For most people, just having a table and some chairs is already good enough to call some friends and invite them over to play a board game. But if you are serious enough about it, you may want to create your own dedicated room where you can have some fun and play as much as you like. For this purpose, I thought it would be good to write some board game room ideas and show some of the cool stuff people are doing out there.
It all depends on how much space and money you have, but I’m pretty sure that there’s something for everyone.
Storage
The first thing you’ll definitely need is a place to store your board games. As much as you have, the bigger space you’ll need.
You can start with a small cabinet, some simple shelves or just prepare your room for your full collection.
I prefer having a cabinet with doors as it will protect the board games against dust, but I like it being a glass door, so I can see all my games without having to open it. That said, I don’t have nothing against open shelves. Some you can even made it by yourself. You can give it a classy or a modern style. There are options for every taste.
Just be aware that following the same style when buying furniture for the room is a good idea as it’ll look more comfortable, enjoyable and everyone will like it. Mixing styles is possible, but it may look messy, so be careful.
Some people like to go to Ikea or some furniture retailer to buy their storage solution, but as surprising as it may be (or even crazy), I find Amazon one of the best places were you can find good furniture from a range of sizes and styles at a very good price.
I did some research beforehand and I found some cabinets / shelves that you can use as a storage solution for your room. Just keep in mind to check its dimensions to be sure that it’ll fit in your place and that it can afford your board games.
Decoration
A good decoration for a board game room is something that makes everyone instantly say wow. Your friends will want to come back another day to play again. If you have a special interest, you can make it a thematic room with every single item related to one subject, character or game.
To start with, one thing that looks great, are board game posters that you can put on your wall and there are some patents of board games that just look great. Take a look at some of the available options and tell me if you can resist buying it. Even if you don’t have a specific room for your board games, it just look awesome on the wall and you can even choose the size that works better for you.
You can also have miniatures or action figures spread through all your room. They don’t need to be directly related to board games, but they make a great collection. If you’re doing a thematic room, you’ll definitely find something that suit your needs. Personally I have Funko POP action figures from Star Wars (I love the Chewbacca one) and Game of Thrones (the White Walker is the best one). You can find action figures about almost everything. As examples you can find: Marvel, How to Train your Dragon, Vikings, Lord of The Ring, Harry Potter, DC, Dragonball and a number of different collections. It makes everything more fun and in some games you can use it as player markers or identifiers.
Again, I found that in Amazon they have the best prices (better even eBay). Take a look:
Lights
Lights are very important when playing, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything cool with it and I have some board game room ideas that will help you with that.
Looks pretty lame saying it, but we all need to turn the lights on and off, right? So why not use a special light switch cover? They give your room much more style and are a detail that’ll show how much you care about your special place.
You can also use some thematic lights on your room and make it scarier, happier or more intergalactic. The options are unlimited, and you’ll always find something that’ll fit for what you’re doing.
Table
Of course I wouldn’t forget to comment about the most precious item in a board game room: the table. After all, this will be the place where everyone will be around and have fun for hours. It’s also the easiest item to acquire as it can be found anywhere. It’s really just a table that you need, right? But, and that’s a big but that will make you level up your board game room, if you have money to invest in a great board game table (or even a card game table), you should take a look at these 2 items at Amazon. They have free shipping and are simply amazing. Stunning finishing and suitable for a number of board games:
Unfortunately I still don’t have a house big enough to afford a board game room all for myself, but I could say that my whole house has board games in it. I also already saw some of these items in my friends’ house and they do make the difference.
If you have your own board game room or have your own ideas, tell me on the comments below what you have and what make it special. I’d love to hear about it.
12 Comments
Growing up we definitely had a room where we could hang out with family and friends and play games and have fun. It helped keep the house from having our toys and cards and things all over the place.
This article is very nice as you give lots of ideas on what you can do. Your game room can be simple or decked out to the extreme for the more serious gaming enthusiast.
Mostly I find the place have to be comfortable and not too crowded to fit in the people. I big black board or white board to keep score is a nice idea too.
I do not have a game room at the moment. But reading this make me want to have one again.
Cheers E 🙂
I love your idea about a black/white board to keep the score. It’s really useful for some games, Rummikub and Scrabble are good examples.
Thanks for your kind words.
a dedicated games room certainly makes life a lot easier than trying to clear off the kitchen table – especially for some of the strategy games that can take several days to play. i love how you have thought of everything here though, from lighting to decor, brilliant – thank you 🙂
Hi lori, I’m glad you liked it.
It does makes our life easier for games like Risk. They’re too long to be played in just one day. 😉
Thanks.
Goog job. I am a big fan of Board games and I always wanted to have a room only for having friends over to play and have a great time. Unfortunately I don’t have enough space for my own board games room but I sure did love to read about that. You did a great job with this article I am sure that a lot of people will have a great time reading it!
Constantin
Hi Constantin, thanks for your words.
The only thing we actually need to play a board game are our friends. We can also sit on the floor or around a table. The actual fun is with the people. 😉
I love the Marvel action figures – are they bobble heads? That’s what they remind me of anyway. I also some the Mario Brick lamp – very unique
I wish I had room in my flat for a game room!
Some of them are bobble heads and some aren’t. You can usually find both models.
The Mario Brick Lamp is amazing. I really like that one. 🙂
I have an antique coat closet that holds all our games. Love the idea of using your shelving!
That’s great! I’d like to see it. 🙂
I absolutely loved reading this. I haven’t played a board game in so long that it’s ridiculous. I grew playing Monopoly and The Game Of Life with my family. We tried to have a game night once a week. We didn’t have a room dedicated to it as we simply placed on the kitchen table but I love this idea even more. I can only imagine how fun it would be to decorate and appreciate this game space.
It’s really fun. But there’s nothing wrong using your kitchen table. What’s important is having fun! 🙂