Home Game Room Ideas

You want to create the perfect game room in your home. It'll become a wonderful gathering space for you and your guests and give you classic games to play from the comfort of your home. Furnishing a home game room will be an exciting experience, but where should you begin?

​With a vast array of potential designs, layouts and features, the furnishings you use can create a home game room that matches a variety of styles and tastes. If you need inspiration for your new recreation space, consult the home game room ideas below to design a space that meets all your needs.

How to Design a Home Game Room

 

Before you get game room inspiration, it helps to evaluate what you want from your recreation room. Follow these tips as you plan to get decor and furnishings for your game room that suit your home and your space:

​1. Think about whom you entertain: Do you have weekly gatherings with a few neighbors? Invite groups of friends over every game day weekend? Know how many guests you entertain at a time to help determine how much seating and how many games you'll need.

​2. Know what you want to include: A game room is a fun space for everyone, your guests included. Consider what games you, your family, and your friends enjoy when deciding what should go into your recreation room.

​3. Consider your tastes: Any time you furnish a room in your home, your style guides your decisions, so don't let your game room be the exception. Game tables come in an array of styles and colors to help you match your game room to your style. Create a space you'll enjoy being in when you consider your tastes first.

​4. Decide where the game room will go: Lofts, basements and bonus rooms are common spots for a home game room, but where you put yours will vary based on your home. The location of your home game room will help guide factors such as your lighting decisions if you don't get much natural light in a space.

​5. Evaluate the size and layout of your room: Take measurements of your future game room space and consider the layout of your room. That will determine how many features you can include in your game room and how you can furnish it to make the best use of the space.

​6. Use the style of your home: Create a cohesive space wherever your game room is so it suits the rest of your home. You'll find modern, traditional and every style in between for the furniture and games you want in your recreation room, perfect to match any home. A cohesive design down to the details in your game room makes it feel like it's a part of your home. Unless you prefer an eclectic design and want every room to feel different, make your recreation room complement the style of your home.

​Those considerations will help guide most of your decisions for your recreation room. If you are not quite sure what you want to include, the home game room ideas below will give you inspiration and guide how to use the space you have.

What Should I Put In My Game Room

 

Perhaps this is the first time you've had a game room in your home, or you're making updates and want to include the best features and furnishings. Either way, knowing what to put in a game room will help create an ideal space to relax and entertain in, so put many of these furnishings and ideas into your space:

Large Game Rooms With Multiple Games

It's no surprise that your home game room will need games and entertainment. A large game room is ideal for those who entertain larger parties of guests, especially because you'll want to have one game for every four people you entertain. So if you host a large family get together with 15 to 20 family members, your game room should have between four to five games to play.

​If you have the space for a grand game room and enjoy having large get-togethers, fill your recreation space with a variety of games. It'll give you plenty of entertainment options for game night or a party and let all your guests in on an evening of games. Because you have a larger space, fill it with game tables, such as:

  • Pool

  • Foosball

  • Air Hockey

  • Table Tennis

  • Shuffleboard

  • Poker

Those tables are ideal to have centered in your large game room or in a space with adequate room to walk around or sit at all sides of the table. If you still have wall space to use after accounting for the larger furnishings, consider adding games and entertainment with:

  • Dart board

  • Pinball machine

  • Arcade cabinet

  • Gaming computer

  • Television with gaming consoles

​While game tables make a grand statement in your impressive game room, those extra additions help tie everything together and make sure you have entertainment that every visitor will enjoy. Even if you don't have a large space, make room for at least one game table. A pool table, in particular, lets you play with multiple players if you get creative with team games. Consider prioritizing that for your recreation space over two-player games if you don't have the space for more than one game table, then incorporate smaller entertainment furnishings throughout the room.

​Game Room Ideas That Include a Home Bar

Enjoy a drink and gather with your friends and family, all from the comfort of your home. A home bar and game room combined make the best use out of your space, creating a multi-purpose room that's perfect for entertaining. Consider some of these design ideas if you'd like to have a bar in your recreation space:

  • Use one half of the room as your bar and the other as your game room.

  • Create a space that's mostly your game room with a bar feature.

  • Let the bar be the feature of your room and include a game or two.

  • Match the style of your bar to your game equipment and room design.

  • Decide on how much seating you need, whether it will be at the bar or somewhere else in the room.

​With a home bar in your recreation space, you'll want storage for glassware, drinks and ingredients. Consider putting a back bar on the wall behind your counter for storage and a way to define the space as your home bar. Add a television or mirror on the wall above, and surround the rest of the space with cabinetry if you need extra storage.

​You may even want a sink and refrigerator in your space, so be sure to consider your electrical and plumbing needs as you evaluate your layout. Those extra touches will make your home bar a convenient all-in-one space, so you won't need to leave your guests every time you need water, ice or cold drink ingredients.

​Another consideration for a functional home bar layout is your seating. Many home bars have a counter with seating for two to four people. You may also want to have some seating near your bar counter, depending on how many guests you usually entertain. Think of the bar in your game room like your kitchen counter — it will create a hub, a gathering place that becomes the heart of your game room.

​Furniture and Extras for Your Game Room

 

Other than the gaming tables and bar, a few more furnishings will help complete your game room and tailor it to your personal style. Enhance your recreation room and make it a comfortable, functional space with additions like:

  • Stools at the bar

  • High-top table and bar stools

  • Large screen television

  • Quality sound setup for music, movies and sports games

  • Comfortable seating around the television

  • Storage space for smaller games and accessories

  • Soundproofing

What you add and where you put it will depend on the size and layout of your room, so be sure to have that in mind before getting too many extras for your recreation space. Prioritize games and functional furnishings first, then go in and add extra details and accents that complete your space.

