How to Create the Ultimate Hobby Room

Man caves, art rooms and home libraries! Whether it’s a room dedicated for extended gaming sessions, or a quiet escape for intricate model detailing, everyone has dreams of a space dedicated for their hobbies.

In this blog article, we’ll go through what you need to create the ultimate hobby room/man cave/she shed so that you can finally have a space for your inner child to roam free!

Consider What You Need!

Everyone has a hobby that has its own needs and requirements: a gaming/movie room requires you to be able to sit for extended periods of time comfortably, a more creative hobby, such as lego or model vehicles requires a dedicated workspace, while a more passive hobby like a collection of media or figures instead requires lots of surface areas to display said items.

It’s also worth considering the space of the room and how everything should be ideally laid out, a window could make a great place to give a desk some natural light, or a great place for a chair to catch the afternoon sun for a cozy reading session.

It’s worth considering every corner of space for its potential uses or the obstacles it may cause, whether it’s power points or an in-built wardrobe.

Different Types of Hobby Room Setups

As you may have noted in the previous section, there are different types of hobby room and how you might lay them out can differ.

As such, this next section will be split into three sections to represent the different layouts: The Media Room, The Creative Room and The Collection Room.

These three types should effectively cover the basics for each type of hobby and how you might treat the room for each.

The Media Room

Whether you want a dedicated space for gaming, or an at-home cinema setting up a media room is quite simple. We’ve actually already written a blog article going over some of the basics in terms of screen placement and snack table requirements.

As such, the main additional part we would recommend for this type of setup is a great couch.

Our main recommendation is to get something you can sit in for hours without getting uncomfortable, whether it’s a recliner or even a couch with a pull-out bed, just anything that will perfectly cradle you whilst you make your half-day Lord of the Rings Trilogy marathon (directors cuts of course.)

Outside of that, we would recommend decorating the room to fit the “vibe” you’re wanting to go for. If you’re going for a movie room, then get some framed posters of your favourite movies, if it’s a gaming room, then get some gaming merchandise, either of your favourite franchises or of your chosen console platform.

If you’ve got the money, space and care, a mini-fridge or drawer filled with your favourite drinks and snacks can elevate your media room to the next level.

Your hobby room should be a space where you let your inner child run free, so don’t worry if anything looks too gaudy to be displayed elsewhere, because this space is an extension of you.

If you want to take up the coolness factor of this room, consider replacing the TV screen with a projector! That way you can maximise your wall real estate while also fulfilling that prime media experience, especially for those avid movie watchers.

The great thing also is they now cheaper then ever, with this projector coming in at an incredibly low cost and able to have a Chromecast plugged right in!

The Creative Room

Whether it’s making Legos or painting on canvas, a good art room should let your creative juices flow freely. As such, for sitting-based hobbies, we’d recommend a good desk that you can easily sprawl out into your workspace.

We’d also recommend plenty of drawers for said desk so you can have any and all useful supplies close by, whether it’s colouring pencils or sewing needles. It also pays to place the desk near a window if you can, so you can have a great view while giving yourself a moment to let the creative juices flow.

When it comes to decorating and accessorising this art room, we’d definitely recommend plenty of shelving, open wall space, or surface area to present your completed works with the respect they deserve.

If you need a lot of low surface area for hobbies such as model train sets we would definitely recommend keeping an eye out for off-lease office clearouts for any desks they might be selling, that way you can get a high-quality surface for a low-cost!

Other beneficial things we would recommend would be some form of smart device, either a smart speaker or Chromecast-enabled screen. For most, the smart speaker is a great choice if you just want some gentle music or ocean noise whilst you tinker away at your work while also having the capability of giving you other important info such as the weather or news.

But for hobbies that might need more visual help, we would recommend pairing a Chromecast with a smallish screen that you can easily keep on the desk or mounted on the wall, that way you can quickly search up a tutorial video on your phone and watch along without the limitations of the tiny phone screen. 

The Collection Room

If your hobby room is going to instead be more dedicated to the fruits of a concentrated hoarding addiction, then this is the part for you.

Already we’ve already done a blog post on how to present your collectibles but for a quick summary: Buy lots of shelving! Whether it’s cube shelving or a more decadent glass display cabinet, we’d recommend purchasing lots of the same type of unit so that everything looks synonymous with one another.

We’d also try place the shelving in a way that obscures the contents within from sunlight to prevent any unnecessary sun damage to spines and covers.

If the collection of items in question is something that can be used such as a book or vinyl, we would also definitely recommend a space where you can enjoy said item, such as the aforementioned reading nook or a couch placed at a premium listening distance for your audio set up.

Just some way to keep your collection contained within your wall, especially for fragile items that may risk getting damaged in the small trip between rooms.

Find Inspiration

No matter the room you're going for, it always pays to watch other people's own hobby room tours. This is for many reasons, whether it's for style inspiration or seeing awesome solutions on how you could present your collection, different people may have more experience or ideas on how they made their hobby room!

This video shows an awesome tour of this creators craft room, and could give you some smart ideas on how to go about making your own!

Mixing purposes

Obviously, everyone’s hobbies are different and the purpose of said hobby can vary, so we’d totally recommend mixing some of these room ideas to fit your needs.

If you’re a retro gamer, you might want to combine aspects of the media room with a collection room so you can have an all-in-one space for your game collection and where you can play them.

But maybe in the same instance, if you’re someone who collects retro games and also repairs them, then you can add a setup like what you’d have creative room so you can easily watch a teardown video if need be.

So to repeat, make sure the hobby room fits the needs for your uses!

Conclusion

By now you should have successfully converted that empty room into the hobby room of your dreams, now the only thing left to do is put it to use! So get crafting, gaming, reading or watching as you can finally enjoy a little sanctuary dedicated to your passion.

If we’re talking about a media room in this instance, invite some friends around for a movie/game night, maybe tonight you’ll finally watch that 3 hour arthouse film or put those party games to use!

FAQ

Where Can I Buy Some Quality Wood Furniture for my Hobby Room?

Whether it’s shelving or a quality desk, you can’t beat our range at Mainland Furniture! All our furniture is made from either New Zealand Pine or American Oak and is made to last. So if you need plenty of bookcases or a fresh TV unit, then check us out!

If you’re reading from outside New Zealand however, we would definitely look at other businesses like ours. Purchasing furniture such as TV units and tables can be a losing battle when you buy from a big box retailer, as they use low-quality materials such as MDF that break down a couple of years.

Thus, look for high quality furniture made from real wood or other materials.

My Collection is Bigger than my Collection Room! What do I do?

If your collection of items is bigger than what you have the space for then there are three options: Store it, Place it elsewhere, and Sell it! Obviously, we want to keep the final option as a last resort as no one wants to reduce the number of items in their collection.

When it comes to storage, this can depend on the item. For the most part, large plastic containers should be fine in most situations for things such as books or old pc game boxes.

However, other items may be too fragile or require special treatment when stored to avoid damaging the item in the long run, such as vinyl needing to be stored upright to prevent the vinyl warping over time, thus this might need some of your own research on how to store it away for a long time.

Then the only thing to do is find a place to store it, whether it’s an attic, basement or storage locker, just ensure that the items in question will be safe for long term storage and that the area doesn’t get too damp or humid depending on the weather.

However, if you want to keep the items in question on display in your home, then how you go about this is up to you. Maybe you keep a sample of your favourites out in the main room or sprinkled about the house.

If you’re a game collector, then maybe keep your most played consoles out and ready for when people come over and keep the lesser played stuff in the collection room, because more people are likely to want to play some PS5 rather than some old-school Atari.