Game Room Decorating Ideas
Turn your home into entertainment central with the help of these decorating ideas. A game room gives your home a dedicated area for fun, whether you use it for game nights with family and friends or you just want a place for the kids to entertain their friends without destroying the whole house. These game room ideas will help you create the perfect space to unwind with family and friends and let your hair down.
Make a Plan
Before you can put your game room ideas into action, you need a plan. Figure out your budget first. Adding accessories such as pool tables, ping-pong tables, air hockey tables, foosball tables and poker tables can really add up. Once you have your budget figured out, decide what type of activities you would like to use the room for. Take accurate measurements of the room's size so you know exactly how much space you have to work with. You can then decide what type of furnishings and decor you would like to add. If you have a tight budget, you may want to look for used furnishings like pool tables or poker tables to stretch your money further.
Game Room Decorating Ideas
Once you have a good plan in place that includes a workable budget, you can start thinking about how you want to put your game room together. Take a look at the following decorating tips and keep in mind that you can combine these ideas or add to them to create exactly what you want.
Poker Room
A Las Vegas style casino room is perfect for card lovers. Poker tables are a must, of course - go for the larger, eight sided type to provide plenty of room for your Vegas high rollers. You can also get a roulette wheel, a blackjack table and even some slot machines to finish the look.
For a smaller budget, you could buy a less expensive or used poker table and if you are handy with tools, you could build your own table from one of the free plans you can find online. Add a hanging pendant lamp over the table, some poker inspired artwork on the walls and you're ready to start slinging cards.
Pool Hall
Create a game room inspired by your favorite local neighborhood bar or pool hall. You can give the room a current theme or go retro with a 1950s pool hall look. You can find retro style pool tables for sale on sites like eBay and you can complete the look with stainless steel accessories, neon lighting and retro posters. Make sure the room is set up with a music system ready to blast favorite tunes from the era, or if your budget will allow it, a jukebox would be the perfect finishing touch. Go for a room that James Dean would be happy to knock some balls around in.
A home bar would be the perfect accessory for this type of room. Add a few pub style tables and chairs where people can enjoy drinks and snacks while waiting to play. If your budget and space allows, you could also add accessories such as:
- Dart board
- Air hockey table
- Ping-pong table (you can find tables that attach to the top of pool tables)
- Foosball table
- Pinball Machine
Fusion Arcade
If you or your kids are more of the "gamer" type, you can create a fun, electronic gaming room with a blend of old and new technology. Start with vintage arcade games from the 1980s such as Pac-Man, Mrs. Pac-Man, Centipede, Asteroids or whatever else you can find from places like:
Next, add a Hi definition, big screen TV and your favorite home video game system such as Xbox 360, Nintendo or a Wii system. Add a surround sound system for the best sound quality and get ready for hours of fun playing all types of games. Make sure you have plenty of comfortable seating such as bean bag chairs and perhaps a sectional sofa. If you plan on playing music, singing or dance games or some of the interactive sports games for Wii, make sure you have an area designated for some physical activity. This room could also be used as a home theater when you want to enjoy a good movie.
Board Game Room
A board game room would be one of the easiest types of game rooms to put together. You would need to find one or two good, sturdy tables to play on and make sure you have plenty of seating. The real investment for this type of room would be in the games themselves. There are dozens of classic board games and the more games you have in your library, the better. You would need some type of storage unit like a bookcase or cabinet to store the games. You could also add a folding card table for doing jigsaw puzzles.
You could pick a theme from one of your favorite board games such as Life, Monopoly, or Clue and decorate your board game room with this theme. This type of game room would be a great incentive for creating a family game night or a weekly game night with friends. You can also combine the board game room idea with the poker room idea and have one area for adults and another area for the kids.
The Finishing Touches
Here are a few other suggestions for items you might want to include in your game room:
- Mini fridge
- Microwave
- Water cooler
- Stereo system or jukebox
- Novelty lighting
- Ceiling fans
Get Creative
Create a game room that is fun and interesting with different lighting options and wall decor that fits the type of room you have. You don't necessarily have to match the decorating style used throughout the rest of your home because a game room can have its own unique theme or style. It's also a great place to display collectible items such as sports memorabilia, movie memorabilia or vintage advertising.
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