Cyclone Cinema Build - Page 9

So I havent decided which way I am going to go yet, but the door jamb being painted two different colors strikes me as odd...I havent found any pictures that show what that would look like .

I have, however, found a few pictures with a stained door with white trim...it could work, as this doorway isnt into any "normal" room like the rest of the house...might help make it special.

Here are a couple of pictures I have found from google images...not slab doors, but I suppose I could live with one of these looks...

Input from others is great if anyone has an opinion.









It seems as though it has been done before, I just dont want to get it finished and have it look out of place.

I have some progress to report!

Did a little basement shopping today so I didnt get too much work accomplished down there. We bought a rug for the bedroom and a refrigerator for the basement. Both needed to be ordered so they havent arrived yet, but its still nice to get done. While we were at Home Depot buying the refrigerator, I stopped by the lumber isle and bought some pine to finish my windows.

Here is the egress window side trim installed...


And here is one with the trim installed around the outside...


I am VERY glad I am doing painted trim down there, it made it a lot easier to hide my small gaps...a little caulk and paint will cover it all up. I am very pleased with how it has turned out.

And finally, an exciting picture (to me anyway)...


Thats right, we finally have a shower door. I paid to have that installed, as I didnt feel comfortable doing something like that myself.

Thanks guys, I am very happy with how it turned out. Soon I will actually get to focus on the theater!

Because the door should be arriving in a week or two I had a question about the automatic door bottoms...

I would like (and should have the capability) to fully mortise the door bottom inside the door. My question is whether I should do this. It would reduce the mass of the door system when compared to mounting it on the side of the door. I just dont feel like this would look as good.

Was hoping Ted, or someone might have some advice. If I don't hear anything I will plan on fully mortising it into the door.

I ordered the thicker door, 1.75". I would think very hard about adding MDF, but hesitate only because the hinges are likely not rated for the extra weight.

Unless someone thinks otherwise, I think I will hide the bottom in the door. After the room is finished, if I think too much sound is escaping through the door, maybe I add a layer of mdf/gg.

Yes, if I find that I need to add mass to the door, it will require more than just adding a layer of MDF....I just dont know if that is necessary or not. I am sure more is better, but I think it will be best to see if I NEED better.

The basement refrigerator was delivered today over lunch. They even were willing to carry it down the stairs for me! Everything went smoothly for the most part...the only problem was that the front doors/brackets had to be removed along with the door jamb stops on the door leading down into the basement. After that was all removed it squeezed through the doorway and down the stairs...I suppose I should isntall my cabinets to give the refrigerator a home.

Thats it for progress. Work has gotten busy so I will be limited to the weekends for the next couple weeks.

I installed baseboard trim this weekend and caulked the top edge, corners....all I have left is to install the theater room door (scheduled arrival date of 2-13...that day has come and gone with no word from Home Depot) and the cabinets in order to finish the trim.

I installed the storage room door and put a first coat of paint on the window casings. I am getting VERY close to being finished up with the basement portion of my build and then I can shift my focus entirely on the theater!

Theater sconces have also arrived a week or so ago...now I have no reason not to start designing/building columns....which leads me to todays question. How shallow can I build my columns and still make them look good?

I I have roughed in electrical wire to go behind the columns and attach to my sconces. However, my room is only slightly wider than 12' which is driving my column depth. I am thinking about 3" deep if I can get away with it.

Column construction is also giving me headaches, as I cannot decide how I want to build them. I could go the MDF route, I have the tools/capability to do a solid wood raised panel look, maybe a rail & stile frame with a plywood insert instead of a raised panel....the possibilities are endless....but I cannot decide what to do. So I think step 1 is to decide how shallow I can make them...any opinions?

Thanks husker, it was a lot of work, but we are very happy with how it turned out.

I will not be hiding the surrounds in the columns, I have the speaker wires roughed in to be centered between the second and third columns.

As for fabric. I am not doing full fabric covered walls, but will be creating some acoustical treatments for the walls between the columns.

I have a source here in town where I can get S2S planed red oak for a very reasonable rate. I bought a bunch of wood from them when I built raised panel doors for the kitchen of my old house.

I dont think I really need to go with raised panels in the theater, as the column sides will be too small for raised panels, and it feels like overkill for the fronts.

Has anyone done panel construction in the theater? If so, have you had any problems with the panels shaking in the rail/stile frame? That is the one thing I have worried about going with panel construction. I have pondered the idea of using just a silicone caulk on the backside of the panels to allow for expansion/contraction and still keep them from vibrating (if necessary).

