[Bluegrass Poker]

Hey guys, I have a nice size storage room in my basement that screams out at me every time I walk by "If you build it they will come." Strange thing though, it's not the voice of Shoeless Joe but rather Frank Sinatra. Go figure.

In any event, I love the look and feel of the Rat Pack Vegas era and would love to fix my poker room/bar with a Rat Pack feel.

I have some ideas but would love to hear everyone's suggestions. No suggestion is off limits. Everything from walls to flooring to lighting to colors on the table.

I'm kind of thinking of a dark wood wainscotting for bottom half of the walls and decorate with some vintage prints of old casinos like The Mint, The Sands, and of course the Rat Pack themselves. May build a new table with classic green felt and black vinyl.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I'm still in the convincing the wife stage of my planning.

[machinelf]

Looks like there's some cool links for inspiration here:

The Retro Homemaker: Retro decorating and interior design

And if you have more money than sense (or taste) you could always put a life-size Frank in the room:

Rat Pack statue, Frank Sinatra statue, Dean Martin statue, Sammy Davis statue

Flickr browsing:

Flickr: 1950's Interior Design and Residential architecture

Stop me please:

Retro Housewife - The housewife's domain or home decor in the 1950's.
OpOrb Retro Modern Home Decor - Links We Like

[gcrissman]

If you run a Tournament Manager off a PC find a way to distribute the feed to multiple monitors/TVs or at least a central TV. That way everyone can see the screen.

I have 4 TVs mounted in various parts of my basement that get a high-def feed from one central cable box. Additionally my iMac (runs the TM software) outputs it's display to s-video and RCA so that I can feed that to 2 of the TVs. This is all done by co-ax that is behind the walls so there is no wires. Also add speaker zones with separate volume controls. So from most seats you can see the Tournament Manager screen on one TV and a Football/Basketball/Baseball game on a separate TV.

Also have lighting on different switches and dimmers when possible. I did not think this through when I did the basement in terms of how it effect a poker game so I have been having Electricians out to re-arrange some things and add additional light. I have it almost right but the last piece involves some major drywall work so i am waiting till I build out my bar.

I did wainscoating in my basement but painted it white with a the top half green, looks really good but honestly my wife picked the colors. On one of the walls I did a bar ledge (5" deep by 8ft long) on top of the wainscoting instead of the molding. Great place to put beer bottles when playing pool and poker

Good Luck!!

[Bluegrass Poker]

How cool. I love the Rat Pack statutes. Unforutunately I have more sense than money (although my friends would say that is in short supply too) and will pass on them.

Thanks for the links. Elf, I may have to get you to design some Rat Pack Poker Room chips when I get it done.

Gc,that's a great idea. I had planned on wiring it for speakers and obviously a tv but hadn't thought about dimmers and setting up cables to run my tournament software on one of the tvs.

[machinelf]

As long as I can do it.... Myyyy Wayyyy.

Originally Posted by Bluegrass Poker

Elf, I may have to get you to design some Rat Pack Poker Room chips when I get it done.

[timmy67]

This is a great idea. I would love to see the evolution of your room through sketches and photos.

As cool as it would be to put down some kind of casino themed carpet, I would stick to hardwood or laminate. Clean up is easy, whether it's food or drink that gets spilled.

The rat pack idea is terrific. Deano is still the coolest guy who ever walked the earth.

Good luck.

PS: how big is the room?

[Bluegrass Poker]

Originally Posted by machinelf

As long as I can do it.... Myyyy Wayyyy.

Booo, hisss, LMAO. Should have seen that one coming.

[Bluegrass Poker]

Timmy, it's a good sized room but I'm still going to have to be judicious in my space planning. The is approximately 15' x 14' so around 210 square feet. As you look in the door I'm planning on having the bar against the back wall then the poker table in the middle of the room. And a pub table near the door.

Luckily the room is wide enough I can put the table cross ways as you look into the room. If I had to put it straight as you look in from the door I don't think I would have the room. If I can replace the current standard door with pocket doors I'll have more functional space.

If I could convince my wife to allow to move the door entry into the basement to a different wall and take the small room at the bottom of the stairs for additional room I would have it made. I don't even think I'll ask, it's taken me awhile to talk her into letting me have the storage room.

[tm55417]

Not to threadjack Bluegrass's post, but...



well, pics anyway...

Originally Posted by gcrissman

If you run a Tournament Manager off a PC find a way to distribute the feed to multiple monitors/TVs or at least a central TV. That way everyone can see the screen.

I have 4 TVs mounted in various parts of my basement that get a high-def feed from one central cable box. Additionally my iMac (runs the TM software) outputs it's display to s-video and RCA so that I can feed that to 2 of the TVs. This is all done by co-ax that is behind the walls so there is no wires. Also add speaker zones with separate volume controls. So from most seats you can see the Tournament Manager screen on one TV and a Football/Basketball/Baseball game on a separate TV.

Also have lighting on different switches and dimmers when possible. I did not think this through when I did the basement in terms of how it effect a poker game so I have been having Electricians out to re-arrange some things and add additional light. I have it almost right but the last piece involves some major drywall work so i am waiting till I build out my bar.

I did wainscoating in my basement but painted it white with a the top half green, looks really good but honestly my wife picked the colors. On one of the walls I did a bar ledge (5" deep by 8ft long) on top of the wainscoting instead of the molding. Great place to put beer bottles when playing pool and poker

Good Luck!!

[Bluegrass Poker]

Originally Posted by tm55417

Not to threadjack Bluegrass's post, but...



well, pics anyway...

Hijack away, I'd love to see those pics as well.