How to store and showcase your game collection

It took me quite a long time to find the perfect fitting shelves for my game collection. Ikea offers some great and of course cheap versions in order to have anything well organized. Some of them work great, some are well, okay,…In this article I want to share with you my experiences 🙂

First of all, I am not sponsered by Ikea, lol. It’s just that as I am a collector I searched for a cheap version that works best for me and will be available for longer to buy as one season (nobody should underestimate a growing collection lol). And the cheaper the shelves are, the more money I have to be able to spend on games :D. So, well, here are the ingredients for my (IKEA lol) Gaming Room.

Talking about Shelves , the first one that comes into my mind is Kallax.

It comes in different sizes and you may combine it, as much as you want.

The smaller 4×4 version

The bigger 4×2 Version, which could be used in the way you see on the picture below or you may use it lengthwise, that its a longer and 2 cubes high shelf)

These two versions work great, especially combined, to show and store your gaming consoles. I wouldn’t want to use them for games, maybe for those old SNES Big Boxes like Mario Paint and stuff like that, but their units are way to huge to give them the perfect home.

Of course there are different sizes and variations. I use the 1×2 version as well in my game room, but thats just due to the lack of space. The versions above should work a bit better imho 🙂

If you have a small room ( as my Gaming room is 😉  ),  you may wan’t to waste as less space as possible, when it comes to displaying your consoles. So what about storing two (retro) consoles in each unit, by using something like Variela?

This works perfectly for NES, SNES, N64 and newer ones. It won’t work for the Gamecube due to its height.

I wanted to have Question mark Block themed doors, so I bought self adhensive foil in yellow and white and did that stuff on my own. I think, Ikea offers yellow doors now, but they weren’t available when I set up my room.

Want to showcase you collection even more?  You may use a LED Lightstrip. Therefor I use Ikea’s Dioder, which offers 4 strips, so you are able to use each one seperately of them in different shelf units.

Dioder is available in white or in multicolour. I prefer having the multicolour version, so I may choose a colour hat fits my mood or the game I am currently playing 🙂

I have another Kallax underneath my TV which stores more of my retro consoles. You may see a picture of that an Instagram post of my complete Gaming room in a few days.

Btw., my non-retro consoles are stored in my living room. So there is no need to store them next to his older brothers.;)

 

Another great shelf solution are Ikeas Media shelves, called Gnedby.

They fit perfectly for Wii, Wii U, Gamecube and any games that come in a normal DVD Box. 3ds and DS cases work perfectly as well. It may hold up to 10 DVD in each shelf unit or 8 DS Games or 10 3DS games. Even boxed GameBoy games work fine. It holds up to 6 of them per unit.

 

 

NES games work fine as well 🙂

What is great about them, is that their depth is perfect for games, so you don’t waste as much space as using a Billy shelf for them.

It is possibly to store boxed SNES and N64 games, but they don’t fit that perfectly due to their width. You are always wasting a small amount of space. I personally prefer them to be stored i a Billy shelf.

And since we are talking about the master of shelves, Billy, let’s find out what this one is great for.

The typical Billy shelf comes in two width’ (and is even offered in smaller heights, but I think the smaller versions wouldn’t be that great): 80cm and 40cm.

I love combining those 2 versions, and use them for my Gaming Stuff (and even in my Sewing and Dressing Room).

 

80cm width

 

 

40 cm width

 

Billy works great for boxed retro games, like SNES and N64 ones.

They are great for Special Editions  that come in a very big Box, like Nintendo’s Splatoon SE’s which includes the Amiibo etc.

They are great for storing “normal” games as well, but since their depth is higher compared to Gnedby, there is always some space left behind the games. This may be great if you want to store additional stuff there, but it would never ever work for me, lol. What is out of my eyes, is out of my mind.

The 40cm Billy shelf is great for additional supply to display like f.e, controllers, etc.

 

There are a few more items that work great for storing collection items, like loose duplicate games, that you don’t need to see every day, manuals, etc. I may post some additional ideas and tipps in a sequel to that post, if you are interested in.

Apart from that, I will show additional pictures of my complete room (well… complete is a strange word for a collector, but…) on Instagram in a few days. Hope to see you there again 🙂

I hope this (IKEA) tour was helpful to you.

If you have further tipps for game storage, please feel free to comment below 🙂 And let me know, of you want to see additonal ideas 🙂