Our electrician wants to know the lighting plan by Thursday, when he’s coming to finish wiring up the house. Sounds easy enough, but as I was doing it over the weekend, I realized that Brian and I really needed to think about this speakeasy/game room in order to make any decisions, which will affect another decision and another. So what is the use? Who is going to be in here? What will they be doing? Elliot wants a gymnastics room (nope), Charlie wants a gaming room (nope), Brian wants a dude’s speakeasy (maybe?), and I want/ need a beautiful room to shoot in (ding, ding, ding). I know the vibe that I want, but without identifying the purpose of the room, there is no way I can place even one junction box. So I spent all weekend pulling it together.

Now, if we didn’t have tweens or if things didn’t need to “work” for our family, I know exactly what I’d do with this room. It would be a “speakeasy library”, a cozy bar for games, movies, and hang sessions. I’d do a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf with a library ladder, dark cozy reds and greens, a la an old tavern with a built-in game table and really dark comfy seating. Maybe a cool bar with vintage glassware. Layered Persian rugs. It would be a real vibe. Remember that barn that I turned into a Soho House-style lobby? Like that!!

But in reality, this room will be what a lot of people have, but we didn’t plan it into our remodel – the suburban basement or garage “bonus room” for the kids to do their worst (especially in the great long dark, AKA the PNW wet winter). It will serve as the room where they can have friends over and bang on drums and throw basketballs into the pop-a-shot. Oh, and Brian really wants to hang out there, too, with his friends (obviously), and I do, too!! We started calling it the speakeasy because it’s kinda tucked back in the house and is going to be clad in wood, so there is something kinda secret and dark about it. But as of today, we’ll refer to it as the game room because that’s just more accurate to how it’s going to be used.

The ‘Game’ Elements – What We Know We Want And Already Have

Right now, we have a ping-pong table in the garage that we all play (and it’s a real hit). The kids got a pop-a-shot for Christmas that currently lives in the landing, which would be moved in here. Charlie plays the drums and Elliot the guitar, so we’d move their instruments in here (along with the electronic piano). And then Brian claims that the shuffleboard is “winters corn hole,” so he’s making a case for one of those for grownups to play. I want at least one nice seating area and our record player with record storage. No bookcase. No bar. As of now, no TV or gaming. Just a big game room for the long winters.

But I also need to shoot in here and want it flexible enough that everything could be cleared out if we wanted to shoot a Christmas dining room or new sofa campaign. So we aren’t going to get a big pretty wood ping pong table – we’ll need a folding one to keep it all flexible. But that doesn’t sound very pretty, so what to do???

As a reminder, this house is from the 1800s, and this room was likely added on in the 20s or 30s as their canning room. It’s big with high ceilings. The walls are exposed for now, and it has two big busted windows. It serves as the pass-through between the living/kitchen and the epic pass-through bathroom (that goes out to the backyard).

So now we know the use and the function, with most of the elements already here. With that in mind, I need to choose design elements that make sense for the use and also will be pretty to shoot (and for long-term use, however, this space might change).

What Will The Walls And Ceiling Be?

After much debate, these walls will be clad in reclaimed fir that matches the original wood in the living room and kitchen. For a while, I thought about paneling it all in something paintable, and then we toyed around with a paneling + wallpaper combo. But for the use of the room (which might get a lot of wear and tear with tweens and teens), I think that already rustic wood walls will be the best choice. We already bought it all, and the planks are being milled into tongue and groove right now (by Good Wood in town). We’ll do the ceiling as well. I’m not sure if we’ll add beams on top of the cladding to give it more of that architecturally original look or not (might be a budget decision).

What About The Floor?

We are hoping to refinish these wood floors, but we really don’t know what they look like. We are going to use a palm sander this week to see if we can get an idea of what we are in for, and then we have it on our calendar to rent a big floor sander next week. But I also know that I want a huge Persian rug (or a few layered) so we may not actually see much of the floor and could paint if it’s in too rough of shape to strip off the layers of paint and stain. We are doing painted patterned floors already in the house, so ideally this is the original wood, and if not, then just stained or painted a simple dark color and covered with rugs.

What About The Windows? Aren’t You Obsessed With Natural Light?

Ok, we took out both windows and instead are putting in a door with a 6-grid window (that leads to the prop garage) and two huge skylights (with blackout shades). The skylights went in last week, and they are incredible (Velux, of course, and we chose two 4x4s so they look like these insane huge windows on the ceiling). I hope I don’t regret the door (instead of doing a window). Not having any windows felt so weird (plus we need the side natural light for shooting). We installed the door to swing out (which is not typically how exterior doors should be installed) so that the swing didn’t affect the flow and layout of the game tables, etc. Eventually, I want to put a little deck or stone patio out there to connect it to the prop garage. If it were going to be used every day in the rain, it wouldn’t be smart to place the swing out, but I think for our purposes, it’s ok. We are repurposing the big window in the new bathroom after it’s fully restored (my framer was like “Woah that’s a huge window…for a bathroom?’ as if I’m designing a weird bathroom or something!!).

So Back To The Lighting…What Type Of Lighting Do We Need?

