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If you'd prefer some guidance, then read on. We will guide you through the whole process, from logging in, to dragging and dropping pool tables, to saving and printing your design.
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Instructions:
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Before we give some more detailed instructions, check out our introductory video below to get an idea of what you can expect to see when using Games Room Designer, and just how easy it is to use!
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| Step One: Start Up Screen |
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When Games Room Designer starts up, you will be presented with a number of options to choose from to help you get started. Here's what each of the following options allows you to do:
Start From Scratch
Selecting this option allows you to begin with a completely clean slate. Nothing will be in place, and you place everything into the design yourself (From walls, furniture and everything else)
Start With a Room
If you have a very basic rectangular space, this option takes away the work of having to draw the walls yourself. Simply enter the length and width of your room, and Games Room Designer will create a simple 4 walled room for you to get started with.
Open a Saved Design
If you've worked on a design in Games Room Designer before, this allows you to log in and pick up right where you left off.
Upload a Floor Plan
If you already have a floor plan to work off of (as an image file), then this option allows you to upload it directly into Games Room Designer. From here, you can always have it handy either for reference, or to use as a template.
Start with a Sample Design
Games Room Designer even comes with a few pre-made designs to help get your imagination going to show you exactly what it can be capable of. Choose from several pre-made layouts, and see just what you can create!
Whilst you can get started straight away, we recommend creating an account with Games Room Designer first. Read on...
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Step Two: Create Your Account
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To create an account, simply click on the 'Log In' button in the top right of the designer. Creating an account comes with some great benefits. Namely, you'll be able to save your designs, then return to them at a later time without having to redraw anything, print the design off or even send it to a friend! Don't worry about registering too, we won't send you any spam emails or pass your details onto anyone else.
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| When your account has been activated, log in using the same screen as seen above, then you're ready to begin! |
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Step Three: User Log In Screen
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| After logging in, you'll be greeted by the main Games Room Designer screen. You're ready to begin! |
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| Step Four: Start Your Design |
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After logging in, you have a couple of options. You can either:
A: Start designing straight away
B: Refresh the page, and use one of the starting options.
To recap what each of the initial options do:
Start From Scratch
Selecting this option allows you to begin with a completely clean slate. Nothing will be in place, and you place everything into the design yourself (From walls, furniture and everything else)
Start With a Room
If you have a very basic rectangular space, this option takes away the work of having to draw the walls yourself. Simply enter the length and width of your room, and Games Room Designer will create a simple 4 walled room for you to get started with.
Open a Saved Design
If you've worked on a design in Games Room Designer before, this allows you to log in and pick up right where you left off.
Upload a Floor Plan
If you already have a floor plan to work off of (as an image file), then this option allows you to upload it directly into Games Room Designer. From here, you can always have it handy either for reference, or to use as a template.
Start with a Sample Design
Games Room Designer even comes with a few pre-made designs to help get your imagination going to show you exactly what it can be capable of. Choose from several pre-made layouts, and see just what you can create!
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Assembly basics - Adding Walls
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| If you have opted to start from scratch or would like to add more walls to your design, you will need to use the 'Draw Wall' tool. |
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| Then, it's just a simple case of dragging the walls out as far as you would like them to go. You can create a basic rectangle, or even a perfect representation of any room that you've already measured up! The designer allows you to draw walls anywhere you like. When you want to close your shape, simply take the last wall back to where you started, then double click to close the room off. |
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| Assembly Basics: Adding Items |
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Now comes the fun part. Adding items to your floor plan! You can see that all the items are organised in individual sections. One for furniture, one for windows and one for cosmetic aspects such as flooring and so on. To add items to the plan, you can then drag the icons from the section on the left and drop them into your room. You can rotate them, click on them again to pick them up, then place them as accurately as you would like. The 'furniture' section is divided into both 'Home Leisure' furniture (which is all about pool tables, pinball machines and jukeboxes etc) and 'generic' furniture, which is loaded with things like sofas and any other common household items.
The designer allows you to make even the most miniscule of positional and rotational changes! You can even change the dimensions of each item to match the size of the product you are planning to actually place in your room. It really is dead easy to use. With a little trial and error, you'll be creating complex floorplans in no time.
