Build a Home Theater in Your Basement
If you have a basement, you know what a dilemma it can create. With this extra space, What should you turn it into? One thing that will make the whole household happy is to build a home theatre in your basement.
This will give a special vibe to your space and definitely make your parties popular. So, if you like the idea, here is how to put the things in motion.
Limit the ambient light and sound
The most distracting things while watching a movie in the theatre room are ambient light and sounds. While it’s easy to limit ambient light in the basement, since there is typically no sunlight, it’s a different story with outside sounds.
Neighbors, washing machine or simply other members of your household can make enough noise to ruin the viewing experience. Therefore, you have to include soundproofing in your budget, consider using solid doors.
Decorate it to look like a cinema
Red drapes and movie posters are the first things that come to mind when you think of classic cinema. Although comfy and big sofas will be fine, consider creating rows of seats just like in a real theatre. If you plan to use the room for something else, these rows can easily separate to create a seating area like any living room.
Additionally, use a projector screen instead of a really big TV so you can truly capture the magic of movies and charm of going to the cinema. The screen can easily roll down from the ceiling when necessary and be easily concealed from the view when not in use.
Add cinema control lights
When installing lights in your home theatre, consider adding several options to turn them on and off. The simplest way is to install dimmers and recessed lights to make the room look more like a real cinema. But the best way to do it is to install normal overhead and ambient lights with a remote controller, which will make it more convenient to set the mood.
Additionally, paint the walls in a dark color since the light from the screen will reflect all over the room. Consider painting the ceiling gray or any neutral color so the room will still have its charm and carry a dramatic vibe, rather than gloom.
Install an audio-visual control booth
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Every theatre has a control booth where all the electronics and equipment are installed to play movies. Your home theatre should have one as well, in order to keep the equipment safe and organized. Choose a reliable manufacturer for the projector mount like Ultralift so it can be firmly fixed to the ceiling with good ventilation to prevent overheating.
The same applies to other audio and video source components, like a BluRay player, so make sure they have room and enough holes for ventilation. Also, conceal the cables to and from the audio-visual control booth since they can cause people to trip or accidentally disconnect them. You can easily do this during the renovations, therefore, it’s important to know the floor plan and location of the booth from the start.
Build a mini-bar and popcorn stand
Mini-bar and popcorn stands can actually be a modest setting that won’t take a lot of room, or a full-blown construction worthy of a real cinema. For those on the budget, a fridge with cold beverages and popcorn machine will be a perfect addition to their home theatre. After all, it’s all about the feel and recreating that true cinema spirit.
Alternatively, you can opt to build a DIY concession stand which will require some carpentry and investing in popcorn bags. This will be more expensive, but your guests and family will really appreciate the effort to make everything as realistic as possible.
Final thoughts
There isn’t a more perfect room to build a home theatre than in your basement. Just have a clear design at hand before renovations to make room for all the features, like the control booth and concession stand. After all, you can’t watch a movie without freshly-made popcorn. ??
As a collaborative interior design firm, we help busy homeowners who are unsure of their design style, consider mood instead. We want to know how you want your home to feel after a long day at work. Can you picture it? That’s what we want to help you create. Contact us to learn more about our process and to see if we are a good fit. You can email us at rjackson@yourdesignpartner.com or contact us here.
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4 Responses to “Build a Home Theater in Your Basement”
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I’ve been thinking of installing a home theater in my basement, and I was looking for ideas to get is installed. It says here to install dimmers and recessed lights and to paint the wall in a dark color. It makes sense you want to paint the projector will reflect all over the room.
Thank you for your comment.
Home theatre in basement sounds like a cool idea. It makes it feel like a real cinema theatre. Due to basement, the audio experience would be much better and video experience will be good as well. Get audio video equipment and install it in angle where you can perceive the motions without the disturbances.
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