"Hobby/Game Room" Topic

Now that my wife has here dream house, I have been granted space in the basement for my dream Game/Hobby room. Hopefully and area large enough to store the hordes of items I have acquired over the years, (although I don't know if I want here to realize how much I have), enough space for at least a 4'x8' gaming table and a space for a workbench. To that end I am looking for suggestions, pictures, ideas etc of what I will need and or should look for. i.e. Lighting, Game table height, shelving etc.. What do other people have/use/wish for etc?

Feel free to add pictures of your spaces/man game caves. (Or woman game caves)

Thanks
Moe

In on this thread…. My new house and basement will be done in July. Looking for ideas for the game room!

Here are some ideas:

link

Here's mine. This is a link to a blog post of mine from last year. It shows the construction of my table (four tables actually) as well as the finished room (well, mostly finished since storage and so forth is an ongoing development).

link

I think the construction of the table is pretty straight forward from the pictures, but I'd be happy to answer any questions. The shelves were originally intended for storage, butwe reconfigure the tables often enough that we always needed the things on the inside shelves. It just so happened that the shelves are the perfect height for a ca of soda, so now they are the out of the way safe place to keep the food and drinks off the table, as well being a place I can buy a prefab shelf for as a slide out writing or panting table.

Dave, Good luck.. We are 99.999999% done and waiting on our Temp CO as we speak.

AoW, Ummm… WOW… That's fantastic, huge, and probably expensive?

Dan,
Good info. How are the tables holding up? Any sagging? are the shelves useful? Would you have made them taller/deeper etc?

I was thinking about using these for my legs, link YOu can go with or without the middle shelf which would give me room for more terrain etc, or without I can put large tubs underneath for storage.

I already have one set for my work bench, maybe thinking 6'x3'. Or does that seem too deep? (36")

What do people use for lighting?

Also, are your tables on wheels, or do you just drag them around when needed?

How about cheap storage shelving? Ideas?

I think what is in your picture would make a great gaming table with plenty of storage underneath for terrain, etc.
My personal game table at home is three 2 1/2' x 5' folding tables which gives me a 5' x 7 1/2' layout to game on, which isabout as much as my small room will take.

Moe, my tables are holding up wonderfully. There's no sagging because of all the internal bracing. The frames are made of 2x4s and 2x6s. The internal "E" brackets that make up the shelf dividers keep the press board from sagging. I've had some complaints on the height of the lower edge of the table. Some of my 6' tall friends can't sit with legs under the table to write on the table top. I made the legs from "L" shaped 2x6s and cut them to 32" long. I was more concerned about the height of the table TOP. I made it the height I did so I (a 5'8" guy) could reach just beyond the midpoint across a 6 ft table.

When they are together the table is some combination of 4 4ftx6ft tables. It was planned as 6'x16', but of late we have been leaving the end tables turned the long way so the full length right now is at 20'. I've been thinking about finding a way to put wheels on them, but they get leaned on too often. I don't know how I'd anchor them when I don't want them to move. Being four separate tables on a tile floor I can slide them around on my own without too much trouble.

As for storage I just go to Menards (a Midwest big box home improvement chain like Home Depot) to get the five shelf resin-plastic shelving units that normally run about $40 USD when they go on sale for $30. USD I pick up one or two each time so that now I have six of them in a side room from the main game area (which we call "the Armory").

Moe, I forgot to answer your shelf question. The shelves under the table are used all the time, just not for what I planned. We set books, papers and other clutter down there as well as sodas and plates of food (we do a lot of pot luck days since I have a fridge down there and can plug in a crock pot or 2). If you look at the picture with the table leaning up against the wall with the two "E" shaped brackets installed you can see the pattern of the interior shelves. Each 4x6 table has four shelves that are approximately 24x24x6" and one shelf that is 24x48x6" that goes all the way through the table. What you see leaning up against the wall in that picture is actually the bottom of one table waiting to be screwed onto a base frame (seen in another picture standing upright on the floor). Then once this was attached to the base and painted OD green the table top was screwed down.

When I get home I will take some pictures of my room. I built the shelves into the walls to save floor space.

Rule NUBER ONE! Never ever (and I mean never) allow anything to be stored "temporarily" in the basement. You will never get the space back…

Since I have different hobby interests from day to day I bought 4 of the folding banquet tables – they can be configured for 6 by 10 to 2.5 by 24.

Here are three quick shots of the room. The size of the room is 13 x 20 feet. The table is 6 by 12 feet. All the shelves are built into the walls except for the low shelves under the paintings.

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link

Under the table I built one large shelf that is 4 by 10 feet so I can store board games, terrain and such.

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It is not quite as elegant as som of the table designs I have seen, but it works.

Since it was built, the room has been flooded 3 times, so the carpet has been replaced the same amount of time. After the last flooding we had the drainage of the house piped underground and out to the storm drains. What a mess. Store things on the floor in plastic tubs now. 2 years water free. One thing is for sure. If you want to get rid of old rules, water damage will help you out. And it was all an act of god and not covered under the insurance.

Still, I am very grateful for the space to game in. Only took 42 years to get there.

I thought the picture would display. Hmmm. Sorry for that.

Matthew

Very nice 45th. I originally planned shelving just like that under my tables, but by the time I built 4 of them I had had enough carpentry. :) So I use 20 Gal totes underneath the table for fields, trees, scatter terrain, roads, rivers, and small hills.

