Hey All...

Just wondering if anyone has any recommendation on carpeting for a media room. Are there any colors that are better than others (personal taste, notwithstanding), for a specific reason? I just don't want to throw a rug down and then have regrets. Perhaps it doesn't even matter once the lights are down??? Any and all feedback is welcomed and appreciated.


John from Boston

My carpet is black, but then again, so is my entire theater. (see link in sig)

The key is how much light bounce you want in your room. Previously, I had light colored walls and cream colored carpet. Even though I had no windows and could turn off the lights/close the door, the room wasn't dark enough for me. That's why I went all black. To each his own, though.

Burgundy looks good. Recently though, I have really been drooling over this carpet. (http://www.kidcarpet.com/product.php?pID=413)

I would think that any carpet that is darker would solve two purposes. 1) Hide the dirt, 2) Not reflect light.

My carpet is dark blue, which matches the seats, front and back walls, and the ceiling now that we painted those tiles.

It is a good combination of darkness with a nice color. I did not personally want the "red" look.

Reedl

I think I'm about to replace my light, off white carpet with commercial carpet tiles. At first I didn;t like the idea as I didn't think you saved that much money. And you don't. But what I like is the ability to replace individual tiles at any time, or take a single tile with a stain out and wash it (some you can soak in a sink or power wash!).

The tough part is I can only find the ones at HD/Lowes locally and they are expensive. I found a couple places on line, but shipping can be high. However, after e-mailing several places, I should be able to find something to work for around $2.00 SF shipped.

Also, if you are adventure some and have a larger space, you can really get the squares cheap by mixing different "left overs" in a random pattern. Or you can get creative and do a boarder around the outside.

I've got a dark burgunday carpet with a bit of a pattern. It's almost like a berber carpet - almost. Very Dark. I worry about people eating/making a mess in my room, but honestly you'd never be able to tell.

My walls and ceiling are a dark flat brown (light reflective value of 7) and my front wall is a flat black ((LRV 2) looks like you're looking into a never-ending tunnel).

I've seen many great pics of rooms with lighter carpets and truth be told, when the lights are out, the carpet doesn't really get in the way (much) but as reedl said, you also get the stain hiding ability included. Win-Win.

Burgundy looks good. Recently though, I have really been drooling over this carpet. (http://www.kidcarpet.com/product.php?pID=413)

That carpet looks cool. I'd love to work that into my lobby (Ok, don't really have a lobby, but it'd look great on my staircase walls leading up to my theater).

But my staircase is not climate controlled (the stairs are in a detached garage with no AC. I think the bugs and humidity would kill the carpet.

:(

My carpet is dark blue and matches my front wall and ceiling. The rest of the walls are a dark tan and I have black leather Lane seats. I like the blue color with the lights on and when the lights are off it looks black.

I've got this
http://www.htmarket.com/chtc-.html
in "Cinema Purple"

We love it. EVERYONE comments on it as they enter the theater.

I went with black carpet tiles over Dri-core. The tiles I have have a neoprene like pad attached. As I have a constant traffic of kids in there, I can attest to the benefit of being able to change out a tile or two when the inevitable occurs.

Don

I have more of a Hotel type carpet. Lots of pattern on the dark colors, but it's terrific at hiding Golden Retriever fur ;) Here is a picture of my snack bar area with the carpet.

I went w/ movie theater carpet I found on line. You can see it on my link below. I chose a charcoal .My theater is black and gold, I went for a real theater feel. The kids love the carpet, and actually tell their friends to be careful not to spill anything on their carpet.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mahler007/TheatreRoom

My carpet is Karastan Andrea, color Terra Nuevo, number 73208/3761. It's kinda medium brown with specks of other colors. Nice soft, deep pile with a pad underneath. Crumbs and such don't show, nor would spilled liquids.

