A recreation room (also known as a rec room, rumpus room, play room, playroom, games room, or ruckus room) is a

room In a building or a ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure. The entrance connects it to either a passageway, another room, or the outdoors. The space is ...

used for a variety of purposes, such as

parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

games A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...

and other everyday or casual activities. The term ''recreation room'' is most prevalent in the United States, while ''rumpus room'' is more common in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. In the United Kingdom, the most common term is ''games room'', or sometimes ''den''. Some, however, will have a room specific to one particular game or entertainment unit often found in a recreation room, or some have a ''snug'', which is a smaller cosy room for watching films and playing

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

. Often children and teenagers entertain their friends in their home's recreation room, which is often located in the

basement A basement is any Storey, floor of a building that is not above the grade plane. Especially in residential buildings, it often is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the Furnace (house heating), furnace, water heating, ...

, away from the main living areas of the

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

. Usually it is a larger space than a

living room In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room (Australian English), lounge (British English), sitting room (British English), or drawing room, is a room for relaxing and socializing in a Dwelling, residential house or apa ...

, enabling the area to serve multiple purposes and entertain moderately large groups.

Recreation rooms can have many themes and contents, depending on their intended use.

Entertainment

Recreation rooms are normally centered on some form of entertainment, typically an audio/video setup. This can consist of something as elaborate as a

projection screen A projection screen is an installation consisting of a surface and a support structure used for displaying a projected image for the view of an audience. Projection screens may be permanently installed on a wall, as in a movie theater, mounte ...

with surround sound or something as simple as a base model

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

Seating

Couches, pub tables/chairs, bar stools,

bean bag chair The Sacco chair (also known as a beanbag chair, or simply a beanbag), is a large pear-shaped bag or sack () made of leather or fabric and filled with expanded polystyrene foam pellets () or a similar material. It is an example of anatomic design, ...

s, and

recliner A recliner is an armchair or sofa that reclines when the occupant lowers the chair's back and raises its front. It has a backrest that can be tilted back, and often a footrest that may be extended by means of a lever on the side of the chair, o ...

s may all be used in recreation rooms.

Games

Tabletop game Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a Table (furniture), table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, Tabletop role-playing game, tabletop role-playing games, or ti ...

s are frequent in recreation rooms. In addition to games played on a normal table, recreation rooms sometimes include custom game tables for

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

(ping pong),

table football Table football, known as foosball or table soccer in North America, is a tabletop game loosely based on association football. Its objective is to move the ball into the opponent's Scoring in association football, goal by manipulating rods whic ...

(

foosball Table football, known as foosball or table soccer in North America, is a tabletop game loosely based on association football. Its objective is to move the ball into the opponent's goal by manipulating rods which have figures attached resemblin ...

table shuffleboard Table shuffleboard (also known as American shuffleboard, indoor shuffleboard, slingers, shufflepuck, and quoits, sandy table) is a game in which players push metal-and-plastic weighted Puck (sports), pucks (also called ''weights'' or ''quoits' ...

air hockey Air hockey is a tabletop sport where two opposing players try to score goals against each other on a low-friction table using two hand-held discs (mallets/pushers) and a lightweight plastic puck. The air hockey table has raised edges that al ...

, or

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

(pool). Custom tables for

casino games A casino game is one in which players gamble cash or chips on various possible random outcomes or combinations of outcomes, often in a casino environment. Such games are also available in online casinos, where permitted by law. Casino games c ...

such as

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...

, and

craps Craps is a dice game in which players gambling, bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, " ...

are also common. Other games include dart boards and

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...

s such as

pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

and video games. More substantial game rooms may have mini bowling lanes, indoor

golf simulator Indoor golf is an umbrella term for all activities in golf which can be carried out indoors. Venues include indoor driving ranges, chipping areas, putting greens, machines and home golf simulators. Many of these indoor facilities are businesses ...

s, and other specialty amenities.

Food and drink

Refrigerators A refrigerator, commonly shortened to fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external envir ...

microwave oven A microwave oven, or simply microwave, is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. This induces Dipole#Molecular dipoles, polar molecules in the food to rotate and ...

wet bar A wet bar is a small bar used for mixing and serving alcoholic beverages that includes a sink with running water, as opposed to a "dry bar" that does not include a sink. A wet bar can increase the rate at which drinks are served because of the s ...

popcorn maker A popcorn maker (also called a popcorn popper) is a machine used to make popcorn. Since ancient times, popcorn has been a popular snack food, produced through the explosive expansion of kernels of heated corn (maize). Commercial large-scale pop ...

ice cream maker A domestic ice cream maker (commonly referred to as an ice cream machine) is a machine used to make small quantities of ice cream for personal consumption. Ice cream makers may prepare the mixture by employing a hand-crank or by employing an ele ...

s, and

soda fountain A soda fountain is a device that dispenses carbonated soft drinks, called fountain drinks. They can be found in restaurants, concession stands and other locations such as convenience stores. The machine combines flavored syrup or syrup concentrat ...

s can sometimes be found in recreation rooms.

References

External links

* {{Room Rooms Recreation