Page 34 - Reside Magazine Briggs Freeman

Fun and Games

Previous page: Portia Fox Design uses floor-
W hether it is chess or cards, Monopoly or mahjong, to-ceiling windows to make a basement games
chances are you have a favorite game. And maybe even
room the perfect ambient space
a dedicated place within your home to play it. Interior
Below: A palette of blues picks up the baize of
designers have noticed an uptick in requests from
clients for games rooms in recent years. “We’re definitely
in a design scheme by Electric Bowery
seeing more and more people wanting to create spaces a pool table in the Pacific Palisades, California,
Right: A chess corner, designed
where they can do something that allows them to switch off, but not just by Studio Ashby, features a pair of swivel
staring at a screen; spaces to interact with friends and family,” says Portia Fox, chairs inspired by game pieces
co-founder and creative director of her eponymous London-based design studio.
Last summer, she completed a basement games room for a family of five
in Notting Hill, featuring a games table with drawers for cards and poker chips,
a bespoke unit for hundreds of board games and leather-
stitched Lego storage boxes. There is also a combined pool
and snooker table, a table tennis table, a TV area and a bar.
Flexibility was key to Fox’s design. “It was important
to use light in a clever way that made it a space that you
could use at any time of the day or night,” she says. She
chose wallpaper with a Mediterranean scene, which
complements an olive tree added to the property’s light
well, “to create that feeling of not being in a basement.”
Every light can be adjusted to create different moods and
any combination set and pre-programmed at the touch of
a button. It is a room designed for all of the family, in
contrast to more formal billiard rooms that were a popular
feature of traditional grand houses.
The interest in modern games rooms coincides with
a revival in board games, which many people rediscovered
during the pandemic lockdowns. Board-game cafes
and clubs are f lourishing as people seek alternative
ways to socialize in an increasingly digital world.
Imarc Group estimates the value of the global board-
games market will grow from US$18.53 billion in 2024
to US$41.63 billion by 2033.
Luxury brands are catering to demand with their own
sleek versions of traditional pastimes. Hermès has created
mahjong, domino and bridge card sets, while Prada has
“

PEOPLE WANT TO

CREATE SPACES

WHERE THEY CAN

SWITCH OFF
” 32