edcwhite
11-04-07, 03:39 PM
Though I would share my basement finishing and home theater room project with others here. I hope what you see will make you realize you don't need to spend much to have a great room you just need to be creative!
I started the project by trying to think of the cheapest, fastest and easiest way that I could finish off a portion of my basement. I needed room for computer gear, exercise equipment, kids toys and of course a home theater! I didn't want to do anything that would be permanent as I know I am no professional and I didn't want my lousy home improvement work lowering the value of my house. With these criteria in mind my work began.
First was the ceiling as this was to be the worst job. I decided to go for the industrial look and simply paint it black with all duct work and framing exposed. Four gallons of paint, a sprayer and about 6 hours later it was done.
Next were walls. This is where it got interesting. I started with the idea of just hanging curtains in order to partition off an area. This lead to the though of just draping blankets as they would be thicker and darker. So I hit every Walmart in my city (about 6) and cleaned out every $6.97 double sized burgundy blanket they had - 15 or so in all. And yes, I did feel ridiculous rolling up to the cash with a stack of blankets over 4 feet tall.
A trip to home depot for a bunch of different wood and a crap load of staples and I was back home to begin construction... After one night of tinkering around with different approaches I was here:
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4626/1000449kh8.jpg
And in about six more evenings the result was finally this:
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1363/1001160ks5.jpg
One real benefit of having walls made out of blankets is they are of course acoustically transparent so behind my screen I have:
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/9839/1001154aa4.jpg
Total cost of the room material was less than $900 with about $500 of that for the carpet. Final dimensions are approx 11'8" X 24'. Screen is a DIY 94" made with blackout cloth for about $65.
I started the project by trying to think of the cheapest, fastest and easiest way that I could finish off a portion of my basement. I needed room for computer gear, exercise equipment, kids toys and of course a home theater! I didn't want to do anything that would be permanent as I know I am no professional and I didn't want my lousy home improvement work lowering the value of my house. With these criteria in mind my work began.
First was the ceiling as this was to be the worst job. I decided to go for the industrial look and simply paint it black with all duct work and framing exposed. Four gallons of paint, a sprayer and about 6 hours later it was done.
Next were walls. This is where it got interesting. I started with the idea of just hanging curtains in order to partition off an area. This lead to the though of just draping blankets as they would be thicker and darker. So I hit every Walmart in my city (about 6) and cleaned out every $6.97 double sized burgundy blanket they had - 15 or so in all. And yes, I did feel ridiculous rolling up to the cash with a stack of blankets over 4 feet tall.
A trip to home depot for a bunch of different wood and a crap load of staples and I was back home to begin construction... After one night of tinkering around with different approaches I was here:
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4626/1000449kh8.jpg
And in about six more evenings the result was finally this:
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1363/1001160ks5.jpg
One real benefit of having walls made out of blankets is they are of course acoustically transparent so behind my screen I have:
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/9839/1001154aa4.jpg
Total cost of the room material was less than $900 with about $500 of that for the carpet. Final dimensions are approx 11'8" X 24'. Screen is a DIY 94" made with blackout cloth for about $65.