4 ways to transform that spare bedroom

When building or moving into a new home, it’s always nice to find that you have a bonus room. This is effectively an extra room that can serve any purpose you like, be it as a makeshift guest room when you have overflow during the holidays, a space for kids to play, or a special place for you to practice whatever hobby might interest you. Or at least, that’s the idea. All too often however, we allow these rooms to go more or less unused, such that they wind up primarily as storage spaces and places to put a guest on an air bed in a pinch.

We have a few ideas, however, on how to get more out of a bonus room and turn it into a great asset for your home.

Make A Modern Game Room

By game room, we’re referring in this case specifically to video games. This has always been a popular use for bonus rooms, though in the past it basically meant having a couch, a TV, and a gaming console set up in whatever way makes the most sense. Now, however, there is so much more possible equipment that can be purchased so much more affordably, it’s possible to actually design the whole room to revolve around gaming. For instance, dark paint or wallpaper can be used to “shrink” the room from the eye’s perspective, and help the eyes zero in on the games. Comfortable couches can be customized to make the environment more appealing. Surround sound can be achieved with a few speakers rather than some elaborate system hooked up in every corner. And nowadays some people even set up space for virtual reality, which is fast becoming a popular version of in-home gaming. It requires some spending, but ultimately you can make a spectacular bonus gaming room with relative ease.

Design A Classy Poker Den

This is another form of game room, though naturally a more old-school version of the concept. A poker room can easily be somewhat tacky, but there are ways to design one that’s quite classy as well. You’ll want to start by furnishing the room more like a study or lounge than some basement den. That means soft carpet, lamps instead of overhead lights, paintings instead of posters, and uniform furniture instead of mismatched loungers.

We’d also suggest one or two additional touches.  You can find rankings of different hands or overarching rules of poker online and arrange them as a poster or plaque to hang in the room. Others can be art-based. You could also find any famous painting involving cards or poker and hang framed replicas. Little touches like these intensify the poker atmosphere and make the room that much more unique. Then all that’s left is a table suitable for card games and perhaps a small bar counter setup if there’s space.

Go For The Home Cinema

Much of what we’d specifically say for a home cinema overlaps with the game room concept above. Though it should be mentioned that people these days can build home cinemas on the cheap. The extreme high-end TVs are easily skipped (you don’t need a “smart” TV for an extra $400), projectors are unnecessary, and in some cases your smartphone can serve as a universal remote, for instance. Here as with a poker room you can add a few personal touches, such as framed posters for famous or favorite films. But the core concept is fairly straightforward and, with good strategizing, can be surprisingly affordable \.

Make It A Creative Space

A creative space can be all kinds of things. But whether you’re a part-time writer who needs a desk and a few materials on hand to be at your best, a crafting enthusiasts who tends to make a mess through the process, a painter who likes to have canvases spread out, or whatever else, a bonus room can be a perfect creative studio of sorts. Because this can mean so many things we won’t point to specific tips. But generally speaking if you have good lighting, a few surfaces, some open space, and a closet, chest, or set of drawers of some kind for supplies, you can design this sort of room any way you like.

  • Updated February 8, 2020
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