Gaming Table - advice wanted

[Primarch]

Hi everyone.

As most of you may know, I am in the process of getting a house built, and that includes getting my own gaming room. The design of the house is pretty much done, so now I know the dimensions of the room: 260 x 360cm or roughly 8'6" x 11'9", with a small storage closet at one end of the room.

Into this area I want to fit a gaming table. Due to the material I am planning to use for building scenic boards with, the table will be either 180 x 135 cm (6' x 4'6") or 180 x 180 cm (6' x 6'). In both cases one side of the table will be against the wall. I also need to fit shelves into the room for armies, terrain, painting and model making. The different table sizes don't make a lot of difference to storage, but they do affect the amount of space for walking around the table.
As I mainly play Bolt Action and 40K (6 by 4 table) and Black Powder and Hail Caesar (the bigger the better for table size), I'm wondering which to go for. The smaller table is enough for BA and 40K and small games of BP and HC. The bigger table will of course allow for slightly bigger games and a nicer terrain set up, but not really up to the optimum size of 8' by 6' for BP and HC

So, with all that said, I would like to ask what you all think.
How much space should I leave to get around the table? About 60cm/2' or 90cm/3'
Which table would you choose and why?

Thanks guys.

[me_in_japan]

I'd go for the smaller table, because it's a pain in the arse to have to squeeze around it when you move. If you really, really need extra space, you could probably build wee folding extensions to it.

[Lovejoy]

Almost a retread of what MiJ said here. If it were me I would go smaller too. 60cm doesn't sound like much clearance and i think it would become very wearing. 90 seems comfortable though. Is there anyway to extend the table? I would definitely be thinking of hinged table wings or some other clever extendy workaround. It might be worth getting some carpentry advice.

[ashmie]

Smaller table with "Yes it's an extender" as Alan Patridge would say.

[The Other Dave]

I'd also think modular - an 8 x 11 room will be pretty full with even a 6 x 4 table permanently set up in it, I'd think, and something modular would allow you to set it up in the middle of the room to let everyone walk all round and look and angles and such. Then if you make like four 2 x 4 sections, you could set up a 4 x 4 table for Malifaux, Cutlass or what have you as well. I'm no carpenter, but I imagine you could set up something with two or three trestles and hinged crossbeams or some such without too much trouble.

[Lovejoy]

Smaller table with "Yes it's an extender" as Alan Patridge would say.

I knew there was something Alan about extending tables, but I couldn't remember what, or why. Mystery solved!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qHxQXf6kK8

[me_in_japan]

Speaking from personal experience, I'd strongly recommend a table that can be put away completely when not in use. My room is 6 tatami + 1 tatami painting space + 1 tatami cupboard space. My table is 6x4 and the room gets pretty cozy. However, my boards can all come off and be stacked in the cupboard, leaving a standard long, skinny office desk that can have the legs folded up and leaned against a wall. This becomes important when you have guests and need a spare room to sleep em in (and I daresay there are other reasons which might come up in the lifetime of your house for you to want to use the floor space of your hobby room.)

[job]

I'd repeat the advice of others and suggest going with a 6'x4' area so you have room for comfort when you game. Modular or folding tables would be great as in Japan I think you want flexibility in the use of your space.

[me_in_japan]

Ps - I found google sketchup to be extremely useful for visualising internal spaces in my house. It's a 3d design software thingy, which sounds overly fiddly for what you want to do, but which is actually quite intuitive to use. It took me about a couple of hours to get into the swing of it, and after a gentle week of just mucking about with it I was able to produce models (to scale) of my yet-to-be-built hobby room. It was very useful for stuff like "should the table go in lengthways or sideways?" "How big do I want my closet?" And "what exactly would a bigger table look like in this room?"

It's free software, btw. Tons of tutorials online.

[Spevna]

Go for whichever option give you the most space to move around the table. Squeezing between tables and walls gets really old, really quickly.

If you have he table out permanently, make sure to incorporate plenty of storage space under the table. There is plenty of room for draws and shelves under a standard gaming table.