Want to spice up your retro 1960s house? Put a bowling alley in the basement and fun will come to you

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This Michigan home boasts a pool room, bar, mid-century design, and a fireplace… but it’s all kind of boring until you get to the party downstairs. What’s the weather like in Michigan? I might be moving in.

This is TOO MUCH: look at the wondrous straight-outta-Now and Then sofa! The colorful rotating disco lamp! The fabulous wicker-esque… ok, the chair’s not so great. I’m also not the biggest fan of wood paneling (as in I’d immediately want to knock it down or paint over it), but my imagination is in hyper-drive with ideas.

I love that you can play alone, with your family, or have a huge bowling party with lots of friends, because you have TWO lanes. It’d be nothing to spice this up with glow in the dark paint and a few disco mirror balls!

OF COURSE there’s a bar adjacent to the bowling action — it’s also covered in paneling, but it can be worked around. You might have to close your eyes and imagine it. You could strip random sections of the panels, paint it turquoise and add leaves, alternate panel colors — go CRAZY!


And all this is inside this modest little home. Now that I’m thinking about it… I wonder if they’d just rent out the basement until someone snags the rest?

Comments on Want to spice up your retro 1960s house? Put a bowling alley in the basement and fun will come to you

  1. Maybe they added the bowling alley because the weather in Michigan tends to not be that great in the winter. You don’t have to worry about going out in the snow to have an evening of bowling. Love it! I just wish my house was long enough to do that…

  2. Does anyone know where this house is located? It looks very close to a house where some of my friends used to live. It didn’t have a bowling alley at the time, but they’ve moved and their basement looked very simalar and totally could’ve had a bowling alley.

    • Yeha, I wish there was a link to the listing or somthing. Wouldn’t it be awesome to find out that one of your unassuming neighbors had this in their basement? 🙂

  3. This is why I love my home state. Haha

    It looks like they needed that bowling alley for entertainment when they put it in because Rockford’s in the middle of the country and Grand Rapids used to be a boring city!

  4. OMG!!! I want that. Too bad my house is on a slab. I grew up in MI and yes the weather does explain it some. Like -32 in the winter and triple digits in July. But most people still just go to the bowling alley for a little game.

    While I also find wood paneling to be horrible and terrifying usually. I would be tempted to leave it here. It just looks so perfect with all that florescent lighting and minty barfy green fixtures.

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