Here is my theater design with fabric frames. There are a few details to finish but it is mostly complete.

Many thanks to GPowers (obviously) and the following who have had input over the past 2 years; Bryan pape, Curt Palme, Dennis, Terry, BigMouthDC, Ken Whitcomb, Art, Ethan, plus others who I have missed.

The room is 10' x 21' x 8. It is named (for now) 2nd Run Cinema because I tried to use as many used, 2nd hand items as possible. Receiver, 8 speakers, screen, projector, rack, grafix eye, video processor, popcorn maker, candy counter, garbage can, power controller and even some of the dricore floor were all bought as used items.


The color is off in the pictures. The walls are not as bright red as they appear. The columns are really a darker grey than they look and the entire stage is black even though it doesn't look so in the photos.

Walls - GOM Anchorage Mulberry (25 yds)
Columns - GOM Spinel Smokey Quartz (10 yds)
Soffits/Stage - GOM FR701 Black (15 yds)
15,000 staples !
Dark Grey carpet on floor and riser.
Black carpet on stage.
Grafix Eye 3106 - 6 zones - 23 4" lights plus 2 outdoor step lights and a white rope light for trey lighting.

More details to follow. - Bud


http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/13.jpg

http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/16.jpg

http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/27.jpg

http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/41.jpg

http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/17.jpg

Mulberry - the real color of the walls although even this sample looks too light !
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/mulberry.jpg

awesome theater!!! I wish mine turned out as great as yours.
--Manny

sweeeet! nice job on that door.

That looks fantastic!

The fabric frames look amazing.

very nice setup. How long did it take you to put it all together

It took 2 years from the time I started with bare concrete walls.

There were many weeks and probably months that nothing got done on it at all. I tried to spend a lot of time planning and was very methodical about it. I didn't want to spend that much time and not have it right. Plus, my wife and I did everything ourselves except for installing the carpet.

Construction is DD w/GG all around. The walls and the ceiling joists are isolated from the rest of the house... ceiling lights in MDF boxes and the soffit was built just like Gpowers so the room ended up really tight.

7.1 sound from a used Onkyo TX-SR875 receiver and used Paradigm speakers. 110" diagonal (96" x 54" 16:9) screen. The projector is a Barco 1208s/e+ that I painted black. Oppo BluRay player and DVDO VP50Pro processor.

Adding a few more pics. The "lobby" outside the theater is a work in progress. The concession counter and popcorn popper were stripped and rebuilt. There is still some work to do on the outside of the door and the door frame, as well as trying to decide how to decorate the space. We'll likely add a poster frame or two but I'm not sure at this point.

http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/42.jpg

http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/43.jpg

awesome hometheater.

looking to get a concession counter just like that. could you say where you got it and about how much you paid?

I found the concession stand on the local Craigslist and it was $50. I may have overpaid but I figured it was less work to paint this one than to try and build or modify something.

It was listed as a display case. It's nice because it has extra storage space underneath so I can hide all the popcorn supplies and the extra candy.

Best of luck with your search. Bud

I forgot to mention that all the equipment is in an equipment room that is located behind the screenwall and is accessable from outside of the theater only. I'll post some pics of that once I get the wiring cleaned up and the Harmony One programmed.

I still need to play with the DVDO processor and the projector to get the most out of each but the theater is still too new that I can not get anyone to quit using it for a few days so that I can play with the setups! Frankly, I could use a break for awhile.

Somebody sent me a PM with questions about the door so I thought I would just answer the question in this forum.

The door is more complex than it looks... while being simple at the same time. It's a standard, steel door so it has full weatherstripping with a threshold.

But the theater side face of the door sat back about 2-1/2" from the frames in the room. Because of that setback, if I had just mounted frames to the door I would have had to leave a 3" gap on the right side (hinge side) so that the frames would clear the door frame.

What I decided I wanted to do was to have the frames the full width of the door but have them slide out, away from the hinge, as the door is opened and then move back into position as the door was closed.

How I did it was to mount 2, 24" wide ball bearing chassis slides to the inside face of the door. Then I mounted a piece of 1/2" MDF to the mating pieces of the chassis slides and then mounted the frames to the MDF with french cleats and velcro. So the mdf (with the frames attached) was now able to move left and right. I rigged up a pivot hinge and piece of steel angle and mounted that angle to the sliding MDF and the pivot hinge to the door frame. You can see it on the right side of the door.

