Basement Game Room Layout: How to Plan Around One or Two Tables

Start with the basement, not the table

Before you pick a game, measure the room and write down what is in it. A basement is rarely a clean rectangle. Look for support posts, ducts, soffits, the furnace and water heater, the electrical panel and the stairs. Measure ceiling height at the lowest point where a table will sit, and measure the clear floor between obstructions rather than wall to wall. Then check the route a table will take into the room, because stairs, turns and doors decide what can be delivered.

Next, decide whether you are building a room around one anchor game or two tables. One table plus a seating area is easier to live with. Two tables fit in a surprising number of rooms, but only if you plan for shared walking space.

Clearances by game

Pool needs the most room, so read the pool table room size guide for the details and how much a pool table costs for the budget. For the other games, see foosball dimensions, ping pong room sizes and shuffleboard table sizes. Put your own room into the room size calculator to check each combination.

Traffic paths

Keep a main walking route of about 3 ft from the stairs to the seating and the bar, and keep it out of the playing zones. Nothing frustrates a game room like a door that swings into a cue stroke or a path that crosses the foul line. Two tables can share an aisle if each only needs that aisle on one side, which is how the layouts below fit. Remember too that the furnace and electrical panel need free access, so no table should block them.

Lighting over the tables

• Pool: centre a long fixture over the table, hung low enough to avoid glare and high enough to clear a raised cue.
• Ping pong: even light over the whole table, with no bare bulb in a player's eye line.
• Foosball: several soft sources are better than a spot directly behind a player, which casts a shadow over the ball.
• Shuffleboard: even light along the whole length so pucks and the line are easy to read.
• Everywhere: put lights on dimmers so the room can shift from play to lounge.

Flooring

A concrete basement slab is flat and strong, but it can be cold and may not be level. Cover it with luxury vinyl plank, rubber flooring or carpet tile over a moisture barrier, and check for a slope toward a drain before you commit. Tables need a stable, level base: a thick soft rug under legs makes leveling difficult. Pool tables run from about 725 to 1,250 lb, which a slab handles easily, and every table here has leveling feet, so adjust them after the flooring is down.

Power for arcade cabinets

The Golden Tee home cabinet and the Stern pinball machine both run from a standard 120 V outlet. Plan outlets where they will stand, not where a power strip can just reach. Golden Tee also uses Ethernet or Wi-Fi for its online features, so check the signal in that corner. Avoid putting arcade machines on the same circuit as a space heater or dehumidifier. A pinball machine is about 55 in front to back, which means it needs roughly 7.5 ft of depth including standing room, while the Golden Tee cabinet needs about 6 ft.

Sample layout: 20 x 15 ft (300 sq ft)

Layout A: one anchor table and a lounge

Run a 12 ft shuffleboard, such as the Hudson Sutton, along one long wall. It needs 16 to 18 ft of the 20 ft length and about 5.7 ft of width. That leaves a strip of about 9 ft across the room for a sofa, a TV wall and a bar rail. If you prefer pool, an 8 ft table needs about 14.75 x 18.3 ft, which fits this room by about 3 in across, so it works only if the walls are clear and no seating is added.

Layout B: two tables, no lounge

Place a 12 ft shuffleboard along one long wall and a foosball table such as the Tornado Classic beside it, parallel, with a shared 3 ft aisle between them. Across the room that adds up to 2 ft behind the shuffleboard, 1.7 ft of table, a 3 ft shared aisle, 2.5 ft of foosball table and 3 ft on the player side, which totals about 12.2 ft out of 15 ft. You keep roughly 2.8 ft for a console or a narrow bar. Two groups cannot play at once without crossing paths, but one group can alternate between both games.

Sample layout: 25 x 18 ft (450 sq ft)

Layout A: pool, foosball and an arcade cabinet

Set an 8 ft pool table with its long axis along the 25 ft length. It needs about 14.75 x 18.3 ft, which leaves a strip about 6.7 ft deep at one end of the room. Put a foosball table in half of that strip, with its long axis running along the room, and a Golden Tee cabinet such as the Golden Tee PGA Tour Home Edition in the other half, against the end wall with about 3 ft of standing room in front. The pool table's cue room stays clear.

Layout B: ping pong, shuffleboard and arcade

Set a ping pong table, such as the Butterfly Space Saver Rollaway, in a 19 x 11 ft recreational play area along one side, so it can roll out of the way. Along the other side, put a 12 ft shuffleboard needing 16 to 18 ft by about 5.7 ft. That adds up to about 16.7 ft of the 18 ft width, and the two tables can share an aisle. The 6 ft left at one end of the 25 ft length holds a Golden Tee cabinet and its standing room.

Common mistakes

• Measuring the room but not the route into it.
• Forgetting that doors and stairs swing into clearances.
• Buying the biggest table that fits on paper, with no room for people.
• Skipping a level check on the slab.
• Planning arcade power after the cabinets arrive.

Browse foosball, ping pong and shuffleboard tables when you have settled on a plan. Delivery details are on the shipping and returns page, and financing is available if you are furnishing the room in stages.

Bottom line

Measure the real clear floor, choose one anchor game or a pair that can share an aisle, and place the heaviest table first. In a 20 x 15 ft room, pick a 12 ft shuffleboard with a lounge, or a shuffleboard with a foosball table. In a 25 x 18 ft room, pool with foosball and an arcade cabinet is the fullest layout, and ping pong with shuffleboard is the lighter one. Check each plan in the calculator before you order.

Frequently asked questions