Life Size Diorama of Game Room

[chaosscorpion 2362]

At the suggestion of Adrift and Metalchaos I present you with the WIP of transforming my Game Room.  The costs of the endeavor were a Christmas present from my wife.  My wife was very understanding during the process and there were instances where we learned to communicate with each other better.  I know that we are closer because of this project.  This will be a lengthy post as the project is complete.  It start in late October with the gutting of my old room, that had been used as a interim bedroom prior to our son heading to college and ended with the christening of the room on Good Friday with the initial game being held in the room.

 

The room had been and electrical work shop in the basement.  The walls were covered in old paneling, that was rotting along base due to moisture.  Our college age son was looking for some cash so his mom had him strip the walls bare.  At this point I assessed that the moisture issue was largely in part to the poor mortar joint between the masonry wall and concrete floor and the moisture wicking through the block.  I set to clean out the joint along the three exterior walls with a 3/8" masonry bit and hammer drill to a depth of 3/4".  Once the joint was cleaned out I placed a 3/4" backer rod compressed to half its height and poured in a self-leveling waterproof seal.  With that done I moved on to the wall giving it three coats of waterstop paint.  There are no pictures from these early steps but the photo log begins from here.  I would have been happy with the painted block receiving a top coat of a chosen color but my wife told me we were making it a real room; we were going to expend the energy once and do it RIGHT.

 

 

The next step was the installation of insulation board, and furring studs.

 

 

Note the light that for the most part was the only source of light in the room it was hot wired with a pull chain switch to turn it on and of that would be one of the first things to change.  With the walls open I was able to add two outlets along the interior wall and run wiring for a switched set of lights over the game table area.

 

 

As I worked on the interior electrical work my wife charged on with the installation of moisture resistant drywall and taping joints.

 

 

Next my wife installed a hardwood panel and stained it, in the location of the built in bookshelves.

 

 

The interior wall backs up to the media center for the basement, I decided to cut an access to the back of the media center through the wall for easier access to all of the connections.

 

 

I decided the cover the lower portion of the interior wall with a tongue and grove bead board.  We placed a cap shelf at 48" and run variable shelves in the interior stud space for display, and affixed pegboard for hanging figs in blisters.  The outlet will be for future LED lighting.

 

 

With the drywall taped we started to choose colors and pick paints. My five year old son wanted to help and started to paint the north wall.

 

 

Next just some progress shots.  Notice the new overhead lights that are centered over the future gaming location.  These are now tied in with a switch at the door to the room.

 

 

And a size check for the fig shelves.

 

 

The final color selections

 

 

I have this lovely axe that my wife bought for me a number of years ago and I wanted to display it prominently, so one of the areas in the display wall was for it.  The other photo is of the door for the axe display being assembled.

 

 

Look at the cool outlet and light switch plate covers my wife found.

 

 

Remember that wall opening to access the media center on the other side of the wall?  Well the idea I had to cover it was a sewer grate.  We took aluminum stock and fastened it with pop rivets to create the grate, and then sprayed it with hammered metal spray paints, Wrought Iron and Copper for the rusty finish we got.

 

 

In the second photo you can see the start of the bookshelves.  They are made with red oak for all of the supports and maple for the shelves themselves.  The shelves will be 16" deep when complete.

 

Progress shots walls painted, floor going in.  I the last two stud bays with all of the electric, intercom and central vac, I chose to cover the bay with a corkboard.

 

 

The doors for the display cases for the axe and our Reaper Paint Medals.

 

 

And additional progress on the shelves.

 

 

The plain west wall got a special wall mural treatment.  This took two tries, as the first ones seams were badly damaged during shipping.  The mural outfit we were working with sent us a second straight away when we sent them photos.  It all worked out great in the end.

 

 

In the middle of this journey Reaper Bones II showed up.

 

 

Shelf progress.

 

 

 

So it was time to decide in the pegboard loading and filling the bookshelves.

 

 

 

 

 

Room nearing completion

 

 

In between my game table got some loving too.  My wife added some pull out writing area, and some shelves underneath that now contain my Dwarven Forge Corridors.  

 

The table is a 3/4", 4' x 8' sheet of plywood, with a whiteboard top, 2" x 4" frame and 4" x 4" post leg construction.  The whiteboard top had a blemish, from years ago, during assembly when a friend helping adhering the whiteboard to the plywood, made a brush contact between the two surfaces coated in contact cement and they STUCK, just like they poke fun of in comedies.  Because of this I placed a new whiteboard top on top of the old one. I considered placing an acrylic sheet on top of the whiteboard. My wife's convinced me, and I went out and purchase a 1/4" sheet of acrylic to place on top, of felt furniture spacers, and then trimmed the edges with oak corner protectors.

 

 

At this opening I had a toast with a bottle of Duchesse de Bourgogne for the room with my friends and family.  In my toast I thanked my wife for all of her hard work in making the game room a success, and making the feast grand with all of the extras she bought for it.

 

 

The spread of food from that first night, that was made awesome by my wife extras to make it grand.

 

 

I wish to post my thanks and love for my wife here as well.  To my Wife! Thank you Babe.

 

Comments and questions welcome.

 

I will be starting a poll regarding the display of items on the top shelf of the book shelf.  Should the dragons be displayed in their boxes to protect them, or pulled from their boxes to be displayed in their full glory.

Edited April 21, 2015 by chaosscorpion

[Corporea 19320]

wow- this is amazing!!!  What a wonderful project for the whole family!

[Dr.Bedlam 32986]

......oooOOOOooooo......

[Silvervane 11438]

What an great looking room so far, sure to be filled with many days of hobby time.

[chaosscorpion 2362]

Thank you all,  I guess during my editing the post got posted, and now that I am finished I see that not all of the rest of my work is here.  There maybe some edits if you looked at this previously.

 

Sorry

[Kuro Cleanbrush 7175]

Incredible!  I love it, and I can only hope to have such an awesome gaming room someday!

[Talae 33690]

/drool

[lexomatic 5037]

I'm jealous. I would totally do something (on a smaller scale) except that my basement WILL require underpinning to get finished. Considering I spent 8 months trying to get quotes for that with a number of contractors just ignoring me, the odds of that happening are pretty minimal.

It turned out great too.  I know how satisfying it is when all that hard work is finished and you get to enjoy the results.

[ShadowRaven 54416]

Jealousy....it is overtaking me....

[Bruunwald 3398]

You know, I have boxes full of blistered minis. Never occurred to me to throw up some racks to hang them on.

 

Thinking about it now, thanks!

[chaosscorpion 2362]

You know, I have boxes full of blistered minis. Never occurred to me to throw up some racks to hang them on.

 

Thinking about it now, thanks!

Pegboard from your local hardware store and 4" pegboard display hooks. 

[Loth 577]

Must have dragons out of boxes so they help dominate room!!!

 

Great room, your wife is a keeper!!!

[pcktlnt 33927]

Lots of shinies! Grats on the room. ^__^

[Jokemeister 3614]

I don't see your wife in any of the pictures of the game group.  Was she taking the pictures or did she do all that work despite NOT being part of the game group?  If so, BEST WIFE EVER!!!

[youwashock 1788]

Downright inspirational.