Create a Custom Game Room
with Favorite Childhood Games

by Veronica Smith

Game rooms can be a lot of fun to decorate, especially since you can use any inspiration you choose for the overall theme. Using an overall game theme works well, and what could be more fun than using your favorite childhood games as the basis for your decorating scheme?

Selecting Your Games

When using games as design inspiration, you can either choose to use only one game as the overall theme, go with an era, or just mix and match decorating accessories depending on what games you and your family like. 

For example, you could pattern the entire room after the game Twister, even going so far as to make a rug with the colored dots or by using a vinyl cutting knife to cut colored circles out of vinyl flooring to piece together a full size or oversized Twister game board on the floor of the room.

Or, you could pay homage to the favorite childhood games of each family member, and mix elements of Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Hungry Hungry Hippo, and whatever other games your family chooses.

Locating the Decorating Supplies

Once you've chosen your game or games, the fun can begin. The fact that they are so easy to find is one of the reasons why decorating with games can be so effective. Even if you want to find vintage game boards and pieces, you can usually hunt them down for a good price at thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales, and online auction sites. Even purchasing new games is usually inexpensive, especially when compared to the price of other home decorating accents. 

If you plan to simulate the game board, game pieces or overall theme of the game on the walls, you might need to purchase some latex wall paint mixed to the appropriate colors. Or, you can simply use acrylic craft paints if you need smaller paint quantities.

Carpet remnant scraps in the appropriate colors are great if you plan to piece together a custom area rug depicting an element of the game.

Childhood Game Decorating Ideas

If you are able to purchase the actual childhood games, you can use the board, box, and the pieces in interesting ways throughout the room. 

The board and box lid can make great wall art, either mounted directly on the wall or framed.

Depending on the size of the game pieces, these can be used as knick knacks around the room, or you can feature them in a shadowbox frame mounted on the wall. 

Painting the game board itself on the wall can be a great way of adding a lot of color and design to the room. It's not as hard as it sounds, especially if you can use an overhead projector to reflect the design onto the wall so that you can trace it.

For example, a room with the multicolored path and designs from Candyland painted around the walls would look great.

If you are decorating with vintage games, you might even be able to search through old magazines and catalogs to find advertisements for the games.  These can be a lot of fun to frame and use as artwork to add an authentic and interesting touch.

Whichever method you choose, you'll find that you and your family will enjoy family game night just a bit more in your newly decorated game room.

Veronica Smith, with AmericanArtisanArt.com, has developed an interest in expanding the use of metal art sculpture as well as copper art sculpture.

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