Portchester family spend £34,000 building epic games room in lockdown - now it's named among best in Britain

Iain-Paul Hutton and his family spent three months creating it at the bottom of their garden, and it has now made the final of The Games Room of the Year 2020 competition.

The relaxing outhouse has a hot tub attached and inside it features a pool table, darts board, and two 4K televisions – as well as a bar stocked with £2,000 worth of booze.

The £34,000 project was paid for with money saved by Iain-Paul and his wife Stacey to visit New York for their 10th wedding anniversary this year.

When the pandemic ruined their plan, the ‘man cave’ was proposed as a project for the whole family instead.

Dad-of-two Iain-Paul said: ‘I did tell my wife that it would cost £7,500 to build – which was true, but that didn’t cover the cost of the furnishings.

‘And it was the wife who bought the hot tub for my birthday.

‘But the whole family have helped build the space to enjoy it – it’s definitely a case of us building this together.’

The premium leisure space meant the construction worker was actually looking forward to the latest lockdown – and was a little disappointed that building sites will remain open.

The 44-year-old said: ‘We started to build it at the beginning of the first lockdown and it was all out work, work, work.

‘Then when it was finished it was time to go back to work.

‘So I’ve barely had any time to sit down and enjoy it.’

Iain-Paul is no stranger to ambitious but fun projects, with the construction worker building a human-size table football pitch in his back garden to celebrate the European Championship in 2016.

He said: ‘We have build the games room where the football pitch was.

‘The old support frame was beginning to rot, so we replaced it.’

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Iain’s room is up against nine others in the final of The Games Room of the Year 2020 competition, run by Home Leisure Direct.

To vote for the winner, visit homeleisuredirect.com/games-room-vote before the deadline of November 16.

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