So, when I open the door the mdf panel slowly moves about 1.5" or so automatically to the left which is just enough for the frames to clear the hinge side of door frame when the door is open 90 degrees.

I had to buy 2 sets of door knobs and weld them together to get a shaft that would span the entire 4" or so of door thickness.

It's pretty cool and a subtle detail that I am proud of.

Is that an 8 oz popper? A lot of the pictures on the web don't give you a sense of scale - that would be bigger than I need. I saw what I think is a 4 oz one in a gas station recently, it would undoubtedly be fine, but it lacked heft.

Yep, it's an 8 oz popper. It's obviously an older model but what is nice about it is that the heavy, cast aluminum pot heats really evenly and if I time it right I get little or no smoking.

We've found that 6 oz packets are about the right size for 4 or 5 of us.

More details on the door panels, please! It sounds like a great detail.

I'm having a hard time visualizing what makes the panels "move back" when the door is closed?

GREAT IDEA about the sliding panel!

Do you have any photos of the sliding panel install?

CJ

I understand the sliding panel concept, but I don't fully appreciate the mechanism required it to move it the required distance away from the hinge. Got a Pic?

Can you also show/mention how you did the welding for the doorknob?

I'll try to get a pic of the hinge tonight. I searched hinge catalogs online until I found something that would work. It's an off the shelf hinge and a small piece of angle that makes it all work.

There are probably lots of ways to do this but I was trying to find the easiest way.

Concerning the door knob, all I did was take 2 door latch sets and mate them together. If you buy a door knob that is reversable, like the style I used, the piece in there that connects the 2 door knobs together is removable. I simply bought to 2 sets, removed that piece of each set, cut one of them to the correct length and welded it to the other piece. With the sliding mdf panel, the slides and the door, my effective door thickness is approx 4".

I cut a slot in the frame (and in the fabric) and I figured out a way to mount the door handle a hair above the panel. This allows the panel/frame to move independently of the door handle.

More pics tonights.

Here are the pictures of the hinge that moves the mdf door panel and frames. Remember that this is the only purpose of the hinge as the door itself is mounted with 3 heavy duty hinges. Ignore the colors in the photo... everything really does match but the camera doesn't show that.

This is the hinge mounted to the door frame extension and the angle mounted to the slinding MDF.
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/mounted.jpg

Here is a few of the same hinge/angle without the frame mounted.
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/mountedwithoutframes.jpg

I purchased an extra hinge just in case I needed it and cut a 2nd angle but I didn't bother to drill holes in it. I don't expect to need this.
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/extrahingeandangle.jpg

A pic of the lengthened (welded) door mechanism.
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/modifieddoorlatch.jpg

Handle mounted. There is a little more to it than appears. The assembly process necessitated some modifications (holes) in the mdf that I didn't plan for, but since the mdf is covered with the fabric frames you never notice it.
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/handle.jpg

I'll try to answer any other questions.

Thanks for looking.

Very impressive! Thanks for sharing!!

Yes, very helpful! Thanks.

The door handle assembly required some last minute holes be put in the Mdf panel. All the holes are hidden once the frames are on so you never see the mess underneath.

If I were to do it again I would think it through and do a neater job with the cuts.

The aluminum plate in this pic is mounted to the door and it's purpose is to hold the standoffs that stick through the fabric frame in order to attach the door knob on the inside of the theater. The door knob needed to be held in a fixed position as the panel slides underneath of it. The standoffs provide just enough height to hold the latch just a hair above the fabric frame.

http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/Theater/mountingplateforhandlemechanism.jpg

Under the plate, there are screws that attach the door latch to the door. Then comes the plate with the standoffs. Stick the fabric frame on the door, slide the welded door latch piece through the door and simply screw on the final pieces of the latch.

I'm thinking this HT is worthy of an Electronic House article..........!

Thanks, but it's pretty simple compared to the big boys. The door is the only unique piece as most other ideas were borrowed from other AVS'ers.

Great looking theater! Is your ceiling and soffits covered in fabric? I couldn't tell from the pics.

Yes and No. The Soffits are covered in Black FrR701 but the ceiling is painted Flat Black.

I also painted all of the rings on the can lights flat black.

