When Gamers Decorate: 7 Awesome Video Game Rooms

When I say "video game rooms," I'm not talking about arcades or basement rec rooms, but each is a room in a home that is decorated around the theme of one video game. The attention to detail in these rooms is fantastic; in fact they involved so much more than buying stickers or printed bedding and accessories. They are all labors of love.

1. Yoshi's Island Nursery

Wes decorated his daughter's nursery in the theme of the game Yoshi's Island. The walls were covered in murals, which took four months to accomplish, and the awesome mobile took another few months.

The mobile is a real labor of love.

The Mobile consists of a Lakitu made from Sculpey brand modeling clay with wire/foil armature and then painted using acrylic paints. The circuitry is comprised of an Arduino Duemilanove, wave shield with a LCD screen, re-purposed SNES controller (the shoulder buttons where already bad), and a small motor to drive the baby Yoshis.

2. Legend of Zelda Nursery

Cole Bradburn and his friend Wes (who did the above nursery) spent three months creating the perfect nursery for his son with a Legend of Zelda theme. Murals with scenes from the game were painted on all the walls! Take a video tour of the finished nursery, plus a making-of sequence at his blog. Yes, they got it done before the baby arrived!

3. Super Mario Room

This room doesn't just have Mario decorations and accessories, no, this room puts you inside Super Mario World! It's a creation of artist Antoinette J. Citizen, who designed it as the game itself from the perspective of not the player, but the operative character. Jump for your own coins and boxes -there are even sound effects!

4. Donkey Kong Game Room

Maximus_Clean has a dedicated room for playing video games -the kind everyone would like to have. To organize the library, an entire wall is dedicated to not only storage, but to the game Donkey Kong (the design of which lends itself well to shelving). See Mario climb the multi-level shelves to rescue Princess Peach!

5. Super Mario Bros. Nursery

Jessica is a self-described nerd. When her first child was on the way, she and her husband designed a nursery around a Super Mario Bros. theme. Here you see the changing table and supply cabinet in the colors of a piranha plant. At her website, you'll see the other side with the baby's crib and other murals and decorations.

6. Zelda Toddler Room

When Jessica found out baby number two was on the way, they decided to put him in their existing Mario-themed nursery. So the family moved their 18-month-old daughter to a new "big girl" bedroom all made up as the Legend of Zelda! There are stairs to the upper bunk level you see here, and murals all around. There are plenty more pictures at Jessica's post about the room, with explanations of the many details.

7. Portal Bedroom

Lauren is an accountant, a gamer, and a decorator. Her Portal Bedroom was such a sensation that she dedicated an entire website to it. She was initially inspired by an infinity mirror, which she assumed she could not afford. She filled the room with appropriate artwork, purchased Portal guns, and painted motifs from the game. Then for the portals, she made her own custom oval-shaped infinity mirrors!

The effect is especially cool at night. Lauren's site takes you through the process of building the mirrors and decorating the room.

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