I just picked up my custom door from Home Depot. I plan on staining and putting a coat or two of poly on it this weekend...hope to have it installed by next weekend. This is forcing me to decide how I want to finish the door...color, jamb, trim.

My wife and I looked at stain tonight and she wants to stay either darker or lighter than the floors. If we go darker (my preference) we really are left with ebony as a choice...maybe I could convince her to use dark walnut. I am pretty sure I am going with a full stained door (both sides) and a stained jamb. I am not courageous enough to do a split colored door/jamb - it would be a lot of money to throw away if it turned out ugly.

So does anyone think ebony stained oak would look bad in a theater room? Colors are narrowed down to a deep red or a darker grey.

I have some leftover red oak I may stain and put next to a couple paint samples to get a better feel for what I will end up with....no sense in rushing at this point...its been over a year already...another week wont hurt anything!

I think my wife is most worried that if we do with a dark stain (not quite as dark as ebony) it will seem like we were trying to match the floor (and failed).

Just a quick note...I am working on CAD, trying to put together a cross section for a column and went to look up the size of my surrounds (the Emotive ERD-1's). I had been putting off the purchase for quite some time, just because I didnt need them sitting around unused...well I went ahead and bought them around xmas....turns out they are a retired model now! Glad I bought them when I had the chance, as they are not for sale on the emotiva site anymore....hopefully they havent come out with something cool that I dont even know about!

I played around with sketchup tonight for a little bit...just messing with some preliminary column design....

Here are a couple concepts I came up with...

Column design #1...


Column design #2...


They are pretty much the same with the exception of having the sides capping the front, or the front capping the sides.

Any suggestions? Does it even matter? The only thought I had was constructability - if I have the front cap the sides, I can use 3/4" plywood for the sides...if I cap the front with the sides, it all has to be hardwood except the plywood panels.

So I received one vote for option #2 via a PM. I also showed my wife the concepts, and she ALSO like #2...of course, it couldn't be the easy way...oh well, no big deal.

Next step is to work on the finer details of the columns - stile width, rail width (maybe a taller top and bottom rails so when baseboard/crown are installed it feels proportional).

Also, attaching them to the walls could get tricky. I planned on having the columns about 12" wide...this means that if I am REALLY unlucky, it could sit between studs. What have some of you done to attach your columns? Worst case scenario, I miss both studs - then what? Do I glue a nailer on the wall?

Thanks for the input Tedd. I had my wife sketch up what she wanted to see in columns and she came up with a couple changes I plan on incorporating one of these days and then posting the results.

I also took a couple quick pictures tonight with my phone to keep the progess up to date.



Here is a picture of the living room area with some of the trim installed and the window casing painted white.


Here is one picture of the stairwell area. I have finally attached the pine boards to the wall, filled the nail holes, caulked the seams and the wife put a first coat of paint on the pine and the risers.


Another picture of the stairwell.


One final picture of the stairwell.


And this last picture shows the second coat of paint put on the window casing in the bedroom. We have a couple small spots to touch up with a third coat, but overall it looks really good.


That pretty much catches the photos up to my progress. The stairwell job is one that I have been dreading pretty much the whole project, I finally decided to just get it finished so I can move on. So far it is turning out pretty well. I will try to get the laminate treads down this weekend and maybe even finish up the bullnose trim if all goes well.

I really need to start using our good camera. Those pictures are terrible.

One thing that didnt show up well in the pictures I posed recently was the profile I routed into the side stair trim.



I just used a small cove bit to add a little detail to the trim, mainly to keep it from looking TOO plain...not that it is super fancy, but better than nothing.

One more coat of paint and I will be able to start installing the treads. If I were to do this all over again, I would either use a wood other than pine, or fill in any knots in the wood and give everything a real good sanding. There are a few rougher spots that dont look perfect, and the knots really soat up the paint, requiring extra coats of paint. It still looks really good, and I am happy, it just would have been a little nicer.

Quick question maybe someone around here can answer. I will need a ladder for my egress window well before I schedule my final inspection. Does anyone know of a good source for an inexpensive ladder that looks decent?

Did a little work on Saturday...took some pictures too.

Here is the mostly finished stairwell.


Here is the lower area.


I am one stich of stair bullnose short, so I ran to lumber liquidators to get another - of course they didnt have any in stock. So I ordered it and it should arrive in a couple weeks.

It took me 6-8 hours to do less than a dozen steps...mainly because the stairs were far from square; plus I needed the treads to be cut perfectly, as I will not be trimming any more that what is shown. It looks really good, but was a pain.