Creating a safe and fun game room for kids doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. Here are some great tips, ideas, and inspiration to get you started!
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Kids Game Room Ideas
Creating a kid’s game room is a lot like creating a kid’s playroom. You want to it to be a place where they can be creative and fun, but you also need it functional and you need to not feel like you want to throw everything away all the time.
Having a place for your kids to play is important because it gives them a sense of autonomy and teaches them how to play on their own or with their siblings. Which will ultimately help teach them conflict resolution since we all know they’re going to end up fighting over the same toy even in a room full of toys.
In this post, we’ll give you some tips on how to create the perfect game room for your kids, regardless of age.
While we will be creating a separate post for creating great space for older kids, your tween or teen can still enjoy a lot of these spaces!
We hope to give you some inspiration that will give you everything you need to know about creating a fun space in your house that will help entertain those kiddos.
Tips to Create The Best Kid’s Game Room
Choose a space for your kids to play in
This seems to be a logical first step, but many times the reason it seems that kids’ stuff is everywhere is because there’s not a dedicated space for it.
What’s that saying? “A place for everything and everything in its place,” right?
If there’s not a dedicated space for the kids’ toys and games, it will likely end up all over your house. This can be especially hard since you may want to keep an eye on those little people and make sure they’re safe and not hurting themselves (or others).
So, if you do or don’t already have a playroom or game room, determine what needs to be in this space. Sometimes the space that will be the game room is a spare bedroom. Sometimes it’s shared space with a home office.
Sometimes if you’re lucky, you can have a giant basement with all the space for an epic game room with vintage pinball machines, table tennis, air hockey and a rock climbing wall.
Find furniture that is kid-friendly and can withstand wear and tear from the children
This is crucial, regardless of the age of your kids.
Yes, the hope is that your kids will be down there so busy playing that there doesn’t need to be any furniture like a couch or a recliner, but think about when adults are down there with them.
Getting up and down off of a floor can be quite cumbersome. So, for those times when there’s grownups around, we need to make sure there is furniture that adults can sit on – and let’s face it, the kids will sit on it too.
Or jump off it. Or create forts with it. Or use it as weapons. Who knows?
Some ideas for kid-friendly furniture:
- A couch or futon with a slipcover so it can be easily wiped down or washed
- Furniture that is lightweight so it can be moved easily like gaming chairs or chairs that are meant to stay on the floor
- Sofas with pull-out ottomans are great for providing extra seating when needed
- A sectional is a great option if you have the room because it provides a lot of seating and can anchor the space
- If you have a coffee table, make sure it is one with rounded corners so kids don’t hurt themselves or others by falling (or throwing someone) onto them
- Rugs that are washable and able to be scrubbed clean whenever necessary
- Faux leather recliners are a great option if there’s room, especially if you have tweens or teens as they’ll probably want to lounge with friends or their siblings at some point
Add kid-friendly decorations like pillows, lamps, or paintings on the wall
You could create a game “theme” if you’d like. For instance, if you have a lot of sports things in your game room, you could use a wall mural that made it look like you’re in a football stadium.
If you have a rock climbing wall or an indoor play gym of sorts, you could add wallpaper that has mountains or outdoor scenery to it.
And don’t think that just because it says kid friendly that automatically means “childish” or even ugly.
For instance, the Target Pillowfort line sells some really great lamps and decor that has a kid “theme” to it, but it doesn’t feel super tacky.
If you’re not into creating an entire mural or paintings, you could always try wallpaper that is fun, yet subtle. Perhaps some tie dye wallpaper would be an option! You could also choose a paint color that you may not have in the rest of your house. If you’ve got older kids, going with a bold or dark navy paint color might be fun or you could do light and bright to bring some fun color into the space.
Create a designated area for playing with toys or reading books
It’s inevitable that you’re going to come up with all these incredible kids game room ideas and have pool tables, ping pong tables, board games, or even an entire retro arcade and one of your kids is going to just want to read and that’s okay!
Reading is awesome and if that’s how they want to play or even just take a break from game stimulation, reading is a great choice. So make sure that everyone can be happy in the space by having a section for each.
Whether it’s a little nook in the corner of the room with a play tent or a giant window that you can create a little window seat with great natural light, your aim should be to create a play space for kids to enjoy.
The truth is if you’re going to be spending some time down there with your kids and you’re not playing games yourself then chances are that you are going to want to read or do something else anyway so make sure that there’s a space for you too! You could also just make sure that some of that kid friendly furniture is going to support adult sized butts.
Provide plenty of storage spaces so you don’t have piles of stuff everywhere
This one I can not stress enough. Storage spaces are going to keep your house from looking messy and jumbled. Storage is absolutely necessary.
Depending on how you have your kids game room set up and what age your kids are, how you store things will vary and that’s okay.
You may have room for custom built ins with storage in a game room, but if you’re working with a smaller space, sometimes just plastic bins or storage baskets can work.
If you’re short on floor space, don’t neglect the walls for storage. Open shelving or storage cubes are a great way to store all the games, books, DVDs, etc.
You can also consider repurposing something you have in your house into storage for the kid’s game room. A simple bench with storage underneath or even an ottoman that opens into storage is another great option.
You can use dual purpose furniture and have a couch with storage built in that you can store things inside of.
Kids’ Game Room Examples
If you’re looking for some inspiration for game room ideas for kids, here are some awesome photos to hopefully spark your imagination.
Kids will be excited to play in a room that is their own. It’s not just an investment of time and money, but also emotional energy on your part as the parent, grandparent, auntie, caretaker – whoever! Creating a game room for kids can provide them with something they’ll love and enjoy for years to come.
Now that you have a few ideas, it’s time to put them into action. There’s no such thing as “too much” when it comes to adding fun and entertainment for the kiddos. It will be worth it to see their faces light up as they see it and bring their friends home.
Building an epic kids game room is not as difficult or expensive as you may think. With some creativity and a little elbow grease, your home can go from being just another house to the coolest place on the block!
