On Wednesdays in the winter, friends gather after work in the downstairs game room at Paul and JoAnn Wilkinson’s Mundelein house, sipping drinks at the bar to warm up for the evening’s main event: shooting pool.
Recessed lighting is dimmed, a fire burns in the see-through fireplace, and easy jazz is piped through the built-in stereo system. Billiard balls are cued on the mahogany-finished pool table.
The music grows livelier as the night wears on, with Paul and his cronies shooting pool. Later, they may wind up in front of the fire, dealing cards on the felt-top poker table, or sinking into cushy red sofas to catch sports highlights on the 61-inch projection TV.
Wednesday pool night, which Paul Wilkinson said “breaks your week up into nothing,” is one of countless ways he said his family enjoys its 2-year-old game room.
Once the domain of coin-operated amusement machine hobbyists and the very wealthy, home game rooms are fast gaining widespread appeal as the desire grows to entertain well at home. Compared with indoor leisure areas of yore–bare-bones basement rec rooms where kids went to play or lackluster family rooms centered on a TV–today’s game rooms, like the one at the Wilkinsons’ house, are all grown up.
Game rooms these days should be built with all ages in mind, design experts say, and Chicago-area homeowners are putting as much thought and expense into planning basement entertainment spaces as they do main-level living areas.
“Game rooms are becoming more important than family rooms,” said Lor Vaughan, interior designer for The Rec Room Furniture & Games, which bills itself as offering the world’s largest selection of game room furniture and games. The Rec Room (www.recroomfurniture.com) sells to customers across the Midwest from its 33,000-square-foot showroom in Algonquin.
“People are staying home more, and they’re inviting over friends and family,” Vaughan said. “Game rooms are where people are making memories.”
“Anything goes” when it comes to game room furnishings and finishes, said Vaughan, who has designed rooms that cost less than $5,000 up to more than $100,000. (The Rec Room offers its complete design services free once the customer pays a $500 deposit. The deposit goes toward the customer’s first purchase, she said.)
Longtime rec room accouterments, such as foosball, air hockey, and Ping Pong tables are still popular and are available for usually around a few hundred dollars at specialty stores similar to The Rec Room and at retail chains, including Pool-A-Rama, Sportmart, Wal-Mart and The Sports Authority.
New high-tech video games and pinball machines are also easy to find at electronics stores and game machine dealers, but usually cost in the thousands. The classic game room accessory is still a pool table and, at The Rec Room, the cost for one ranges from $1,000 to $20,000, said Vaughan.
Fast becoming game room must-haves are pricey refreshment bars and high-end stereo and home-theater systems. Even small kitchens and built-in smoke venting systems are more common, experts say.
When planning a game room where options seem limitless, homeowners should first consider the space, most often in the basement, how they want to use it, and how much they want to spend. Will the room be for large parties, intimate family gatherings, or both? What age groups will be entertained there? Will the games be high-tech computer or no-tech playing cards?
For decorating, homeowners might want to choose a style that will mix with the rest of their house, be it contemporary or French country, said Vaughan.
Or, she said, the game room might have a themed look, such as a bright 1950s diner with booths, pinball and jukebox; an English library with rich fabrics, dark finishes and billiards table; or a mountain lodge with woodsy game tables, stone fireplace and antler chandeliers.
Pat and Eileen Conway of Libertyville designed the game room in their new Victorian-style home to have the same friendly appeal as a 1900s corner pub.
A hand-carved oak bar, with its black granite counter and inviting red leather stools, boasts old-fashioned details including brass foot rails and a mirror etched with the Conway name. Nods to this era include a dishwasher, icemaker and built-in cigar humidor.
An antique-inspired oak pool table takes center stage in the game area.
Hugging the walls are colorful coin-operated games: slot and poker machines, a 1970s bowling game, darts, a classic space-themed video game and a popular video golf game. Around the corner are a 65-inch built-in television, fireplace and comfy seating.
A storage corridor hides the long shelves of toys and games belonging to the Conways’ three children, Katie, 11, Kelly, 8, and Patrick, 3. Other hidden features are the stereo, “we opted not to get a jukebox,” Pat Conway said, and smoke ventilation systems.
“We do a lot of entertaining, and we wanted different toys so people can come down and enjoy themselves,” he said.
When the couple isn’t entertaining adults in the game room, Conway added, his children are there with friends, playing Nintendo games, bowling and board games.
The finished 1,400-square-foot basement, including furnishings, a bedroom, bathroom and steam room, cost in the upper five figures, he said.
“My father had a bar in his house when I was growing up, and I always wanted one in my house,” said Conway, saying he remembers the good times he had in taverns when he was younger, playing darts and bowling games.
“This definitely is a guy’s basement. It’s got everything guys like to do: smoke, drink, play games, listen to music.”
