How To Make Your Hangout Space More Inviting

With these top hangout space improvement tips, your room will be all the rage among your friends! If you want to make a more comfortable chill zone, follow these simple ideas to create an amazing room you and your friends will love spending time in.

Play To The Senses

When thinking about a hangout space improvement, it’s important to consider all five senses; scent, vision, touch, hearing, and taste. This is the best way to ensure that your friends thoroughly enjoy being there.

One of the first things a guest will notice is an odd smell, so if you share a space or plan on using a garage, basement, or otherwise dank place it’s important to be aware. To keep your room smelling good use scented candles or incense. If you’re in a dorm room with restrictions on these things, consider an essential oil vaporizer or a candle wax warmer with a timer. Taking out the trash and keeping up on laundry will also keep the space clean and odor-free.

Decorating your space and keeping it generally clutter-free will make it easy on the eyes and comfortable to walk into. Don’t worry about being spotless, rooms are meant to be lived in, but the space should be straightened up enough that you can easily walk around and reach important surfaces.

Any seating, cushions, and blankets should be clean and nice to touch. Avoid impractical itchy materials and uncomfortable chairs when possible. If it’s hot or cold, do what you can to adjust the temperature until it’s comfortable.

Talking with friends can be amazing, but bouts of sitting in silence are often uncomfortable. Have a TV or stereo system set up in case you want to listen to music or watch something. Games of all sorts are also a good choice if everyone can agree on what to play.

For the ultimate hangout space improvement, keep some of your favorite refreshments nearby to offer your guests. A mini-fridge is a great choice if you have one available, but even just a drawer of non-perishable snacks can go a long way!

Organization

It’s important to keep your space clean when possible, as this is one of the most important things for if you’re looking for a hangout space improvement. Having an uncluttered space for your guests to sit and put their things is very important. If you live in a snowy state, be sure to have a plan for wet shoes.

You want your space to feel as spacious as possible, so having maximum floor space and uncluttered surfaces is important. To make the room feel more put together, try picking a color scheme to stick to! If you have a bed, pick one color of sheets, pillows, and blankets. Set up colored lights to match your scheme if possible. This will instantly make the area feel much nicer!

Seating

For anyone looking to make hangout space improvements, try taking a look at your seating. Comfortable chairs or couches are a must. To maximize storage space and provide additional seating, try picking up a storage ottoman! They come in varying sizes and open up to a storage space inside. These handy pieces of furniture can be used as a backless chair or footstool, while also offering extra space for things you’ll need quick access to.

Once you have all of your furniture picked out, consider the seating arrangement. If the room is centered on a television, be sure the screen is visible from every seat. If you intend on playing board or card games, have a tabletop set up. No matter what, be sure to keep the seating following a semi-circle, as you’ll want to be able to see everyone during conversations.

Mood Lighting

Finding the perfect balance between bright fluorescent lights and a too dim space can be tricky, but it’s an important part of creating a chill space. Overhead lighting is often not a great choice as it doesn’t always properly light all parts of the room and can cast weird shadows.

Lamps are a classic choice to allow for the perfect lighting wherever you need it. There is an extremely large amount of options here, so you can be as creative as you want! Purchase all matching lamps to fit a theme or purchase a variety from local thrift store for a boho-chic look.

For the ultimate hangout space improvement, buy some fairy lights and string them across the room. Some people hang theirs on the ceiling, make designed patterns on the walls, or just pin them up in a random zig-zag shape. If you don’t have fairy lights, Halloween or Christmas lights work just fine as well!

Ultimate Ranking of ASU Residence Halls & Dorms

Entertainment

Make sure to be prepared for whatever it is you like to do with friends. Speakers and TVs are easy to purchase and set up. If you have Roku or a modern gaming device, you can easily stream a ton of programs, making it easy to find something to agree on.

If you plan to play video games, make sure the TV has proper seating in front of it and you have enough controllers for everyone who will want to play. In this case, it’s important to make sure you own multi-playing games so more than one person can enjoy the game at once. With more common modern systems such as the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation4, let your friends know in advance to bring over any extra controllers they own or games they would be excited to play.

If you can put holes in your wall, consider a dartboard! For larger spaces, pool, air hockey, and foosball tables can all be found for cheap quite often. No matter what your preferences are, be sure to have a space arranged for anything you’ll commonly need.

Wall Space

The last step to the perfect hangout space improvement is decorating your walls! Having cool things to look at adds a ton to the atmosphere and can even spark conversation. If you’re away from home, hang up some photos of your friends, family, and even pets back home! Make collages of your favourite moments. These pictures will be great story starters and establish a positive vibe. Try hanging wall art (which can be found at your local dollar store) around the pictures to give it a photo-album feel.

Tapestries are another fantastic option which are reasonably priced and covers a large amount of wall space. They come in a vast variety of prints so there’s bound to be a ton of options for everyone! (Seriously, a quick google search will present you with well-over hundreds of choices.) Posters of your favourite bands, videogames, or actors would be another classic choice to add character.

For something more unique, feel free t design the walls yourself! Splatter various colors of paint, make art of your own, or write poetry across the walls if you own the room.

Since there is so much customization that can go into this decor, be sure to make it your own! This is where your personality will really shine through, so get as creative as you can!