If you’re a gamer or someone in your family is into video games, you’ll likely want a dedicated space just for gaming. Even better, you could create an entire room that’s set up just for gaming. Read on for clever gaming room ideas and the 6 things you need to plan for so you can create the gaming room of your dreams.

Choose your space

When considering gaming room ideas, the first step is to evaluate your space and determine where your gaming setup should be. For the best gaming experience, think about the best place to put your gaming room. Your ideal gaming room setup should be located:

• In a part of the house that gets a good WiFi signal or has a direct Ethernet port
• Away from bedrooms and other quiet areas.
• Is away from direct sunlight or easy to darken for a truly cinematic gaming experience.
• Has enough space for all of your video games, gaming gear, and gaming furniture.
• Can accommodate all the gamers in your home.
• Can be a multi-purpose space that can do double duty for other purposes, such as family board games, or a family movie and TV space.

Gather your gaming tech

Once you know where you want to create your gaming room, the next step is to take an inventory of your gaming tech.

• Monitors vary immensely but the most important characteristics to consider are:

• Refresh rate: refers to how often the screen would display an image, meaning how smooth the picture looks. Most common ones have 60hz but for this one, higher is better.
• Response time: means the time that it takes the monitor to shift from one color to another, it is usually measured in milliseconds, commonly found around 5ms. Unlike refresh rate, for this one, lower is better.
• Type of panel: is the technology used for the monitor screen and there are three different ones: TN, IPS and VA. Each one has a main characteristic, for example, TN offers high refresh rate but sacrifices on color depth, IPS offers high color depth but sacrifices on refresh rate and VA offers good color depth. good refresh rate but sacrifices a bit on response time. There’s no right or wrong here, it is purely based on your gaming preferences.
• Resolution/Size: relates to the quality of the image and how well the monitor will take advantage of it. 1080p best fits 23” to 25” monitors, while 1440p could benefit more from a 27” monitor. But as with the type of panel, it comes down to your gaming preferences.

• TVs are mostly used for more casual players or games that allow for local multiplayer so that more people can play at the same time and have a better experience. Unlike a monitor, for a TV the most common deciding factor is the resolution and the refresh rate, both being benefit from higher specs.
• Gaming consoles completely depend on your preferences although, they’re usually categorized as PlayStation and Xbox being for hardcore gamers and Nintendo consoles being more family-friendly.
• Computers don’t have a right or wrong option and depend entirely on your needs, but we could say that PCs are intended for in-house gaming and offer a lot more options for customization and maintenance while a laptop grants the possibility to game practically anywhere you want but lacks customization and requires a bit more expertise when it comes to maintenance.
• Speakers, headphones, and audio equipment definitely help set the right environment when gaming, but specifically talking gaming headphones, the most important things to consider are the number of channels, the more it includes the more immersive your experience will be. And close back or active noise-canceling headphones, depending on the noise that surrounds you.
• Export equipment and other gaming accessories.

Make sure there’s enough space and storage in the room for all of your gear. This is especially important if you plan to use the space for other purposes—you’ll want to be able to store all your game tech safely away when not playing video games.

Get the right furniture

Next, make sure you have the right furniture. Sure, you can use a regular desk and office chair for casual gaming, but serious gamers will want to get specialized gaming furniture for the benefits it offers, such as:

• High-back gaming chair. Gaming chairs are best for people who sit for long periods of time thanks to the ergonomic focused design that promotes a healthy posture.
• Sturdy mount for your monitor so you can maintain an ergonomic gaming area, since many monitors out there don’t allow for height adjustment
• Gaming desk with enough space for all of your equipment and to reduce clutter and help with cable-management.

Ideally, you’ll want dedicated furniture for each gamer in the house, if possible. You might also want to consider adding extra seating or setting up a gathering space in your gaming room for other people to hang out.

Choose the right acoustics and insulation

One of the best things about having a dedicated gaming room is that you can make it really immersive with big screens and great sound with some good gaming speakers. You don’t want that great sound to boom throughout the entire house, though, especially if you like to game into the wee hours when other people are sleeping. Carpeting is better than hardwood flooring, and it’s ideal to have this room on a ground floor or in a basement away from shared bedroom walls, floors, or ceilings.

You’ll definitely want to include soundproofing like acoustic panels and other insulation so you can game away without disturbing the rest of the house. These options provide different benefits, such as:

• Soundproofing: It helps prevent sound from transferring to an adjacent room by adding mass and air spaces on the walls that reduce the amount of noise that bleeds out of the room.
• Acoustic treatment: It is primarily focused on reducing the reverb that happens naturally in a room. Most acoustic panels help modify the way sound waves move across the room, consequently improving sound within the space.

Of course, you could always just use your gaming headset to keep that immersive experience with the sound disturbance to a minimum, too!

Don’t forget lighting and decor

Having the right ambiance with good lighting and decoration will make your gaming experience even better. This is the perfect time to consider installing dramatic gaming lights like RGB lighting, nano-leafs, bars, LED and strategically-placed ambient lighting strips.

Lighting technology has evolved a lot in recent years, and you now, you can even get smart lighting systems that react and sync to what’s happening on your TV or monitor for a more immersive experience. There are also gaming chairs with built-in speakers and other interactive features.

Curtains and blinds are a must to keep out light and glare, and help set a dramatic stage for the most thrilling and distraction-free gaming environment.

Make it inclusive for the whole family

Lastly, make sure your gaming room works for your whole family and is inclusive for anyone in your family with disabilities or special needs. Kids with autism, in particular, can greatly benefit from gaming in the following areas:

• Social skills: There are many different types of games nowadays that allow individuals to develop new social skills since they are instantly bound to talk about something they have in common and also thanks to the lack of face-to-face interaction between players, which can often seem intimidating to kids with autism.
• Motor skills: Games that require full body movement are getting more recognition everyday and kids can benefit from these types of games by doing basic coordinated movements to be interpreted as actions inside the game giving them a sense of achievement while having fun.
• Adapting skills: Many games are designed to make the players adapt and create different strategies for different scenarios and this could help kids be more flexible when it comes to dealing with real life situations and reduce the stress this could cause.

Gaming together is a great way to bond with an autistic child and have a fun shared experience together.

Conclusion

The gaming room of your dreams is limited only by your budget and imagination. By choosing the right space, furniture, gear, and more that work best for you and your family, you’re sure to enjoy your new gaming room for years to come.