Simple game rooms, like the one at Steven and Sandra Marquardt’s Libertyville house, can be just as fun. “Marquardt’s Arcade” is a small, soundproof room in the family’s finished basement that is jam-packed with vintage coin-operated games. The machines, set on free play, include pinball, darts, bowling, a video driving game, a newer video golf game, and the 1980s video favorites Ms. Pac-Man and Asteroids.
The games proved a hit with the Marquardts’ two teenagers, Siiri, 19, and Colin, 15, who have parties in the arcade and on the adjacent wood-parquet dance floor with a vintage jukebox, Marquardt said.
“It’s just fun to have the games in one room,” she said. “The first time other kids come over, they are so excited. They just love it.”
Finding local distributors of new arcade games is easy, experts say, considering Chicago is pinball’s birthplace and home to the world’s only remaining pinball-machine maker, Stern Pinball in Melrose Park.
Locating vintage games is trickier. There are a handful of area dealers specializing in older games, and the machines can be found on the Internet, occasionally at flea markets, or in newspaper classifieds ads.
“Placing a `wanted to buy’ ad in the local paper is an excellent way to find games that have been forgotten in basements or garages,” said Tim Ferrante, editor and publisher of GameRoom Magazine, the monthly publication based in New Jersey for collectors of “coin-op” games and jukeboxes. “But be prepared to tackle a restoration; seldom do these orphaned games work.”
(The magazine’s Web site www.gameroommagazine.com has links to coin-op dealers.)
Both the Marquardts and Conways purchased operable vintage games at Chicago Pinball (847-PIN-BALL) in Libertyville, which specializes in pinball machines but offers an array of coin-op games, including new and classic video games, slots, bubble hockey and jukeboxes. The Web site is www.chicagopinball.net.
Owner Patrick Hamelet said his prices generally range from $500 for a 1970s pinball machine to $4,700 for Golden Tee Fore 2003. A hard-to-find 1990s The Addams Family digital pinball game runs $3,500, a new RollerCoaster Tycoon pinball machine (by Stern) is $4,500, and a new machine marking the 20th anniversary of two all-time favorite video games–Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga–costs $3,500.
“A lot of people are really into the cocooning thing,” said Hamelet, who also repairs machines. “Game prices have gone up because of the lack of availability. And people are spending the $4,500 for new games.”
When the Wilkinsons built their contemporary-style house in unincorporated Lake County eight years ago, they planned to finish the typical new-house basement as a way to keep an eye on their two sons, Paul Wilkinson said.
Today, the downstairs–designed by Wilkinson, contractor David Schlagman of Long Grove, and Vaughan with The Rec Room–is anything but typical. The 1,500-square-foot expanse blends with the rest of the home’s decor and is broken into several intimate areas thanks to open counters and varying floor levels. The fireplace separates the home theater and game table. A mirrored bar at one corner serves up drinks, while a snack bar encloses kitchen appliances and a sink. The floor is carpeted in white Berber, the ceiling has 2-by-2-foot exposed-edge acoustic tiles, and quality wood paneling abounds.
“My wife doesn’t allow smoking in the house, but when we’re down here we can get away with it,” said Wilkinson, gesturing to the smoke filtration system installed above the pool table.
Wilkinson said he considered adding a jukebox, dart board, and pinball machine, but his sons Matthew, 17, and Garrett, 15, were not interested. They prefer computers, he said, and often host parties for a dozen or more friends, who bring their own computers, hook up to the same local network, and play computer games. Movies on the big-screen TV, card games, pool, and board games are also popular with the younger Wilkinson set.
“People are always coming and going,” Wilkinson said. “The boys’ friends practically live at our house.”
The Wilkinsons’ downstairs game room was a hefty chunk of change, about $80,000, Wilkinson said, noting the project also included a new bathroom (a necessity to keep guests from wandering upstairs, he said), and a bedroom.
“It was well worth it,” Wilkinson said. “I don’t care if we don’t get the money back out of it if we sell. I built this for myself and my family.”
But, he added, “I don’t know why we wouldn’t get our money back.”
Elements of design
– Because of their nature, game rooms tend to be noisy and are often in basements. But homeowners can designate any unused, somewhat removed space, including an attic, as long as there is easy access and strong floors to hold heavy loads. Lor Vaughan of The Rec Room said one of her clients converted a barn into a game room.
– Drink bars and small kitchens make entertaining a snap, game room owners say, and adding a bathroom is recommended if there is not already one nearby. Don’t forget to include storage for toys, audio-visual components and other items.
– Talk to younger members of the household to find out what they’d like in a game room–children and teens may be more interested in computer games than pinball machines.
– Early on, consider including such built-in amenities as smoke filtration systems, surround-sound home theater and stereo systems, and computer networks.
– To make a basement game room feel like part of the main level, try keeping the decor in tune with the rest of the house. Installing floorings such as carpet, wood or even stone tile and covering walls with warm wood paneling, painted faux finishes or wallpaper make a game room inviting, Vaughan said.
