Game Rooms Merge Old Standards, Wireless
03/19/2008

These days, there are basically two ways to shoot pool. You can hold a cue, or you can hold a Nintendo Wii controller.

If you’re putting a game room in your house, chances are you’ll want both.

Interior design experts say home game rooms are still the dark, pub-like places they have always been, but electronics are becoming more important — so important that having a good electrician is as essential as having a good wet bar.

For the first time, people who have grown up with video games are reaching a stage in life where they not only are buying homes, but have the buying power to afford the luxury of a game room.

Sharon McCormick, a spokeswoman for the American Society of Interior Designers, said game rooms have been around in the United States since the late 1800s, when industry barons would install billiard rooms and separate cigar smoking areas for men.

While some of the elements are the same today, a lot has changed.

“No man in his right mind would tell his wife not to enter the room,” McCormick said.

The Final Room

McCormick said game rooms have always been afterthoughts.

“It seems to be people who are in their 30s and 40s who have been settled in their home for a while, or they’re upgrading to a new home, but who kind of already have a lot of luxuries,” she said. “They’ve decorated the rest of their house and this kind of comes to my clients at the end.”

As such, the game room often ends up being in a basement, or a leftover bedroom.

One of the first things such a room will need is a good electrician, said Kerry Fletcher, a member of the American Society of Interior Designers who has a design firm in Pearland.

“They’re so centered these days on electronics that it’s no longer about pool and board games and sitting around playing your guitar,” she said.

Room To Move

Considerations might include where and how to mount a large, flat panel television for a home theater system, a separate TV for the bar and separate wiring for electronics and lights in separate areas.

McCormick said that while home theaters are increasingly common in game rooms, her clients still desire time-honored features such as pool tables, arcade games and dart boards. Retro arcade games such as Mrs. Pac-Man built into a unit that also served as a cocktail table, are popular.

Combine that into a room with a home theater system, and you’ll need separate lighting for each of those elements, she said.

And the designers said space is now a much bigger consideration than it used to be. Not only does a game room need adequate space for people to maneuver in a game of pool, but it needs room for gaming systems that increasingly rely on the physical movements of participants.

“I have a Wii for my game room, and luckily I don’t have a coffee table, because if I did, you really couldn’t play the Wii,” Fletcher said.

Getting Wired

At a National Home Builders Association symposium last fall, designer Utz Baldwin discussed the top 10 “must-have technology trends” for homes.

Among them were separate, dedicated rooms for home theater and games, including ever more sophisticated gaming systems.

And her list shows evidence that entertainment and multimedia are no longer confined to rooms but spanning the entire home. Multiroom sound systems, accessible anywhere in the house and connected to MP3 players, are increasingly popular.

Often, there’s a dedicated computer used as a media server, allowing thousands of hours of music and other media to be shared among devices in different parts of the home, Baldwin said.

Get The Feeling

Aesthetically, game rooms have gone upscale, with high-end materials: stone, granite, oak, copper sinks, luxurious textiles and leather, McCormick said.

“People gravitate toward darker walls because it makes the space feel cozy, and it’s a room that’s often used at night, so it kind of gives you that … feeling.”

Choice of fabric is important for noise control, she said.

Despite these trends, it’s possible to turn an extra room into a game room without going broke.

McCormick said homeowners should start with a budget and then decide what to put in it — and when — allowing the room to develop over time.
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