Help me make my house awesome!

[Aedilred]

OK; I've been discussing this with my housemates and we've drawn blanks so far, so I thought I'd throw it open to see if anyone else had any great ideas. We moved in a couple of months ago and have set about making the house our own, as we had largely a blank slate to work with. It's a rented property but the landlady is accommodating so we have quite a lot of freedom. I'm pretty happy with the way things are going so far (current WIPs are installing a ceiling airer above the stairs, and converting my bed to a four-poster(!)) but we're all stumped by what to do with the back end of the living room.

Anyone familiar with a terraced Victorian house should be able to picture the sort of area I'm talking about. The living room is quite long and not-quite-divided into two. The front area has two sofas in it, the TV, a coffee table, the fireplace and a decent chair and is quite a nice (and surprisingly spacious) area, but the rear half we haven't found a use for yet. Most houses I've seen of this ilk use that area as a dining room, but because the house has been extended at the back we have a separate dining area adjoining the kitchen so we don't really need that.

At the moment we're just storing junk in there, but this both looks a bit unsightly and seems like a waste of the space. The only real obstacles we have are that the area contains one fairly deep sofa (which we can't get rid of) and has a set of French windows at the back, so use for that wall is limited. Almost all the stuff currently in there other than the sofa can be exported to other areas of the house. We don't want to go carving up the fabric of the house too much, but mounting things on the wall is fine.

The only really persistent idea we've had is to convert it into a home cinema area, but I'm not sure it's quite big enough, and besides, although we're all keen, that could be rather expensive.

The only other thing I have to bear in mind is the opinion of my housemates. We're all relative geeks, but they would still probably object if I were to commandeer it for something too geeky- I can't see my being allowed to convert it into a gaming room, for instance. We do all tend to share similar tastes, though.

Does anyone have any ideas? Anything you've always wanted to try but never had the space/time/nerve? I'll definitely consider it!

[Teddy]

What are the dimensions on the back area? It might help a bit to determine what fits in and what doesn't.

[KenderWizard]

On the home cinema idea, you could get a decent projector and paint a white screen on the wall (if the walls aren't already white) for not a huge amount of money, and that can be pretty cool. Way cheaper than getting a huge TV and surround sound and all that, and still awesome to have giant movies and stuff like multiplayer video games.

[Teddy]

On the home cinema idea, you could get a decent projector and paint a white screen on the wall (if the walls aren't already white) for not a huge amount of money, and that can be pretty cool. Way cheaper than getting a huge TV and surround sound and all that, and still awesome to have giant movies and stuff like multiplayer video games.

You want a matt white paint for that, though, otherwise, you'll get reflections rather than a good picture.

[Aedilred]

The functional space (including space occupied by the sofa) is probably about three metres long and a little under two metres wide. One of the short walls has the French windows; the other "wall" is formed by one of the sofas from the front room. The walls are already white; I'm just not sure whether the distance between them is enough for a projector to work properly or to get enough seats far enough away from the screen.

[KenderWizard]

Well, I guess the number of seats you need depends on the number of housemates there are and how likely you are to have other friends over, but we set up a projector in our living room about three metres away from a white wall and it works great. I mean, we'd be very hard pressed with our layout to get more than 4 or 5 people comfortably watching it, but we could probably push it a bit higher if we dragged a couch in front of the fireplace.

It could be made to work in theory, is what I'm saying, but obviously I can't see what you have to work with!

[Aedilred]

I'll see if I can get a photo tomorrow. None of the white walls are really far enough apart to work, I think- we'd need a suspended white screen across the front of the windows. We'd need seating for at least four, preferably more.

[factotum]

I'm sure your housemates must be into SOME sort of gaming, even if it's pool or chess--maybe you should sound them out about the idea of a gaming room! (Mind you, a full-sized pool table would be both expensive and unlikely to fit into the area you've specified...).

[Aedilred]

My female housemate is utterly opposed to anything approximating board games and has been for almost as long as I've known her. She's been known to throw sulks when people have wanted to play Risk, or card games, at social events. She has in fact commented (in jest I hope) that if she ruled the world she would outlaw board games. I don't know why she hates them so, but I think her ex might have something to do with it. Anyway, Pool might be acceptable, but I don't think it would fit in the space... the table itself would, but I don't think we'd have room round the long edges for the cues.

[Dr.Epic]

You know what I want in my home? Secret room behind a bookcase. I'm not sure how to do this other that put a bookcase in front of a doorway and get an electrician to rig up something, but it's something I'd really want.

[KenderWizard]

Do you have a dining room? Because a room with a nice table and some chairs around it and some bookcases will do for a nice dining room and a place in which to play games when your anti-boardgame housemate isn't around.

Also, don't give up hope on her. I used to hate boardgames too! I still don't like very many of them very much, but I do love RPGs!

[Aedilred]

Yeah, I've always wanted the "secret room behind whatever" thing in my house too. Preferably almost as many secret rooms as obvious ones.

We have a dining room already, so don't really need a second one, although I'd prefer a different table to the one we have (we're stuck with it, though). I doubt that the board games thing is going to happen, either. There were some plans to introduce her gently, but they were mostly reliant on my ex being the person to introduce her, so that's obviously gone by the board a bit now. She just objects to them in principle, I think. Not to say that we don't have games in the house, but having an entire room dedicated to the purpose would be unpopular, I think.

[Mercenary Pen]

Just a few thoughts so feel free to shoot them down if not practical...

You've mentioned that a pool table would be impractical in the space, but what about a dartboard?

Another idea might be something of a second living room, possibly with a different style of seating or something similar (maybe beanbags instead of chairs).

You could even set it aside as a communal library area- mostly taken up by bookshelves with maybe a small chair and table...

[Aedilred]

All of those ideas are good, actually; I'll see what the others make of them. The only problem with the library idea is that I don't like other people touching my books, and prefer to keep them in my room, so we might have trouble populating it!

[THAC0]

You know what I want in my home? Secret room behind a bookcase. I'm not sure how to do this other that put a bookcase in front of a doorway and get an electrician to rig up something, but it's something I'd really want.

You can buy them online - doors made out of bookcases. I've seen them in action, when it's closed you wouldn't know it was a door.

If I had a spare room in my house I would turn it into a fancy library complete with overstuffed chairs and a globe.

[Raz_Fox]

Having the aesthetic sense of a gerbil, this is the only advice I can give you. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXRCf9LbLM0)

AWESOME HOUSE!

[llamamushroom]

Well, a looking at all the non-bedroom/dining room/kitchen/bathroom/laundry rooms in my house... that leaves a study. So, basically a library, but with a computer, too. Then again, seeing as you all probably have your own computers in your rooms, that might not be necessary.

A library area with fold-out couch (a divan? You know, looks like a couch, can be folded out into a double- or queen-sized bed?) that doubles as a guest room could be useful.

Really, though, it's awesome that you have a room you don't know what to do with.