Home Theater Design

If you want a really good theater then this step has to be done before anything else. You can dream about your big TVs and surround sound stereo, but if you haven't put any thought into the design and layout of your room your efforts and expensive theater equipment could be for naught.

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When we bought our house there was a huge room above the garage (16x40) that has plywood floors and open studded walls. We started with a clean slate and loved every stage of the process.

We started designing our perfect theater before we even got married and just adapted our plans to fit the room we had to work with. You have to consider how the room will be used, window placement (if any), TV or projector placement in relation to the room dimensions and where you want the focus to be. We figured it made the most sense to put the screen at one end of the room so that everywhere in the room could see it easily. Since our dimensions made for a long skinny room, we are able to see the movie from anywhere without any distortion of the image due to being too far to the side.

We got a 2 year subscription to Home Theater Magazine, knowing it would be a well spent investment giving us lots of ideas for our own theater. I would highly recommend this magazine for your own home theater design as it not only gave us ideas but it kept us inspired.

As a do it yourselfer you probably want to do most of this on your own, but there are professionals whose entire career is built around home theater design.  Depending on where you live their skills may not be very cheap, but if you run across a hurdle the professionals could get you through it. If an actual designer is out of your budget, talk to your nearest home theater store. I would recommend avoiding the big chain stores for this part of it, most of their employees are teenagers who can read specs off the box and that's it. I would suggest that you go to a smaller more specialized store where the sales staff are more experienced and well versed in home theater setup.

Part of this design process will require you to decide how big your screen will be and whether you'll have a projector or a regular TV. The size of screen will matter so that you can determine where your first row of seating will be. Each screen size has an optimal viewing distance that must be considered. If you must start with a smaller screen but plan to get a bigger one later, take that into account when designing your theater seating locations. You'll need the flexibility to move your seating backwards as the screen gets larger. Considering this, it would be easier to get couches instead of floor mounted official theater seats as the couches are easier to move.

During this planning stage its best to draw out your designs or get room design software that gives you the fast flexibility to make changes and see them three dimensionally. First measure your room and draw out the basic frame. You'd be best served by drawing everything to scale. If you are just dreaming about screen sizes and don't actually own your perfect home theater system, then get the dimensions off the internet and use those in your drawing. Do the same thing with any furniture you intend to use. If you are getting all new pieces then you can get those dimensions off furniture store websites to at least get an average measurement.

Plug these numbers into your software (most of them already have prebuilt furniture pieces you can input easily) and start playing with the room arrangement. Don't forget about the optimal viewing distance from your screen! You don't want to be so close your eyes burn or too far back to see it. Often the company website for your dream TV or projector will list that perfect seating distance. This distance will also be a factor in speaker location as you'll want that first row of seating to get the optimal sound from all speakers. Every home theater has one perfect sound location, all others can hear it but tend to have one sound range higher or lower than another. If your typical audience is yourself and a spouse then make sure your own perfect seating also has perfect sound.

We played with our home theater design several times before settling on the perfect setup. Our choices were more limited due to its unusual length, if you had a more square room then the options are practically limitless. Be careful to consider any windows (I strongly recommend getting light blocking curtains) to be sure there isn't any glare on the screen or bright light shining in your eyes. Our theater is windowless so we can easily obtain total darkness (can't even see your hand in front of you face) making the movie experience that much more intense.

You could also get this informative ebook on home theater design. This is a "must have" eBook for anyone aspiring to have the Home Theater experience. It is easy to read and details the right items involved in understanding the challenging world of audio/video systems. This is recommended for all readers - from novice to expert home theater buffs.

Perhaps you do better watching someone do it in front of you instead of reading about it. These how-to video clips could be just the answer. You will own these videos to watch over and over if necessary. See a free sample on their website before purchasing.