Very Nice looking theater Bud. Be Proud :)
And I can certainly appreciate the efforts put in to that door...I bet most of your guest don't even notice/realize the work you put into that part alone, and just think...oh, I like how you tied your door into the rest of the room.. .:D

I think we all have areas in our theater designs that we put so much work into and it goes un-noticed to the "normal" folks.

Old

Thanks Old. Yes, you are probably right that most don't notice the door or if they do, they don't realize that it slides as it opens..... and they certainly don't realize what it took to make it work.

But, that's the fun of this hobby.

Hey Bud..

If you get a chance could you post the dimension from the rear of your second row to your rear wall. I'd like to know how much room you needed for the counter and 3 chairs.

Thanks

Brad

This dimension is something I am interested in as well!

The front of the granite counter is 53" from the rear wall and 46" from the face of the column. The granite is 16" wide, so from the rear of the granite to the face of the column it is only 30". I didn't have any more room, and it works great, but if I could have found 6"-12" somewhere it would be nice to have a little more room back there.

I tried the space out and then decided to make the counter 16" wide. I also went with counter height stools rather than bar stools, again after verifying my sight lines.

Hope this helps.

The front of the granite counter is 53" from the rear wall and 46" from the face of the soffit. The granite is 16" wide. I didn't have any more room, and it works great, but if I could have found 6" somewhere it would be nice to have a little more room back there.

I tried the space out and then decided to make the counter 16" wide. I also went with counter height stools rather than bar stools, again after verifying my sight lines.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Bud, much appreciated..

Brad

like the panels ... thinking of something similar.

Found this on Myspace. One of my step-son's friends was taking photo's in the theater. I think it turned well - pretty good photoshop skills.

http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/sydneylondon/lookwhatifound.jpg

Great theater budk. Nice work on the door panels.

Dare I ask, "What the heck is the kid in the back corner doing?"

Great theater budk. Nice work on the door panels.

Dare I ask, "What the heck is the kid in the back corner doing?"

Reminds me of the Blaire Witch ending.

I think he is pretending to do exactly what it looks like.... if it were up to me, I would have left that image out of the pic.

He did add some sort of spot light to simulate an old time projector type bulb light.

Great job Bud. I'm going with the panel look myself but haven't decided between wrapping wood panels like GPowers or using a track system. Do you have any photos of your fabric install? Can you take a look at the preliminary renderings in my build thread and let me know if you think I could pull it off using a track system? I have quite a few panels and I think the track system might get a little pricey.

Spaceman, I don't have any photos of my fabric install because it's identical to Greg's other than having a french cleat built into each frame.

I looked at your thread. There is no reason that you couldn't use track, but it will not be cheap. Spend some time calculating the length of track that your design requires and add 10-20% for scrap. You'll find that you prefer to use as many 1 section pieces as possible rather than trying to continually piece scraps together. Figure out the cost and weigh that against the cost of building frames.

In my case, there were 64 frames and the cost of doing that in track was more than I wanted to spend. If I had to do it again and if cost were not a factor, I would do track instead of wooden frames. Just from a labor standpoint.

I am impressed with you door design. Just curious did you have a chance to measure the attenuation from the source side to the receive side? I would like to know how it compared to the attenuation of the green glue assembly.

How did you treat the receive wall (lobby)? From the thickness of the wall it appears possibly double walls? I am very interested in the performance of the green glue.

Jlupo - I did not measure the attenuation... it obviously would vary depending on the frequency of the source material. I designed and built the theater as best as I could afford with an eye (and ear) towards keeping as much sound from escaping as possible.

One obvious concession was the door. It's a outside, steel clad door with full weather stripping. The treatment inside the door is more for looks than for sound containment. Having said all that, the door works tremendously well.

We can be in the rooms above the theater and we don't hear anything other than the occasional thump of the sub that sounds like far off thunder... So, for the money I think it was a good value... When I built the room, I knew that the door would be the weakest link and I built it so that I could either change the door or install a communicating door if I was unhappy with the sound containment. But, it has proven to be better than I thought it would be.

Concerning the thickness of the wall, yes that side of the theater was built with a double wall and the trim around the door frame is seperated by a 3/8" gap that is filled with flexible chaulking.... again trying to minimize the amount of vibration that gets passed on the the rest of the home.