One of the most functional additions to your game room is seating. As you select seating for your game room, think about right-height seating, or seating that keeps your guests at the right height to socialize. You don't want everyone sitting at various eye levels as they try to communicate, and right-height seating eliminates that issue.

Consider how many guests you entertain at a time, as well. If you have the space, a seat for every guest will be welcoming and convenient, and you can vary what functional furniture you put in your game room. Viewing or spectator chairs are a great way to casually stay involved in the game and conversation at a height you can see. Pub tables offer a semi-private setting that helps create sections in your game room.

​

Potential Themes for Your Game Room

 

When you have what you need for your game room in mind, you can start dreaming of possible themes for your recreation space. A theme will guide your furnishing and decor decisions and create an impressive, stylized game room that will stun your visitors and look like one cohesive space. Tie everything together with the rest of your home or keep your game room space unique with these recreation room theme ideas:

1. Keep It Classic and Classy

Choose a traditional style for your recreation room, especially if the rest of your home is traditional. This sophisticated style looks stunning in game rooms that include a home bar. You can either turn your space into a warm and inviting pub-style room or make it match seamlessly with the rest of your classic home. Furnish with pub tables and stools to enhance the classic look, and pair it with furnishings that feature these traditional touches:

  • Dark, warm wood tones

  • Inviting textures

  • Curved, complex or natural shapes

  • Large, statement furniture

Tailor a classic style game room to the rest of your home. Perhaps you have a design that leans more country or farmhouse, natural, ornate or something in between. Choose similar wood tones, shapes and accents that appear in your home for your recreation space to match a classic design from room to room of your home.

​2. Go Modern

If your home has contemporary furnishings, carry that through to your game room. Just as classic design has subcategories, modern does, as well. Match your recreation room to one of these modern design styles if it suits your home: 

  • Minimalist: Clean lines and simple color palettes characterize a minimalist space. Choose white or black and grey for your color scheme and feature few shapes and accents throughout the room.

  • Industrial: Combine wood and metal for a modern, industrial feel. This rugged style suits spaces with brick accent walls or wood features, which you can complement with reclaimed wood and metal furnishings.

  • Mid-century: Unique angles and inspiration from decades ago combine for a mid-century modern style. If that suits your recreation space, incorporate it with seating, tables and other furniture, then let gaming tables be the statement accents.

​You may have a combination of those or other modern styles in your home, so consider the color palette and shapes in the other rooms of your house. Carry those through to your modern recreation room for a simple yet stunning result.

​3. Try a Sports Theme

If you have a particular favorite sports team and own some memorabilia, put it on display. Tie in the sports theme with a wall of color from your favorite team or keep it subtle with a neutral color scheme and memorabilia accents. Use sports equipment to decorate and feature wood furniture and leather seating to enhance the rugged look and feel of your recreation room. A sports theme creates a fun and inviting gathering space for weekends or nights with friends whether you go flashy or subtle with the theme.

​With a sports theme, you can splurge on a large-screen television to gather with friends and family and catch every big game. Include plenty of comfortable seating that can fit a crowd if you often have watch parties. A bar in your sports-themed game room will make the perfect finishing touch, so designate space for one with game tables to have fun before the sports season begins. Choose elements from either modern or classic designs to ground your game room and help it fit in with the rest of your home.

​4. Inspire Nostalgia With a Retro Theme

 

Evoke the feeling of arcades from decades ago right in your home. A retro-inspired game room is a fun and nostalgic addition to an eclectic home or one with a mid-century style. To enhance your retro-themed game room, use accents like:

  • Multiple colors

  • Retro wall decor

  • Colorful lighting

  • Arcade cabinets

  • An air hockey table

​A retro theme for your game room makes it easy to incorporate any variety of games and lets you have fun with your space. You can also tone down the theme to suit your home with a mostly traditional or contemporary style and retro elements. A few arcade or vintage game signs in an otherwise classic or modern game room give your recreation space a unique touch. If you have any retro game-themed collectibles, put them to use in your game room as nostalgic decor.

​5. Use Games to Decorate

Make functional decor in your game room with equipment and accessories. You can save closet and storage space for other items when you put your game equipment on display. It also makes equipment more accessible for you and your guests to jump right into a game. What you decorate with will depend on what games you have in your recreation room, and certain games will have more equipment than others.

Pool, for instance, comes with cues, pool balls and other accessories that you'll need to have accessible when you want to play. Use a pool rack to display those accessories as an additional decorative element for your recreation room that ties everything together.

​Pool racks come in various colors, styles and sizes to match the rest of your game room and display all the accessories you need in a stylish way. A corner rack or wall rack suits smaller spaces or layouts. If you have the space in the pool table area of your game room, consider an impressive standing rack. Whichever style you select, you'll have a convenient and eye-catching place to organize and display your game equipment.

Bring Your Home Game Room Ideas to Life With American Heritage Billiards

 

Create memories and bring these home game room ideas to life with help from American Heritage Billiards. We offer a stunning array of games, from pool, air hockey and foosball to shuffleboard, table tennis and dartboards, that you, your family and your guests will love spending time together to play. Once you select games for your recreation room, explore our exclusive collection of coordinating furniture. Complete your game room with a bar, seating and other furnishings in a cohesive look that complements whatever game setup you choose.

Contact us to learn more about our free installation on pool table and shuffleboard purchases. Create your dream game room then create memories with friends and family right from your home with help from American Heritage Billiards.