Home Theater

I always liked the theater, I just hated the loud, obnoxious people and high ticket price. Now what can you do about that? Build your own theater! Over the past couple of months I’ve been working on this major project. Come have a look-see!

I’ve always wanted my very own home theater. I can’t tell you how many times I have been disappointed after paying my fare to see a motion picture that gets completely ruined by annoying teenagers or screaming babies. However there has never been any alternative to fix the situation. Enter the home theater!

Front view of the theater.

Location selection was easy. I just needed a dark little hole big enough to fit my projector, screen, and seating. The perfect choice was obviously the basement. A new basement for a matter of fact, we just completed renovations to our home that included doubling the size of the existing basement. This allowed half for my disposal and half for my sister to meddle with.

Back view of the theater.

I won’t go into any boring details about the actual construction of the room. It was just a little framing, sheet rock, and paint. I will say that in order to hide the floor joist from sight, we installed a drop ceiling. Instead of using standard ceiling tiles, I chose to use the plastic “light cover” type tiles. It looks cool, but isn’t very sound friendly. (Low bass will make the tiles vibrate!)

Optoma HD70 Mounted to the ceiling.

Long before erecting walls I started buying my equipment. I already had a decent surround sound system. It’s a little aged, but its still got 5.1 surround and 700 watts of audible power. It took a while for me to decide on a projector. I was looking for the perfect price to quality ratio. I finally chose the Optoma HD70. It’s capable of 720p high definition and has a 16:9 native aspect ratio. Plus, I got it on sale for under a grand!

110" Screen mounted on the wall.

While saving money on the projector was nice, saving money on the screen was even better. Instead of buying a screen I constructed one. I made a frame for it out of 2×4s and bought some actual screen material from an online store. After the frame was built, I stretched the material over and secured it with clamping devices on both sides and to keep it tight, I used double-sided carpet tape. I feel bad I didn’t get any good pictures of the actual assembly, but you can see the final product. The screen is a 110″ diagonal measurement. Actual measurements are 96″ wide by 54″ high which makes for a perfect 16:9 ratio for a 10 foot display.

Remote controlled dimming wall sconces.

I have initially installed two sets of lights. One set of florescent lights mounted in the ceiling I can use when I actually need to see. The second set are wall sconces that are connected to a remote control dimmer switch that allows me to dim the lights whenever the movie’s starting. These are mounted between the rear speakers and the screen, out of forward view while seated.

Indiana Jones trilogy! Of course!

Finished screen with hidden wires.

After throwing down some carpet and more paint, it was time to work on some ascetics. I put up some bills from my favorite movies and hid the speaker wires the best I could. I also setup my home theater PC as the center to all my entertainment. I shoved it in the room under the steps (behind the screen) along with some miscellaneous A/V equipment.

The Blue Bar!

Before everything was said and done, I added a good bar in the rear section of the theater. It has really added a lot of value to the room. It also gives something else to do instead of watch movies. Building the bar is a post in itself. So, I’ll just leave it at that.

Comfy Chairs

The last step was of course one of the most important, seating! I looked everywhere for some nice theater seating that would actually fit into my area. I finally found what I was looking for, cup holders included. My parents actually bought it for me as a Christmas gift. Thanks! I know what you’re thinking though, “You only have enough seating for two people, what’s up with that?” Well, I do plan on adding another row of seating. Most likely it’ll be my old futon on a raised platform behind these seats. Note, ticket prices vary.