As far as the performance of the Green Glue goes - I think the subject has been beat to death on this forum. If you want specific data I suggest you visit the GG website.

Hey budk, could you tell us the distances from the first, second and third rows to the screen? Also maybe a overall layout, doesn't need to be fancy just a sketch would do. I have a very similar sized room and curious how you fit that 3rd row.

Thanks
JB

Spec4,

The room is 20ft from screen to back wall.

First row eyes are at ~ 10ft.
Second row eyes are at ~ 15ft.
Third row - the back of the granite counter is at 17 ft so there is 3 ft in the rear to move the stools out and to get around them. Another 6"-12" or more would have been ideal but it is very usable.

I have a PDF of the layout but I'm unsure how to post it. If you want a copy send me a PM with your email address.

Bud,

Your room looks great and I can tell you put a lot of thought into it. My plan for my basement seems similar to what you've done. I like the clean fabric frame look too.

Did you ever consider two doors? I am for isolation reasons, but I feel it might not be the most convenient. I wonder if anyone has made a system where they both open at once.

I assume by 2 doors you mean communicating doors, where you open one to get to the other. I designed my doorway so that I could add a second door but I have not found any reason to do so. I get enough sound isolation from the exterior door and seal that I used.

Yes, I meant communicating doors. I couldn't think of the term. Since you are getting good results with the one door, looks like I will also. These HT builds need to be simplified where they can!

Hey Budk, I know this thread has been dormant for a while, but I just wanted to comment on how clean everything looks; nice work!

Also, you had mentioned earlier that you have a PDF of the layout available, do you still have that kicking around? I would love a copy of it if possible. If you wouldn't mind; nathanhdevries@hotmail.com

My future room is alsmot the exact same size, and I am debating the third row as well.


Thanks again, and kudos on the beautifull theatre!

Nathan

Nathan,

What in particular are you looking for on the PDF? I've got 20 layers or so in the cad drawing so i need to know which layers you need so I can shut the others off. For instance, you don't need the layer that shows my ceiling joist locations, etc.

let me know and I'll see if I can get a PDF generated... or, if you can accept an Autocad file I can send you the native dwg.

Hey Bud, I can accept CAD files of all sorts, that would be ideal actually. Sorry for the slow response, I have been away on work for a while. Thanks again, it's greatly appreciated!

Take care

Nathan

Bud,

Your theater looks AMAZING! I LOVE the fabric look! LOVE it!

I would like to replicate this for my room. Could you tell me how you built the fabric panels? I understand the GOM fabric but what is it mounted on, is there padding, etc?

Oh, and the door is FANTASTIC as well. I'd really like to do something similar as I have 2 doors on my front wall (entrance and closet.)

Thanks,
Cory

Bud,

Your theater looks AMAZING! I LOVE the fabric look! LOVE it!

I would like to replicate this for my room. Could you tell me how you built the fabric panels? I understand the GOM fabric but what is it mounted on, is there padding, etc?

Oh, and the door is FANTASTIC as well. I'd really like to do something similar as I have 2 doors on my front wall (entrance and closet.)

Thanks,
Cory

Same construction as GPowers with the exception of mine having a french cleat built into them. The frames are made with 4 pieces of 1/2 MDF glued and brad nailed to 4 pieces of 7/16" plywood. The sides and bottom are all 1" wide but the top is 2" wide and then I ripped the plywood top piece on an angle to form the french cleat. My wife and I setup a little assembly line and we ripped every piece first, then cut them to length, routed some most (but not all since some of the frames have a straight side when they are beside a column.) of the MDF to give it an angled edge, ripped the french cleats and then used a picture frame jig to square them up and glue and nail them together.... we did that times 64. The frames are filled with either 1" insulation or just 2 layers of 1/2" poly, depending on the location of the frame. I didn't want to use insulation everywhere as I was concerned about the room being to dead. I think I ended up with the lower half of the frames having insulation the upper half with the poly. Of course, my soffits have insulation on the bottom of them as well so there is a good bit of deadening going on... but nothing scientific... more of a gut attempt and I am happy with the results.

I'm not on this forum much now that my room is done... sorry for the delay in responding.

I am looking to do a counter also. My room is about the same length at 21'. I have a width of 12'4" though. Could you give me some details on how you built your counter and the dimentions?