Now, there is going to be overlap on what you might want to get in a room, so I’ll cover that, but there are other things that will be different. And I think knowing what you want is important because it can determine what you get.

For example, for me, I don’t do much painting, so I don’t need a dedicated space for that. The larger a gaming table I can get, and still get chairs around it, the better for me. But a painter might still want a gaming table. Or an RPG player might want a spot to build terrain, or store terrain.

Common Game Room Things

Storage

Let’s start out with what really is common across everything. You will need storage in your room. If it is just for board games, or painting, you need storage for the games you are painting or the game you own. For RPG’s, unless everything is theater of the mind, you need storage for the terrain and minis that you have.

Seating

Seating is also key. If you don’t have a spot to sit, then it’s more a game waiting area than a game room. So you want seating but not just seating, enough seating for your room. For example, my game room could handle 8 people at a table, even a six person table. Assuming the game isn’t too large. But I want flexible seating.

Lighting

Next up is lighting. This is one that might just come with the room or might be something you can supplement or control as you need. You want to be able to see well. But you don’t want a harsh light pointing down at the table causing glare. I know some people do up lighting or reflected lighting. I think that a fan lighting is solid as well, just as long as it’s not a bare bulb pointing down. Or that it isn’t too dark so you can’t read the cards easily.

Table

Finally, a table of some sort. Now, a gaming table sounds awesome and I am excited to order one. But it isn’t needed. A dining room table from Craiglist or Facebook Marketplace work just fine. There is no reason to be too fancy with it. Just a surface to play games on or painting on is important. If you are a painter we’ll talk about it a bit more.

Streamer

So what else do you need to think about if you are a streamer? I know that I have talked about the equipment that you need, but that is the main thing. However, I won’t go into detail too much on that. Camera(s) and computer are important.

But two things to touch on are lighting and sound. Lighting might seem like we already talked about it, but you want to have a nice lighting set-up. Firstly so viewers can watch you. Secondly so that you can see the game. Not only that, but something that adds in depth, so not just lights pointed at you, but a light filling in behind you as well.

Sound is also exceedingly important. I can deal with decent lighting if the sound is good to great. But if the sound is bad, that’ll get me to click off of a video or a stream faster than anything else. Now, I’m not talking about delivery, I’m talking about sound levels, clipping in and out, or background noise or echoes distorting it. Put up some soft things if need be to dampen the sounds.

Board Game

This will be the area that you need to add the least specific to a room. Storage, table, seating, and lighting basically are what you need. If you want go fancier, or say you use a dining room table, I recommend grabbing a few playmats. Something that’ll cover most of the top of the table. That just makes it much easier to pick cards or pieces off of the table.

I’d also recommend grabbing a few TV trays. Something you can put up or take down easily enough. That means that you don’t need to have food or drinks on the table (as much) and less likely that something spills. Now, maybe you just don’t allow food or drinks at all, but I like TV trays as an easy to pull out or put away option.

Paint or Craft

For this, you probably want a dedicated area where you can paint at in your room. Now, that might be a whole separate room from where you play. But a dedicated painting table that you can get messy would be key for me. Or at least that you don’t mind if it does get messy.

Along with that, lighting is way more important. You want to be able to see what you are painting. That means that you’ll want to either have great lighting all around, or the ability to add lighting in by the painting area. I know that some painters also want something that’ll magnify as well.

Finally, storage for your paints and brushes and whatever else you might use for crafting. I already mentioned storage, but for paints a particular holder that makes it easy to pull them out seems like the right thing to have. It’s kind of why I buy inserts for board games. Something to just make the game easier to play.

Role Playing Game

For an RPG, again not much to add. Just that storage is going to be about your most important thing. And I personally would want some spots to store stuff or hide it away. Now, everything is not always hidden away. So many RPGers make amazing set pieces that you can keep out. But for the more generic items or ones you have a lot of, storage to keep it out of sight is nice.

Also, there is likely overlap here with painting and crafting. Unless you buy all your terrain prefabricated and minis painted, there is that element of the gaming as well to consider. And I know that a lot of Dungeon Masters DIY a lot of things. That probably means you own more random elements, like cardboard and Styrofoam that a painter might not have.

Final Thoughts

There is no right way to create a game room. For some people that might just mean a room with a ton of games, maybe a spot to paint minis and they don’t play games in there. You just enter, grab a game, and leave. That is still a game room.

Others might want to have a room where they can play games, but it also will store a 3D printer, a spot to paint, and other elements for the crafting side of the hobby. Some people will want their games out in a Kallax and others will hide them into a closet. It is whatever works best for your space.