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| Assembly Basics: Adding Doors and Windows |
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| By using the drop down menu in the left hand section you can change the selection of windows and doors. You can do so using the 'doors and windows' from the menu on the left. Just like furniture, just drag and drop.on any wall you like to place the window or door. |
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| Assembly Basics: Adding Flooring |
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| Once you have got all the games room equipment and furniture in your room it's time to sort out the flooring. This isn't a critical step by any stretch, but it really helps to bring your plan to life. You can find a selection of different floor patterns by clicking on the 'Floors' drop down menu. This will open the section where you can pick from a huge variety of floor coverings. |
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You add flooring to your design just like you do walls. Start in one corner of your design, then trace your way around your design until the entire floor space is filled. Just double click when your space is all covered. |
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| Viewing your plan in 3D |
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One of the coolest features of Games Room Designer is to view your plan in full 3D. To switch from plan view to 3D view, simply select this button.
Your plan will then become a fully 3D image that you can drag and look around from any angle.
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| You can even wal around your designed games room! Simply click the button with the small man to be taken directly into your design. |
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| Saving or Exporting your Plan |
| Once you have got your plan as far as you want, or you need to take a break, grab a beer and seek some inspiration, you can Save Your Plan. Just click on the 'plans' button at the top left, and select 'save as' to save your plan. |
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Equally, you can choose to export your plan as an image to print out: Prefect for when it comes to you actually putting your games room together! To do this, simply select the 'export' option from the top row of buttons, then select the format you want to export as. You can select a number of different formats, so just choose the one that best suits your needs as well as a size.
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Let's Build a Room!
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Up to now, we’ve created rather small spaces for the sake of showing you what Games Room Designer can do. Let’s really put it to the test and create an incredible games room! Our example will be from the ground up, so you can build the space with us.
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We’ll start off with a blank slate, and build a large L-Shaped room as seen above. Make sure to allow for plenty of space, as we’ll be filling this room well! We’ve included the dimensions of our space in the picture below to give you an idea.
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 The next thing to add are some doors and some windows. We’ll pick some doors in the menu on the left hand side under the ‘Doors and Windows’ menu. Simply drag and drop your selections onto the walls where you want them to go. We’ve chosen a set of glass double doors to put at one end of the room, as well as dotted a few windows around in places seen below.
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| Now for the fun part… Let’s put some games room gear in! We’ve decided to put in all kinds of things to fill our space. An 8 ft pool table, a football table, three pinball machines, and four arcade machines. A games room that anyone would be proud to own! |
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Now to furnish our room a little better. After all, we need somewhere to chill out after a few games! In our example, we found that the room arrangement in its current state made space tight, so we were able to shift the football table into the middle space a little more to accommodate a sofa, and a coffee table.
Generic furniture like this can be found under the ‘Generic’ tab under furniture.
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Now to spruce the room up! We can do this in numerous ways. You can add cosmetic things such as plants, redo the flooring, and even select the wallpaper for your room to make it perfect. We’ll start with the wallpaper.
To change the wallpaper on any given wall, simply right click the wall you wish to change, then select the ‘textures’ tab to select a wallpaper. You cn choose whatever pattern you like for any wall. We’ve even decided to give our games room a feature wall! |
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| Now for some flooring. Using the same method as described earlier, place a floor down into the space. Remember that the search feature is your friend when it comes to finding what you want! |
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| Let’s add some finishing touches. We’ve dotted some plants around the room to add flavour and make it more homely. |
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| And with that, we’re done! Feel free to walk around your games room in walkthrough mode to get an idea on how your games room would feel in person! |
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Summary:
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| We hope you will find this an incredibly powerful and easy to use tool. Having scoured the web for a graphic design package for us to use with clients we found this to be the outstanding choice. You can create stunning plans quickly and easily. It's fun to use and easy to tinker about until you get everything just right. |
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| Some companies would charge you to allow to you use something as versatile as this, but here you can access it for free, whenever you want. You can return again and again and your plan will always be sat there waiting for you. |
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| If you need any help or advice using this package just give us a call on 0800 622 6464 or drop us an email to customerservice@homeleisuredirect.com and one of our team will be happy to assist you. |
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| If you have a plan you are particularly proud of and would like to share it please email it to andy@homeleisuredirect.com and we will feature the best ones on our Blog. |
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