Inviting Game Rooms

Follow these steps to create a game room that is inviting to all your friends, as well as families.

Plan Your Room
Before you can worry about all the other aspects of creating a warm and inviting game room, you first need to create a rough plan of what yours will have in it. To start off, you should measure the room carefully and determine where you will put the pool table, arcade machine, furniture etc. Keep in mind, you won’t want to put the dart table or anything else in a place where your guests will have to go in front of it in order to get out of the room. In this regard, it’s simply not all about putting things wherever they “fit”; instead, it’s all about putting things where they really should be. Once you’ve done this, you can move on to buying things for the room, but you should continue to remember that you don’t want the room to become a storage shed—guests should be able to maneuver in it freely.

“Where Will I Sit?”
Spending hours standing in front of that Pac-Man machine will do some bad things to your back and legs, which is why it’s a good idea to make sure that you and your guests have comfortable seating in your game room. Stools are a good choice for game rooms with arcade machines in them, while recliners and couches—depending on the space in the room–are rarely ever a bad choice. Beanbags can be a good choice as well, particularly if you’re enjoying a game of foosball on a table that is low to the floor.

Think About Sound
The sound of the room isn’t just important in home theaters—it’s also very important in game rooms, especially if you plan to have an arcade machine or two in there. Rooms with concrete floors/walls tend to really mess up the sounds, while rooms with wood floors/carpeting and drywall/panel walls do much better with absorbing the sound.

Lighting is Important
For a dining room or even a bedroom, the style of lighting doesn’t really matter that much. But for a game room, it’s a crucial thing. You’ll need to take into consideration what will be going in the room before you can decide on what lighting you’ll have for your rec room. If you’ll be having a pool table in your game room, you should plan on buying the appropriate pool table lighting, or if you’re going to have a pinball or arcade machine in the room, look into getting lighting that can be dimmed while the games are being played. No matter what you have in the room, be sure to find out what sort of lighting is best for it.

Snacks, Anyone?
While you and the guys are shooting an intense game of pool, you’re probably going to crave a beer or perhaps a bowl of chips. So why interrupt the game by having to go upstairs to the kitchen to grab Bud Light and Doritos? A good mini-fridge stocked with some pop and beer, as well as a small cabinet with snacks, will do wonders for making your game room appealing to guests.