The pandemic made one thing very clear: we should spend as much time we have remaining here on earth with the people who matter to us. Sometimes, because life gets too busy and we get too focused on our goals, we forget about how important it is to invest time, money, and effort into being with our families. But because we had to stay mostly at home for the better part of the past 18 months, we slowly realized how amazing our own families are. Even for those who argued nonstop during the past year and a half, you can’t argue the fact that you’ve seen your families compromise, forgive, and appreciate each other.
With experts saying this isn’t the only pandemic we might see in our lifetimes, it’s time to think about how to make your home a haven for the rest of the family. The first order of business is to build an entertainment room. Wasn’t it too boring the past year because you’re all stuck in your own rooms with nothing better to do than watch TV or browse social media?
A family entertainment room is an exceptional idea because it has all the frills you’ll want. Maybe you can even put an arcade game table in one corner of the room for those who aren’t too fond of movies. How about a ping-pong table? That’s something to consider, too. But before you go ahead and plan what to put in the entertainment room, focus first on the most important things:
Finding the Right Room
An extra room is not a given for every household. You’ll be lucky to have a small laundry room because real estate has grown exponentially in the past decades. So, what will you do if you want a family entertainment room? The basement is the most practical space for an entertainment room since it is mostly soundproofed, and it covers almost half of the entire square foot of the house.
But if you do not have a basement (and if you have elderly people in the family who can’t go up and down the stairs anymore), the next solution is to convert the garage. Before you do it, however, look for a garage-door business that manufactures or distributes durable garage door options. You can install soundproofing materials on the interior side of the door so that your neighbors can’t hear what you’re all watching and doing.
Cleaning, Organizing, and Decluttering the Room
Admit it; the garage is more of a storage space than an area for your car. You’re using the street parking anyway, so why not convert the garage into an entertainment room, right? Once you’ve decided to convert the garage, clean and organize it from top to bottom. You don’t need to throw away everything from it but focus on making sure everything has its proper place. You can allow one wall of the garage for storage.
Fitting and Designing the Room
What kind of design do you want for the room? Do you want it to be dark like a cinema so it can be a nice place to watch movies? Or, do you want the room to be brighter? If it’s the latter, you need more windows where the sunlight can stream in. Also, install the lights strategically around the room so that those who want to play ping-pong in the corner can do so without bothering the ones who are watching a movie at the other end of the room.
To get the consensus of the family about how to design the entertainment room, talk as a group and get insights from everybody. Don’t make the elder ones feel left out. Ask them what type of games they want to see in the room and make sure they have a space for them, too.
Figuring out What to Put in the Room
To be fair to everybody, create sections in the room. Hopefully, the converted garage is large enough to have one wall allotted to shelves with storage containers, while the rest of the room is divided into sections for board games, video games, and arcade games. The center of the room should be for a large projector screen while the wall opposite that can be used for a minibar.
It is expensive and time-consuming to redesign any room in the house to convert it into a family room. However, can you imagine going through the past year again without anything to do but stare at your phone? Aside from the possibility of another pandemic, the family entertainment room is where you’ll make all the nice memories you’ll carry with you to old age.