Funny thing happened, though. I went to the rug store to look at samples and decided to take some samples into the men's room. Once inside, I turned off the light and alternately opened and closed the door. This was to simulate a semi-darkened and darkened HT.

I was surprised to see several "glowing" in the semi-darkened room. So be careful. You also don't want a distracting pattern, as cute as they might be, in the rug.
Take Aim

Try this place for carpet. I bought carpet from them twice. Very nice and helpful. Cheap shipping and the carpet was about a buck twenty five a square foot. I believe that these people are the manufacturer. My installer said that it was commercial carpet and in a home should last longer than the house.

http://www.astrocarpetmills.com/video.html

I just got my new carpet delivered. I went with carpet "squares" with a cushion back. They are 18" square. The area I'm doing is 12 X 11.5 (I'm not replacing the carpet on my riser).

It is not really "theater carpet" per say. But I found a nice nuetral grey (my theater seats are grey) with lots of red (I have red on my riser, drapes and screen wall) and gold (drapes have gold). I actually did something I don't recommend, I ordered without getting a sample. I thought I would have time to install this weekend so I wanted shipped right away. But as it turns out, I likely won't get to it till next weekend, so probably had time for samples. But, got lucky and very happy with the color.

Price is pretty cheap. Shipping is a killer as carpet is heavy, but even with the shipping it works out to less then $2.00 sf. And I'm excited that being a commercial type carpet that if something is spilled on it, I just pull up the square or to two and wash off in the sink. Or if it gets stained, I can replace a single square (I bought extra).

Will see how install goes next weekend!

I received several PM regarding my use of carpet tiles in my theater room. As such, I thought I share a few more details and pics.

Where to start: my media room had the same off white carpet as the rest of the house. I wanted kids and everyone to enjoy the theater at will. Meaning I wanted them to take popcorn, cokes, pizza whatever in there to enjoy the show. Of course in short time this trashed the carpet.

Here is a photo of my media room with the old off white carpet:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-10/844580/P7210002.JPGhttp://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-10/844580/P7130101.JPG
I'm a DIY guy mainly as I keep a strict budget. If I can't do it myself, I likely do not want to spend the money to have it done. So I looked at laminate flooring (like pergo), ceramic tile, wall to wall carpet. Finally I thought commercial type carpet tiles would be the perfect solution. Easy to install. Easy to clean (you can lift out and wash in a sink), easy to replace individual tiles if one is ruined.

I did some looking and Lowes/HD have some that are like $5.00 per sf, which I thought was high. So I looked to the net. Good prices, but shipping is expensive as they are heavy (it is carpet!). Finally I decided on http://icarpetiles.com/
There shipping was lower then most. And they were friendly. You can also and they highly recommend ordering samples. I did not, but got lucky and love the color and it matched perfect. But I recommend you get samples.

You have two ways to install, a sort of tacky glue or double sided carpet tape. I did the double sided carpet tape on my concrete slab floor. swept, vacuumed and mopped the concrete floor several times to get it as clean as possible. Install is straight forward, directions (on their web site) is easy enough. The cushion back tiles are rubber so have extra knife blades for cutting.

The tiles I selected were cushion back and ran about $1.50 per SF. With shipping it worked out to $2.00 or maybe $2.10 SF. I still have the closet to do, but ordered enough to have about 8-9 extra full tiles.

OK, here are the pic's:
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/3982/coloroy2.th.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=coloroy2.jpg)
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/7517/cushionbackthicknessph8.th.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cushionbackthicknessph8.jpg)
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/8082/overviewwe5.th.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=overviewwe5.jpg)
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4383/overview2ul5.th.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=overview2ul5.jpg)
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/8182/screenur1.th.jpg (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenur1.jpg)
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/66/closeupwchairsby9.th.jpg (http://img522.imageshack.us/my.php?image=closeupwchairsby9.jpg)
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/9606/drapesiv0.th.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=drapesiv0.jpg)
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5559/entranceyv3.th.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=entranceyv3.jpg)