Most advice about gaming setups assumes a desk, a monitor and a keyboard. A lot of people don't play that way. They play on a console, from a sofa or a chair, on a television. The space is part of a living room or a bedroom, and it has to look good when the console is off.
That changes how you decorate it. There is no desk mat and no monitor wall. There is a TV, a seat, and the walls around both. Here is how to make a console corner look as good as it plays.
Start with the layout
- Distance. A rough guide is to sit about 1.2 to 1.6 times the diagonal of the screen away. For a 55-inch TV, that is 5.5 to 7.5 feet.
- Height. The centre of the screen should be near your eye level when seated. A TV mounted high above a fireplace is hard on the neck during long sessions.
- Glare. Don't put the screen opposite a window if you can avoid it.
- The seat. A sofa, a gaming chair, a floor chair or a beanbag. Whatever it is, face it square to the screen.
The wall behind the TV
This is the wall you look at for hours. Keep it calm.
- Dark and matte. Dark art beside a screen doesn't compete with the picture. Matte canvas doesn't reflect it.
- To the sides, more than above. A tall portrait piece on each side of the TV frames the screen and keeps the art at eye level. All our canvases and posters are portrait, so they suit this well.
- If you hang above, leave 6 to 10 inches over the TV, and keep the art narrower than the screen.
- Or a tapestry behind. A large, dark tapestry behind the TV and its stand makes a backdrop. Choose a design without a central subject, since the screen will cover the middle.
- Nothing bright or busy. It will pull your eye off the game.
See art above a TV or behind a monitor.
The wall behind the seat
You don't see this wall while you play. Everyone else sees it when they walk in. This is the place for the big, bold piece.
- One large canvas centred above the sofa, or a pair or a row of three.
- Width: about two-thirds the width of the sofa in total.
- Height: bottom edge 6 to 10 inches above the sofa back.
Neon city scenes are a natural fit. Japanese City Punk FX.3, a red and pink alley with wet ground, and Cyberpunk Slick Street make a strong pair. See how to measure a wall for art.
The side walls
- A gallery of smaller pieces. Posters and framed prints of the things you like. This is where a collection can grow. See building a gallery wall.
- Shelves. For games, controllers, figures and consoles on display. Mix a leaning print among them.
- A pegboard or rail for headsets and controllers.
Choosing art for a room you share
A console corner is usually part of a room other people use. The art has to work for them too.
- Choose art about a mood, more than about a particular game. A neon street, a starfield or a retro grid says "games" without a logo, and it still looks good to someone who doesn't play.
- Keep to one palette. Two or three colours across the corner.
- Frame it. Framed prints and canvas look like part of a living room. Posters stuck up with tape look like a teenager's bedroom.
See decorating a shared space when tastes clash.
Art by what you play
- Sci-fi and shooters: space and cyberpunk. Scanline Spaceman, Earth Glitched.
- Racing: retro grids and night roads. Cyber Wave Escape.
- Fantasy and role-playing games: forests, portals and dragons. Lost Forest Magic Portal.
- Japanese games: Koi Attack.
- Retro games: glitch and CRT pieces. See CRT and glitch art explained.
- Cosy games: soft, calm pieces. See what is lo-fi art.
Lighting
- Bias lighting. An LED strip on the back of the TV, facing the wall. It makes the picture easier on the eyes in a dark room, and it lights the wall and any art on it.
- No lamp in the reflection. Sit down, turn the screen off and look for bright spots in it. Move whatever causes them.
- A dim lamp behind or beside the seat. Playing in total darkness is tiring.
- Light the art behind the sofa with a strip behind the canvas or a small spotlight.
- One or two colours. Match them to the art.
See how to light wall art with LED strips.
The practical side
- Ventilation. Consoles run hot. Leave several inches of clear space around the vents, and don't shut a console in a closed cabinet. Don't hang a tapestry where it could fall against one.
- Heat and art. Keep art away from the hot air at the back of a console or TV. See art near radiators, vents and fireplaces.
- Cables. Run them behind the stand or through a cable cover painted the colour of the wall. Loose cables under a wall-mounted TV spoil the whole wall.
- Controllers and headsets. Give them a stand, a hook or a drawer.
- Sound. Hard, bare rooms echo. A rug, curtains, a sofa and a tapestry all soften it a little.
If you play at a desk as well
Many people have a console on a monitor at a desk. Then a desk mat makes sense: it gives the controller, the headset and a drink somewhere to sit, and it ties the desk to the art on the wall. See desk mat and wall art pairings.
Small spaces
- In a bedroom: the TV on a chest of drawers, a floor chair or the end of the bed as the seat, one tapestry or canvas on the wall behind.
- In a corner: a TV on a corner stand, one chair, and art on the two walls that meet behind it.
- In a shared flat: keep it to one wall, and use removable hooks.
Three looks
- Neon night: dark walls, two cyberpunk canvases behind the sofa, pink and blue bias light.
- Deep space: navy or grey walls, a space tapestry behind the TV, a single blue light.
- Cosy: warm white walls, one calm landscape, a warm lamp, blankets, no RGB.
For more, see game room and den wall art. Browse the canvas art and tapestries collections.