paint brush that is designed for the type of paint being used will also go a long way in getting a smooth finish. Technique is also a factor, getting too much or too little paint on the brush and subsequently on the surface causes runs/drips/brush marks. However, even the most accomplished brush paint job will not look as smooth as a sprayed on finish. The gotcha with sprayers is they take more expensive equipment/technique than brushing. I have a friend who just had a new house built---and the builder had his sprayers do the woodwork. They spent a week and a half-----on just the door/base/crown molding. And did that before the walls were painted. It is the best trim paint job I have ever seen----I hate to ask what the cost was----the house was around 500K.