The gillestuga is the room Swedish homebuilders designed for parties, and that many of us now use for ping-pong tables, laundry baskets, and Christmas decorations. Those who want to give the room a new lease on life often start with the walls, and a poster is the quickest way to turn the room from storage space into a place to gather. This guide covers what actually works in a basement room with a low ceiling, pine paneling, and a small high-set window: which designs are suitable, what sizes work, and how to hang art so it suits the room’s constraints.
From gildestuva to basement room: what a gillestuga really is
The Swedish word gillestuga comes from the Old Swedish gildestuva, a room where a gille, meaning a gathering or association, met to eat, drink, and talk. In Swedish homes, the word came to refer to a more casual living room in the basement, intended for socializing, music, and parties, often with an open fireplace. It differed from the family room on the main floor, where the family had its more formal sofa set. Modern homes in the 1960s often had both: a family room for everyday life and a gillestuga for when people came over.
Quick facts: 289,420 new detached houses were built in Sweden between 1961 and 1970. With the Myresjöhus Typ 6 in 1961, the basement became accessible from inside the house, allowing the room to serve as a hobby room, TV room, or family room. The Swedish word comes from the Old Swedish gildestuva. IKEA’s Karusell coffee table, designed by Karin Mobring, went on sale in the late 1960s and became a piece of furniture many associate with the era’s living rooms.
The room’s typical decor was characteristic of its era in a way that both charms and frightens people today. Wall-to-wall carpeting, pine paneling or brick walls, a corner sofa in green or brown corduroy, and sometimes a forest-themed photo mural. It’s precisely this combination that leads many people today to paint the paneling white or leave the room empty. But a family room with the right art on the walls is one of the easiest rooms to transform, because it already has an idea built in: this is a place to spend time together.
Low ceilings, paneling, and a small window: what the room demands of its art
A basement room has three features that determine everything you hang on the walls. The first is ceiling height. When the ceiling is low, vertical artwork in tall frames feels oppressive because the eye gets no breathing room above the image. Horizontal formats work better, and they should hang lower than you’re used to. In a typical room, the center of the image is usually about 145 centimeters above the floor. In a family room where people often sit in deep sofas, you can hang it a few centimeters lower so the art meets the gaze of someone sitting down.
The second factor is light. The window is small or there isn’t one, and lighting comes from lamps rather than the sky. This means prints with large areas of dark color absorb what little light there is. Choose posters with open compositions, a light background, or strong contrast, and give them a white or light-colored frame. In 2011, researchers Yildirim and colleagues showed that warm colors in a room create more excitement, while cool colors have a calming effect. For a rumpus room meant for evenings with friends, you’ll want to lean toward the warm side: ochre, terracotta, rust, and olive green.
The third factor is the surface. You can nail into pine paneling, and a small picture nail or frame hook leaves barely a trace. Brick requires special brick hooks or a rail. If you rent or have a room where the wall is exposed to moisture, you can lean pictures against a shelf instead of hanging them. Read more in our guide to posters for basement rooms, which covers light and moisture in rooms below ground level.
Tip: Choose frames with glass or acrylic glazing, and leave a little space between the back of the frame and the wall. Never hang a poster against a cold exterior wall that feels damp before checking that the wall is dry. Paper can withstand dry cold, but not condensation.
Artwork that suits the room’s social purpose
A rumpus room has always had a social purpose, and its artwork should too. Art in a bedroom should be calming, and art in a home office should help you focus. In a rumpus room, art should spark conversation. That means images that make people smile, ask questions, or reminisce work better than understated abstractions.
Humor and pop culture as conversation starters
Funny prints are the rumpus room’s natural language. Here, humorous posters with sharp text, surprising imagery, or a little ironic twist work well. The more an image invites comments, the more moments it creates during an evening with guests. Research on humor in images shows that the unexpected and incongruous are what make us smile, and that applies on the wall just as much as in a movie.
Sports jerseys and arenas in the same room
Over time, many rec rooms became the place to watch the game: Sunday’s match, Friday night games, the ping-pong tournament. In that case, posters featuring soccer teams and stadiums can hang above the sofa or beside the TV. Keep them in the same color scheme as the rest of the room, so they feel like part of it rather than a clash. Black-and-white stadium images are often easier to mix with the pine paneling than colorful team designs.
Drinks and bar corner
If the room has a small bar, a fridge, or a corner with glasses and bottles, drink and beverage posters work better than almost anything else. They give the corner a clear purpose, and the pictures naturally complement what’s on the shelf. If you want to take that idea further, there’s a dedicated guide to posters for your home bar.
The forest makes a comeback
Forest wallpaper was one of the big rec room favorites of the 1970s, with pine trees, beeches, and Lapland mountains printed on fabric. The idea was a good one: a large forest image gives a basement room without windows a sense of looking out. Today you can get the same effect with a large poster featuring nature scenes, hung as one large picture instead of wallpaper. It’s cheaper, easier to change, and you can take it with you when you move.
"The rec room promised a lively social life in the basement. The right art on the wall is what makes that promise come true."
Size, format, and hanging between paneling and brick
Format matters more than the subject in a room with a low ceiling. Start by measuring the wall where you want to hang your art, and allow for a picture or group of pictures to fill about two-thirds of the sofa’s width. If you have a three-seat sofa that’s 200 centimeters wide, that gives you an image area of about 130 centimeters.
You can fill that wall in three ways. One large 70x100 centimeter poster is the calmest option and works well above a sofa where the ceiling height allows. A row of three landscape prints in 30x40 or 50x70 creates a more rhythmic impression and helps widen a narrow wall. And a gallery wall with mixed formats gives the room the slightly improvised feel the rec room has always had. Many of the room’s original colors and shapes are explained in our guide to 1970s retro.
Paneling has a problem of its own: the grooves. Pine paneling has distinct lines that draw the eye vertically, and a picture hung across the joins can look crooked even when it’s straight. Position the picture centered over one or more panel boards and measure from the floor instead of relying on eye judgment. Use a level, and mark the nail’s position with a piece of tape before hammering it in.
It’s the opposite with a brick wall. Here the surface is uneven and the joints create their own rhythm, so art can hang a little more freely. Frames with mats create a soft transition between the hard surface and the paper. Retro and vintage motifs work especially well against brick, since both have a patina that goes together. Feel free to choose something from the retro and vintage posters collection if you want to strengthen the period feel.
From 1972 to today: the dream of social life in the basement
The recreation room has had a curious career in Swedish print. ICA’s idea book from 1972 described the room as a place where guests could eat, teenagers could meet their friends, and someone could sew or work in peace and quiet. Seven years later, the 1979 book The Big Book of Home Decorating presented the recreation room as a second living room for TV, music, and parties around a large extendable oak table, with a sofa that could become an extra bed when guests stayed overnight. Anyone who read these books would have gotten the impression that the basement was the most versatile room in the home.
Reality often turned out differently. Many recreation rooms became drying rooms, storage rooms, or places where old furniture could rest. Writer Malin Nävlesjö has described how her childhood recreation room was turned into a drying room, and how sheer practicality replaced the dream of a vibrant social life. It’s an image many people recognize, and it shows why the room needs a purpose to work. Art can give the room an identity again.
The point is to choose one thing the room should be good for. If it’s movies, hang up movie-themed art. If it’s music, hang up music-themed art. If it’s fun and games, hang up pictures with humor and color. A recreation room that tries to be everything easily becomes nothing.
Frequently asked questions about posters for the basement family room
Is it time to give the basement a fresh start? Browse our humorous posters or retro and vintage posters and choose an image that brings people back together in the basement family room. Start with just one wall, and let the rest of the room take shape from there.