Building a Game Room Part 5

The room itself is done. All that remained was painting and wall clean-up. I'll show a shot of that eventually, but today, display cases!

I did a lot of research into display cases, and I had a lot of specific things I wanted. Mostly, I wanted glass...lots of glass. Glass shelves, glass sides if possible, and glass doors with minimal or no frames. A lot of the cases I looked at were wood, with glass doors, but wood frames. The frames would be fine if displaying plates or larger things, but for small form things like models they would cover half of it.

I started at IKEA, most people seem to be using either Billy bookshelves or Detolf towers. The towers are fine, but the shelf spacing is pretty high, and they are narrow. I wanted something wider. The Billys...well, I just don't like them. IKEA furniture is fine, but I've come to associate Billy with a cheap look. Plus, they're pretty shallow, a little too tall for the space (they'd fit, but overwhelm), and their glass doors weren't ideal.

Billy bookcases with glass doors.

Detolf cases.

Next I looked at commercial store displays. At first I fell in love with these. I even tried to order one, but I ran into lots of problems. They are hard to find locally, so I had to hunt around to see them in person, and you should see them in person, as some look too much like something that should be in a store and not in a home. The next issue is they are expensive, especially relative to IKEA or second hand or antique options. Then you have to deal with finding a retailer that will actually ship to a home. Most won't, and even if they do they won't bring the unit into your home, which brings up the next issue: they are incredibly heavy. If you did get one I wouldn't plan to move any time soon after. Finally, they have to be freight shipped. If done to a residence this is more expensive. Most of the cases I found started at around $600-700, but after you add shipping you should DOUBLE that. Compare that to $60-100 for the IKEA options plus $70 shipping. I finally gave up on these options.

I love this one, but it was $1200 on top of all the mentioned issues.

Next I looked at antique pieces. Maybe you can get lucky and find a gem, but everything I found had little issues that ruled them out, like only being able to access the interior through the sides (awkward!), or just being too small overall.

Finally, I returned to IKEA and looked at more options. I'd previously ruled out the Nornas case for reasons I don't remember, but returning with a tape measure (and having a better idea of the sizes of other cases I could find) I decided these were a good option. Only $170 per, which is a little pricier than Billy or Detolf, but per square inch of usable space seems competitive. I did have issues with two (!) having manufacturing defects, but IKEA replaced the parts. Are they sturdy? Enough, and more movable and transportable. I attached them to the wall and now I don't think they'll move even in an earthquake. Here are some pics of them finished. I initially got two, but I bought a third when I realized I'd need it. All told still less than I would have paid for a retail store case, and that's before shipping.

Lighting was also done with IKEA lights. Ledberg circular disc lights screwed into the ceiling of the cases. Very easy to install. I bought a couple of Belkin outlet switches so I could turn them on and off easily. Some people do proximity switches or remotes, but I'm OK flicking a switch.

One last little picture. One of the case pieces that was defective had enough cracks in the wood that when I was taking it to my car to return it the whole thing fell apart. Unfortunately it was one of the pieces with glass, so this is what my driveway looked like. At this point I really wish I owned a shop-vac, because it took over an hour to clean this up. IKEA did replace all defective pieces with no questions asked, and took a few other returns of some lights that didn't work. I look at this as a "inexpensive comes with its downsides" kind of issue. Just make sure you always closely inspect all pieces of home-built furniture before you start.