A game room is the one room in a home that exists purely for enjoyment. It might be a spare bedroom, a basement, a converted garage or the corner of a living room. Whatever it is, it has a different job from every other room, and it can be decorated differently. You can be bolder here than anywhere else.
The risk is the opposite of blandness. Game rooms tend to fill up with merchandise, posters and coloured lights until they look like a shop. The best ones have a clear idea and stick to it.
Start with what the room is for
- A desk for PC gaming. One person, close to a monitor.
- A sofa and a big screen for console games and films.
- A table for board games, cards or tabletop role-playing.
- A mix.
Each has a main sightline: where people look most of the time. Plan the walls around that.
Zone the walls
The screen wall
The wall with the TV or monitor is what everyone faces. Keep it calm and dark. Bright, busy art beside a screen pulls at the corner of your eye during play. Use dark pieces with plenty of black in them, in matte finishes that won't reflect the picture. See art above a TV or behind a monitor.
The wall behind the seats
Nobody looks at it while playing. It is what people see when they walk in, and what shows behind you on camera. This is the place for the big, bold statement: your largest piece, or a full gallery wall.
The side walls
Good for a row of pieces, shelves of collectibles, or a tapestry.
Choose an aesthetic and commit
The game rooms that look best pick one visual idea.
- Cyberpunk. Neon on black, night cities. Dark walls, pink and blue or red lighting. Japanese City Punk FX.3, Cyberpunk Slick Street and Koi Attack make a strong set of three.
- Synthwave. Grids, glow, retro technology. Cyber Wave Escape and CRT Lion Retro Wave.
- Space. Deep blue and black, stars and nebulae. Starlight City, Black Hole, Scanline Spaceman.
- Fantasy. Forests, portals, dragons. For a tabletop room. See Mystic Outlands.
Original art in a consistent style looks more grown-up than a wall of game box art, and it doesn't date when you move on to a different game.
Colour and light
- Go dark on the walls if you can. Charcoal, navy or black cut screen glare and make neon art glow. See wall art for dark walls.
- Pick two lighting colours and keep to them. See synthwave colour palettes.
- Match the art to the lights. Purple lights with purple art. Red with red.
- Light the art. An LED strip behind a canvas gives it a halo and adds to the room's glow.
- Put a strip behind the screen. It eases eye strain in a dark room.
- Keep the lights dim. Low and saturated looks better than bright.
Format
- Canvas is the best choice for a game room. No glass, so no reflections from screens and LEDs. It also survives a thrown controller better than a glazed frame does.
- Tapestries cover a large wall cheaply and soften the sound in a room with hard surfaces. They make a good backdrop for streaming. See gifts for a streamer.
- Matte posters are an inexpensive way to fill a side wall. Frame them, or use magnetic hangers.
- Glossy framed prints are the format to avoid. They mirror every light in the room.
The desk
If the room has a PC desk, the mat is part of the decor. Choose one that shares a colour with the art above it. See desk mat and wall art pairings and choosing a desk mat by colour scheme.
Collectibles and shelves
Figures, consoles and boxed games are part of most game rooms. They look better with limits.
- Give them one place. A shelf unit or a display case, not every surface.
- Leave space between things.
- Light the shelves from inside, softly.
- Keep art and shelves on different walls, so they don't compete.
Sound
A room full of hard surfaces echoes, which makes voice chat and game audio worse. A rug, a sofa, curtains and fabric on a wall all help with echo. A tapestry takes a little edge off. It won't soundproof the room, and nothing short of construction will.
For a shared or family game room
- Choose art that isn't tied to one person's favourite game.
- Avoid the darkest and scariest pieces if young children use the room.
- Space and landscapes suit all ages.
What to avoid
- Every colour of light at once.
- Art on every wall, edge to edge. Leave some wall empty.
- Bright art beside the screen.
- Glass frames facing the lights.
- Mixing five aesthetics.
A simple plan
- Dark walls, or one dark feature wall.
- Two lighting colours.
- One large canvas behind the seats, lit from behind.
- Two or three smaller pieces in the same style on a side wall.
- A desk mat or tapestry in a matching colour.
- One shelf for collectibles.
Browse the canvas art, tapestries and desk mats collections to build yours.