Turning your home into a casino
Casino Fatale is a murder mystery party set in a luxurious present-day casino in Paris. Think glamorous gaming tables, sparkling lights, wealthy guests, cocktails and just a hint of Parisian sophistication.
The good news is that you don’t need to turn your home into the Casino Fatale. A few packs of playing cards, some casino chips and carefully chosen lighting can transform an ordinary room surprisingly quickly.
Here are some ideas for decorating your home for Casino Fatale.
Choose a casino colour scheme
A simple colour scheme immediately gives your party a more polished look. Classic casino colours work particularly well:
- Black and red
- Black and gold
- Red, black and gold
- Black and silver
Use your colours for tablecloths, napkins, balloons, bunting and other decorations. Black tablecloths with gold or red details can make even an ordinary dining table feel much more luxurious.
Create a casino entrance
Start the atmosphere before your guests even enter the room.
Make a sign welcoming everyone to the casino—or create your own suitably glamorous casino name. Add some gold stars, playing-card symbols or strings of lights around the entrance.
For an extra touch of luxury, create a miniature red carpet using a strip of red fabric or a red runner.
You could even have a sign announcing:
Tonight Only – Exclusive Private Gaming
Create a gaming table
You don’t need a real roulette or blackjack table. Cover an ordinary table with green felt or a green tablecloth and add:
- Playing cards
- Casino chips (although note that casino chips are also currently in Casino Fatale, so we suggest differentiating between in-game chips and out-of-game chips)
- Dice
- Card shoes or chip trays, if you have them
- A blackjack, poker or roulette layout
Printable gaming layouts can turn an ordinary dining table into something surprisingly convincing.
If you have several tables, create different gaming areas around the room.
Add a touch of Paris
Casino Fatale takes place in Paris, so add a few French details without turning the room into a collection of Eiffel Towers.
Try:
- Small Eiffel Tower decorations
- Vintage or modern Paris posters
- French café signs
- Paris postcards
- Black-and-white photographs of Paris
- French menus or drinks lists
- A small French flag tucked discreetly into the décor
A few carefully chosen touches are enough to establish the location.
Make it glamorous
Casino Fatale is a luxurious casino, not a backstreet gambling den.
Use anything that creates an impression of wealth and glamour:
- Gold or silver table decorations
- Glass bowls and vases
- Candles or LED candles
- Mirrored trays
- Sparkling table scatter
- Artificial diamonds and gemstones
- Champagne flutes
- Flowers
- Velvet or satin fabric
Costume jewellery scattered around a display can also suggest the extravagant wealth of the casino’s clientele.
Use atmospheric lighting
Lighting can make a bigger difference than almost any other decoration.
Turn off bright overhead lights where practical and use table lamps, strings of warm lights and LED candles instead. If you have colour-changing lights, subtle red, gold or purple lighting can create a sophisticated casino atmosphere.
Make sure there is still enough light for everyone to read their character sheets and clues.
Set up a casino bar
Turn a kitchen counter, drinks table or sideboard into the casino bar.
Arrange bottles, glasses, cocktail shakers and bowls of garnishes together. Add a handwritten or printed cocktail menu and give the drinks suitably extravagant casino names.
Non-alcoholic drinks work just as well—presentation is what creates the effect.
A bowl of lemons and limes, cocktail napkins and a few champagne flutes can make a normal drinks table look much more glamorous.
Add some casino signs
Printed signs are an inexpensive way to transform a room.
Try signs for:
- Casino Entrance
- Gaming Tables
- Bar
- Private
- Staff Only
- Film Crew
- No Photography
- Cashier
Put them on doors and around different areas of your home to make the casino feel larger than the room you’re actually using.
Use casino-themed food decorations
You can carry the theme onto the buffet table without needing special food.
Use playing cards as food labels, scatter casino chips between serving dishes or decorate cupcakes with card suits.
Bowls of chocolates wrapped in gold foil also fit the luxurious casino theme particularly well.
For something more Parisian, serve small pastries, macarons, cheeses or baguettes alongside your usual party food.
Add background music
Music helps create atmosphere without taking up any space.
For the beginning of the party, try sophisticated lounge music, jazz, modern cocktail-bar music or French café-inspired background music.
Keep it fairly quiet. Casino Fatale depends on players talking, negotiating and sharing information, so background music should create atmosphere rather than compete with conversations.
Make a photo area
Create a simple Casino Fatale backdrop where guests can take photographs.
A black curtain or plain wall decorated with playing cards, gold stars and casino chips is enough. Add a few props such as:
- Feather boas
- Sunglasses
- Fake money
- Champagne glasses
- An Eiffel Tower prop
A sign reading Casino Fatale – Paris ties everything together.
Concentrate your decorations
You don’t need to decorate every room.
For the biggest impact, concentrate on three or four areas: the entrance, the main gaming table, the bar and perhaps a VIP or film-crew area. Add atmospheric lighting and scatter cards and casino chips around the rest of the room.
The aim isn’t to build a real casino. It’s to give your guests just enough visual cues that, when they arrive in costume and start playing their characters, your home suddenly feels like a glamorous Paris casino where something is about to go terribly wrong.
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