Everything You Want to Know About Setting Up a Home Theater Room

Everything You Want to Know About Setting Up a Home Theater Room

Setting up a home movie theater room starts with a plan. Start your set up by sitting down and drawing up a plan to reach your ultimate goal. A few years ago, I bought a home with a room designated for a home theater system. The room needed a movie screen, projector and media chairs. When I started this room, I thought it would be simple. But in reality, it actually required a lot of thought and attention to detail. Prior to my purchase, I never would’ve expected this to be so much work. It all starts with the size of the room. The size of the room will help determine how large of a screen will fit in the area and still be proportionate with the room. Other considerations, include determining the electronic equipment and furniture that will work with the room without making it cluttered or uncomfortable.

First, you must review the projector, audio speakers and audio video equipment desired. Every projector will have a throw distance. This is the distance between the projector and the movie screen. Your projector will have a minimum and maximum throw distance. Make sure you don’t miscalculate these measurements, as they could make your video projection too big or small depending on the model. This type of project should only be handled by professionals. If not, you’ll likely be remodeling the room after your installation is complete. Nobody wants to incur additional expenses on any project.

Now, consider how the system will be wired. The equipment has to be placed somewhere in the room, make sure its precise because the wrong choices could leave you with a lot of extra expenses. Determine how many speakers will be a part of your system. Then determine the connection between your audio/video receiver and speakers. Try and decide on a location for each of these components before your finalize any of your order.

After you’ve gotten ideas for a projector, movie screen, audio video equipment and wiring you’ll need to start reviewing the cosmetic aspects of the room. Cosmetics really set the ambience in your room from paint to carpet and curtains to light fixtures. Knowing what you want is very important before getting started. If you’re installing carpet or painting the walls make sure you choose medium to dark toned colors. In my opinion, the darker the color the better. If you’ve ever noticed a commercial movie theater with the light on, they have walls that are black and if there is color it’s typically deep red, green or blue in general. We usually find color in curtains, I decided against the traditional red curtains in exchange chose a deep charcoal gray and surrounded the back wall with padding to help with the audio acoustics.

Last, you’ll want to pick out those fancy media chairs. You can fit more people in the room with the space saver seating. These seats are like the ones you see at the traditional movie lay side by side and share the arm rest to save the most space. This gives you ability to fit maybe one, two or ten extra people in your home theater. Can’t decide, consider hiring a home theater consultant and interior designer.