“I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, but first impressions are often entirely wrong. You can look at a painting for the first time, for example, and not like it at all, but after looking at it a little longer you may find it very pleasing. The first time you try Gorgonzola cheese you may find it too strong, but when you are older you may want to eat nothing but Gorgonzola cheese…. Your initial opinion on just about anything may change over time.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning
We couldn’t really help the fact that our reception room looked like a boring old office. It’s important to make a good first impression so we discussed it quite a bit.
Red Lantern only has three owners, but there were at least five different opinions (long story!)
It made family dinners fun…
While we were stuck waiting on the CUP (Conditional Use Permit) from the City of Brea, we decided to get started on the stuff we could work on. Our reception room, for example, needed serious consideration as it would be the first impression for our incoming players.
We nailed down the paint colors but couldn’t decide on a reception desk. We also had long talks on room flow and how gamers would exit from the front to the back, especially considering our main room is in a huge warehouse and could potentially fit a large amount of people.
We decided on an economical desk that would use the wall space for shelves and have a flat top to hide computer monitors but at the same time allow the Game Master to welcome incoming players.
For extra seating, we decided to use the first downstairs room that won’t turn into it’s own escape room for least a year (two other new rooms to open before then; stay tuned!). We found some themed couches that were extremely comfortable. For the rest of the main lobby, we added in some shelves where we could place small games to act as icebreakers and warm-ups for our customers.
We worked hard on the reception to make it an inviting place that fit our theme and our budget.
Tomorrow, we show off the start of construction! Do you want to be emailed when we post it? Get blog updates in your email by signing up at the top right of this page. We are also getting ready for beta testing… Sign up for our mailing list too.
Cheers!