And it always depends on space. Not just what you use it for, but how much you have. You might not be able to fit a game table in. Or it might be a game room where you play your solo games because it isn’t that big. Or you might have two game tables in there and you can have big get togethers where lots of big games are played.

But it is fun to think about and dream about your ideal game space. And hopefully with this article it gives you a few extra things to think about. Tweet me pictures or leave over on Facebook pictures of your game room.

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At a basic level, there are going to be two primary things that you’ll need for your gaming room. The first is a place to play the games, and the next is a place to store the games. However, you can certainly bling it out more than that, but let’s start by talking about those two things.

The Table

The table, and this includes the chairs is going to be fairly important as you think about setting up the room. Consider things like how large your games are, now many people you want around the table, and how much overall space you have. If you’re playing something like Gloomhaven, you’re going to need a bigger table than if you normally only play games like Santorini and Hanamikoji. Or even a game like Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, you’re going to need space to get a larger group around the table, even though the footprint of the game isn’t that large. So look at the largest game, numbers wise and space wise to determine how large a table you might need. Now, that might not work for the room you’re using, it could be too large, in that case, consider the games that you will be playing most down there, and you can move the bigger games elsewhere for playing.

With this also consider your playing surface. You can go out and find a lot of premium gaming tables that cost $1000+ and are going to be amazing to play on with built in cup holders, rails for holding cards, a sunken play and padding place surface and more fun things like that, but that’s probably overkill. Most of the time, an old dining room/kitchen table will do. What I’d consider when thinking about that is what sort of surface do you need for it? There are a few different options to allow you to be able to pick up cards easier, felt or neoprene. Both of these have a little give, and if you have trouble picking up cards at times like I do, it might be something you’d want to invest in. Felt works well because you can stretch it and staple it to the underside of the top of the table and it’ll give you a nice playing surface. That’s what I’ve done for the table that I use for Malts and Meeples streaming. This will give you a consistent top across the table, but it does pick up dust, another option would be buying a neoprene mat to put on top of it. This is going to be higher quality, and it’ll allow you to more easily swap out the surface of the table since you can just roll up the mat, but it’s a spendier option, but still cheaper than getting a premium gaming table.

Storage

Storage is another big thing to consider, how do you want to display your games. This could be for aesthetic reasons, but mainly it’s going to be so that you know what games you have. If you’re using a bedroom and you shove them into a deep closet, the ones in front will get played, the ones in back will not. This is just simply do to the visibility of the games in front versus the back.

The most common suggestion that you’ll hear are Kallax shelves from Ikea. Or Better Homes and Garden cubby shelves are basically the same things. The cubbies are basically the right side for a board game, in a normal sided square box, to fit nicely. They can be stored either vertically or horizontally. I have a Kallax and it works really well. You can even find them used, fairly often it’ll be the older version of the Kallax, Expedit, but basically the same thing and same sized cubbies. The Better Homes and Garden one I believe is slightly lower quality, but more readily available since it’s at Wal-Mart. But really, any bookshelf will do, it just might not store quite as neatly. And plastic shelving works well, as well.

That’s really it that you’ll need for storing and playing your games, but let’s talk about some other things to think about that you might want to do.

Some of these are going to be additional decor, I know people who hang box covers, especially for expansions they’ve fit into one box, on the fall, or Board Game Geek sells some amazing art prints for various games. Etsy is another place that has good art.

Lighting is another big thing to think about. Indirect lighting for the games are going to be best. By that, I mean having a big light on the ceiling pointed down is probably not the best. It’s going to create glare off of boards and cards and make them harder to read. Floor lamps where the light is directed up and can reflect down off the ceiling are going to give you an easier light to see the board and cards. But also having enough lighting is important as well so that you can read the cards without straining. So sit around the table from each side some evening and see how it is to see a hand of cards.

Now, finally, I want to talk about seating. I said that was implied with the table, but most tables you can cram more people around than chairs that come with the table. So consider picking up some folding chairs and test out the folding chairs to see that they’re comfortable. Folding chairs have definitely improved since hard metal ones to stronger and more supportive feeling plastic seats and backs. Find something that feels comfortable to you and that you think will be comfortable to anyone who might join in the gaming fun.

What else should you have in a game room? I mean, you need games, but I’m assuming, if you’re thinking about a particular game room, you probably already have a lot of those, like I do. Also, tweet pictures of your game room to me, for future inspiration.

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