How to Build a Media Room – Part 2
In Part 1 of this article, I discussed reasons why you may want to build a media room, choosing a location in your home, pre-wiring, and adding lighting, flooring, and sound insulation. In this post, we’ll discuss the remaining steps.
Painting the Room
The ideal paint for a media room is a dark color in a flat finish. Why? Because it does not reflect as much light. So I recommend that you target one or more dark colors (in a flat finish, of course) that fit nicely with the décor of your room. For example, if you have black, blues and grays as your primary colors, then you may want to go with a charcoal gray or midnight blue wall color. It is very important that you also paint the ceiling dark and flat. If you have baseboards, crown molding, or chair rail, you can also paint the molding in a flat color.
In my media room, I have red carpet and dark brown chairs. The walls are painted in a chocolate brown with a slight red tint. The ceiling is done in a similar, but slightly lighter color. The molding is done in a lighter (flat) accent color. I also painted the inside of the entrance doors using the wall color.
Furnishing the Room
You should furnish the room however you like, but I do have a couple of tips.
1) Use the right seating based on the attributes of the room
- Don’t overcrowd the room
- Arrange the seating such that no view is obstructed
- Consider the ideal viewing distance based on your screen size
2) Make it comfortable
- Does the seating recline?
- Do you have cup holders or side tables for drinks?
- Are the seats comfortable enough for a two hour movie?
3) Think of the little things
- Pillows and throws
- DVD storage
- A clock
- Snacks
Finishing Touches
Wall Art
You can get pretty creative with home theater wall art. Here are a few ideas:
- Stencil film-themed art
- Hang old film reels or clapper boards
- Framed photos of classic theaters
I chose to hang framed movie posters. Now, I could write an entire article about movie posters- but here are a couple of thoughts. You can get 24” x 36” standard poster sized reproductions from most online art stores such as art.com and posters.com. The benefit of these is that they fit into a standard 24” x 36” frame. This is a common size, so there will be many frame style to choose from and you can find lots of pre-framed art in the same size. Instead of the 24” x 36” reproductions, you can purchase 27” x 40” original movie posters. I believe that the best place to find these is on eBay. Oddly enough, they originals seem to be less expensive than the reproductions- especially if you purchase more than one from the same vendor at the same time to save on shipping costs. Most are in mint or excellent condition. The downside is that are is a limited selection of 27” x 40” frames. I purchased the black vinyl frame style. The framed posters will introduce some glare into the room, but the anti-glare plastic in the product above will help.
Equipment
The actual theater equipment is outside the scope of this article. However, there are many comprehensive home theater sites on the Web, such as:
I will make one general recommendation pertaining to you equipment purchase. Start with a budget and choose a complete system that fits within that budget. Take a look at www.audioholics.com/buying-guides/system-buying-guides/. This site gives recommendations for complete systems based on price points.
Good luck!
Jon
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[...] Part 1 and Part 2 of the series of how to build a media room, we provided ideas for planning, constructing, and [...]