We don’t need to perform surgery in this room, but we still want it to be lit well enough in the winter. Brian is more concerned about this than I am. Over the weekend, he suggested maybe putting in canned lights, and it’s not that I’m opposed to that, but I really don’t think we need them (and I don’t love can lights interrupting the pretty wood ceiling). If it were more of a utility space, then for sure (we have them all over our house), but the plan was always to just do minimal lighting in this house.

My plan was three pendants and 2-3 sconces. The pendants would ideally be multi-bulb (2-3 bulbs per fixture) with decent wattage and on a dimmer. I really think it will be enough (and I really hope that I’m not wrong). The pendants would need to be fairly sturdy (nothing too delicate or breakable). Again, it’s a hard-working room that I could see the kids, well, trashing, and I don’t want the design to be precious.

Chandelier Options

So I did my usual “beautiful mind” mood boarding where I screenshot every single light fixture on the entire internet (that excited me for this project) and play around for hours and hours, while watching Off Campus, for instance. For this project, I’m staying away from anything too expensive (since I need 3) or too trendy. I’m open to doing something mid-century or unexpectedly modern (which I think can totally work in an older home – ask Europe). For this room, specifically, I didn’t want pretty, traditional chandeliers with white shades, glass or crystals – I want these to feel dark, cozy, moody and more tavern-like. Here are all the ones I narrowed them down to:

Olde Brick Lighting Red Chandelier | Chris Loves Julia Blue Chandelier | Etsy Blue Chandelier | Rejuvenation Red Pendant | Olde Brick Lighting Blue Chandelier | Rejuvenation Blue and Red Chandeliers

I let the ceiling fixture lead the style of the sconces. I love all of the above for different reasons. I think I’m going to do the blue Chris Loves Julia fixture in the bathroom, so that got nixed. The Rejuvenation chandeliers are awesome, but times 3 might be a lot = both visually and cost-wise. And the single pendant felt cute for a casual game room, but only one bulb and a bit too “barn” for me.

My Narrowed Down Choices

Olde Brick Lighting Red and Green Chandelier | Rejuvenation Red Pendant | Etsy Blue Chandelier

All of these could work – functionally and vibe-wise. The only element that I knew I wanted in here (outside of the wood walls and skylights) was some dark and cozy Persian rugs. So we started mocking them up, and I started to get so excited. Now the rug below is from CB2 as a placeholder for something vintage, but it gives you an idea of how it could look, color and vibe-wise. I started placing sconces that worked with each ceiling fixture. Now, one thing to know about the sconces is that they are going on the low wall (where the big old window was) and can’t stick out too far since they’ll be at shoulder height. Since we don’t know the real layout of the room until after we get all the elements in, I want to choose some that have a small enough profile to work regardless of whether there is a shuffleboard or ping-pong table underneath or not. They are mostly for light and ambience, not to necessarily light one thing.

Sofa | Rug | Etsy Chandelier | Etsy Sconces

My kids LOVED the mid-century style blue and brass one, and I can totally see it in there, but ultimately I do fear it goes too trendy for this room (if it were three vintage Stilnovo chandeliers that would be different, lol).

Sofa | Rug | Red Pendant | Blue Shade Sconces

The red (or blue) pendant shade with the filter on the bottom casts great light, and three of them hanging makes sense, but it’s also pretty simple and contemporary, so it’s harder to get super excited about it.

Sofa | Rug | Green Chandelier | Double Sconce

Once I found the industrial-colored metal fixtures, I immediately chose it and declared it “the one”. I love the colorful shades but still in a vintage industrial vibe, which felt appropriate for the style of the house AND playful for the use of the room. And we can control the wattage in them, so I think 9 bulbs will be enough to light the room. And since they’ll hang pretty high up, I don’t think I’ll be bothered by the bare bulb.

Sofa | Rug | Red Chandelier | Blue Shade Sconces

While I love the red and really do want a lot of burgundy and red in this house, the green popped off the walls and ceiling so much more and felt “taverny” in a good way. The blue-shaded sconces are simple and classic, and since they are from the same company (Olde Brick Lighting), we could get the exact same metal finish (unlacquered brass).

Green Chandelier | Picture Sconce

There is still a lot to figure out – do we use our green velvet Alice sofa in there? Or get something vintage and upholster it in a dope pattern? What goes on that huge wall? A collection of maps, vintage dart boards, old family photos? Or just a massive tree? I’m so tempted to put three junction boxes for sconces up there, but I don’t want to limit what we can do or have it dictate where I hang things. We could even do a loveseat that is built into a future bookcase (kinda like my brother’s library room, which is my favorite).

I’m actually really hopeful that this room can be done construction-wise by the end of summer. Our electrician is coming this week to finish the rough electrical, then we’ll insulate, clad over with the wood (which should be here in 2 weeks), refinish the floors, add our Quilt unit, and wire up the lights.

*Unless Otherwise Noted, Photos by Kaitlin Green
**Opening Photo Credits: Photo by Geneieve Garruppo | From: A 120-Year-Old Barn Makeover with The Frame TV