How to Redesign a Rec Room

If you’re interested in redesigning your rec room, you first need to think about where it's going in the house and what purpose it’ll serve.

The most popular location is the basement, but the garage or a spare bedroom are also pretty standard options for this transformation. Once you’ve settled on a space, the next step is to figure out what exactly you want to achieve. Here are a few ideas:

At-Home Gym

There are many benefits to an at-home gym. Once up and running, they can save time and money as you no longer need to commute to a commercial gym or pay a monthly membership fee. Of course, you do have to invest at the beginning of the project to buy all of the equipment, but it’s a one-time expense as opposed to years of monthly payments. Another bonus of an at-home gym is that you will probably be more motivated to get your workout done for the day, and will have fewer excuses to prevent you from following through on your fitness commitments. The other great thing about a personal gym is that you can design it how you like and maximize the space to accommodate the equipment that works best for you.

If you have space, you could consider installing a long mirror that runs the length of the largest wall to mimic the look of a community gym. You will want to make sure to leave enough floor space for mats because you'll need to properly stretch before and after your workouts.

Since the gym is a place where you want to remain serious, focused, and dedicated, it would be a good idea to use wallpaper that is more modest and neutral. A loud or vibrant pattern may become a distraction and interfere with your fitness goals.

Game Room

If the main purpose of your new rec room is to create a dynamic game room for friends and family to come and spend time together, you'll first have to determine what kind of activities it'll need to accommodate. Will you want a big TV with comfortable couches for big groups to watch movies, or do you want a pool table as the centerpiece with a small bar for competitive, weekend get-togethers? If you have young children, the rec room will take a much more innocent shape with cubbies for toys, gaming stations, tumbling mats, or anything else relevant to your child’s hobbies.

For an adult game room, you can easily place a table in a corner and establish it as the designated spot for board games, cards, or trivia. With the table to the side, you can still have space for larger furnishings that make up a mini theater or pool table area.

Wallpaper recommendations for a game room include fun, wacky, lighthearted, and whimsical styles to mimic the playful vibes.

Reading Room

A rec room can certainly take a more sophisticated shape, especially if you are envisioning a reading room. Contrary to the ideas mentioned above, this would become a quiet escape where you can slip off to in the middle of a stressful day. Privacy, comfort, and coziness are what needs to be evoked by the décor. Comfy chairs, bookcases, a desk, and good lighting would all work well together to create the perfect ambiance for this sanctuary.

Some things that immediately come to mind when ideating a reading room are big couches, a chair in a nook by a window, a large bookcase filled with colorful bindings, a beautiful lighting fixture, and a rug that covers the majority of the floor.

A reading room is cozy, so any wallpaper used to decorate it should be rich in color, but calming. A textural wallcovering would fit the space perfectly, maybe even a twine option to make you really feel wrapped up and secure.

Art Studio

An art room is a creative space that can act as more of an open-concept for a rec room. What’s great about art spaces is that you don’t have to include a lot of furnishing if you don’t want to. You can let the art speak for itself, and display your creations around the room. Art studios are meant to be therapeutic, so you will want to make sure that there are enough windows to let the natural light in. A larger room is preferred because it will allow you to have friends over for group drawing, painting, crafting, or ceramic sessions.

It’s probably ideal to have a decent amount of shelving and cabinets for storage, a large table for a workspace, a countertop with a sink for cleaning art supplies, and a decent amount of open floor space in case you want to lay down a tarp and work on the ground.

For the art room wallpaper, you could do something funky like a striped or plaid design. You could also do something quite literally artistic like a graffiti print. If you’re feeling particularly inspired, you could even go as far as to use your walls as a blank canvas and paint whatever you feel on them.

Home Theater

If your budget allows, a home theater is a luxurious way to transform your old space into the family’s new favorite room. Go big with the largest flat-screen TV you can get, and definitely spend the extra on a high-quality surround sound system. To take it to the next level, install plush upholstery seating that reclines and includes cup holders. You could even put a bar at the back of the room so family and friends can drink and watch simultaneously.

For wallpaper in a home theater, you’ll want to stick with something that has a dark color to really create that movie theater feel. For a dramatic effect, you could implement something with a thick texture like velvet.