I am with you there Dan. My table top attaches from underneath. It is a pain to take off. In fact I missed replacing one of the screws and I have one board popping up. I am having trouble motivating myself to clear out that shelf and crawl back under the table to fix it. But this last game session it really annoyed me so I guess I know what my weekend plan is.

I think the plastic totes (clear ones so you can see what's in them) are really great. I have been switching over from photocopy paper boxes. There got to be so many different labels on them over the years as I moved things around, that I never was really sure what was in them. The water helped to force the clean up and organization.

Matthew

I still have some work to do on mine but it's getting there.

Having the tables on wheels helps at it all stacks away under the new model railway section.

link

Jules

I am a huge fan of the Elfa shelving systems from the Container store. The best modular shelving you can get, and not that bad if you wait til one of their 30% off sales.

Moe, going through the same right now. Melissa and I should be closing on a new place in April sometime. Looks like I get a 10 feet by 20 feet room. No idea what to do. Ernie you should come down and help me plan my room. :) It's only about 30 minutes from your place.

Joey

Okay, it looks like we got lots of table ideas and suggestions on under table storage. One problem I will be facing will be the lack of walls since this is a unfinished basement. So free standing shelves will be used for now I think. Maybe I will use them to define the space.

Now what about work areas and lighting. I was lucky enough to pick up some of game craft miniatures hobby shelves and paint organizers. Hopefully I can put them to use. What else would your recommend?

For those of you who might be in a basement, what do you do about concrete flooring? Rubber mats, carpet strips etc?

Keep up the suggestions folks!

Moe

For flooring on concrete floors, those gel mats sold for kitchens are GREAT, but can be expensive (my wife has them on our tile). I believe there are industrial-style cheaper ones available--I saw some once in one of those big catalogs for tools/garage/etc catalogs. Our basement has a linoleum floor that looks like wood flooring, but what is cool is that we bought a thicker linoleum that was still cheap but had a give/cushion to it.

I have never seen linoleum with a give/cushion. humm

I've seen those workshop mats but wonder how good they really are? I have yet to define my space but at 2700Sq' I shouldn't have an issue finding enough room.

For lighting I went with work shop fluorescent lights. Run all the wires along the ceiling and attach them to a power strip near the entrance. You can use the power strip as a light switch that way.

We put carpet down in the basement and put up drywall (not that hard IF the walls already have the frames around the walls). If you leave the ceiling bare it does not count as finished space for tax purposes but it helps sell it later.

Without a padded carpet I'd just tell everyone to wear comfortable padded sneakers on game night!

The one thing carpet does is to keep the basement warm feeling in the winter. So you get that going for you as well as the cushion in the padding. If you do have carpet put in, don't go for the cheap padding. Get the thicker padding, it has made the difference to me. Plus the figures don't break and chip if they fall to the floor.

If you don't want to put up walls you can also get white block sealer and paint the walls white. It will brighten up the room and you will have to do it anyway when you decide to wall the room to help create a moister barrier.

We already have insulation blankets, so that will keep us a little warmer.. And they're white.. :). I like the carpet idea… If not for the fig dropping factor alone.

I've converted the basement and also the work room into a military history library

link

Florescent light tubes come in different colors/temperatures Kelvin: 3000 K is equal to incandescent; 5000 K is considered "Daylight". Shop around for different tube colors, but make sure your lights can handle them, as they come in different sizes/types, and they are not universal fitting. Look at the Lumen output of each tube, and add up how many you think you will need/want down there. White walls and ceilings, will reflect more light; bare wood, even if it is light-colored, will absorb a lot of light, making it darker down there.

I installed 8 tubes of florescent lights in my garage (20' x 21'), ceiling white paint on walls, and ceilings, bare concrete floor: it is plenty bright, I think the Lumens total around 4,800 to 6,400 -- it is pretty bright, at night, which is exactly what I wanted, as I will be working on a motorcycle, at night, and I want to be able to see!

Try to place the lights such that there are no shadowed areas -- put them in a square formation, away from the walls, but not centered, either, so that they overlap each other in areas they illuminate (minimum of four lights, arranged in a square, facing same directions -- two parallel lines of lights). This will help diffuse the light, scattering it, eliminating most shadows.

Avoid can lights. Period! Went with recessed can lights, in our game room, and even though the contractor assured us we would have so much light, we would need a dimmer, he was dead wrong. Need some torchiere halogen lights to really brighten it up… Avoid can lights!

Be sure to invest in a good dehumidifier. Tap the tank receptacle, attach a drain hose, and run it to a floor drain, so that you will never need to empty the collection tank. Humidity will destroy any paper rulebooks, storage boxes, etc. Cheers!

Sgt Slag,

Great information. We only have bare bulbs and I was thinking of some fluorescents. We have some cans upstairs and you are right, great for mood lighting etc but not the best for gaming.

So what are people using for desk/work lights? And work desks?

I use LED's as much as possible (cut our lighting electricity cost down to 1/6 of what it was). Florescents give great Lumens for the buck, but they also pump out UV which will fade everything they hit. I would suggest looking at LED lighting options for the best all-around: they come on fully, instantly, no warming up required; they burn around 1/6 the watts for the same output in Lumens as incandescents; they are quite amazing both in longevity (20 years of normal usage, or 50,000 hours of continuous usage), and they come in a wide range of colors (3,000 K -- incandescent; 5,000-6,000 K -- Daylight). Cheers!

@Sgt Slag

Thank you. That's good info.