Turning the Garage into a Game Room: What to Check First

A lot of homes near the parks have a garage that does nothing for the listing. Guests don't book a house for a place to park. They book it for a game room the kids won't leave.

We've built game rooms in garages across the resort communities around Kissimmee. The owners who end up happy are the ones who checked a few things before buying a single arcade cabinet. Here's that list, the way we'd walk you through it on a call.

Vacation rental interiors from our Kissimmee shop since 2004.

Check the rules before anything else

Every resort and HOA treats garages differently. Some care about the garage door staying operable, some about what's visible from the street, some about parking. Get the written rules from your HOA or management company first. We'd rather you find a problem on paper than after the room is built.

If the county or city needs a permit for the work you want, that comes before the design too.

Air conditioning makes or breaks it

A Florida garage without real cooling is not a game room guests will use in summer, and summer is when a lot of families come. Plan how the space gets cooled and insulated before you plan the theme. If the room is hot, nothing else you put in it matters.

Floors, walls, and the garage door

• Floor: bare concrete looks unfinished in photos. Pick a covering that handles spills and furniture being dragged around.
• Walls: this is where the theme lives. We print wallpaper and murals in our shop, which is how a plain garage starts to look like a destination. See printed wallpaper and murals.
• Garage door: decide early whether it stays usable. That affects insulation, the theme wall, and what the HOA allows.

Which games earn their space

Think about who books your house. A mix of ages means you want things more than one person can play at once and things a parent and a kid can do together. Fill the room with what gets used, not with every machine that fits. We go into game choices in our game room ideas for Orlando rentals guide.

Lighting does a lot of the work in a game room. Themed LED lighting can carry the look in photos without filling the floor. More in our LED lighting for rentals post.

Tie it back to your listing

A game room is only worth it if it shows up in your listing. Plan the shot when you plan the room. Our guide to staging for listing photos covers that side. If you're doing a bigger update to the house at the same time, look at our turnkey vacation rental furniture packages page.

Related guides and pages

• Game room ideas for Orlando rentals
• Themed vacation rental design in Orlando
• Windsor Hills vacation home design
• Storey Lake vacation home design
• Turnkey vacation rental furniture packages
• LED lighting for rentals
• Printed wallpaper and murals
• Staging for listing photos

Common questions