Robert's Star Destroyer Theater

I decided to go ahead and make my first post about my home theater. Over the past few months, I have done the major construction in my basement. I have a guitar studio, a gym/gameroom, and a dedicated home theater. The first two rooms are mostly complete, the theater is on its way. For the purposes of this thread, I will focus mostly on the theater. I will post pictures very soon.

The theater will be themed like Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer and will house my Star Wars collection. The agreement made with my wife is the room had to be completely finished and drywalled BEFORE I customize it (in case we ever sell the house). That part is done. I am now working on making it my Star Wars theater. I have built two 10" risers. The stage is about 4" high, but there is a soffit above it as well. This gives me about 6' for a CIH screen.

For the screen I will be using the SemourAV audio transparent material. I am at the point now where I am designing how it will be mounted. I think I am doing things a bit different. I am not building a full false wall, but rather curving a 14' PVC board on the ceiling and on the stage. I plan to use industrial strength velco to sucre the screen on the top and bottom. There will be no side walls at all. Any thoughts on this approach?

The stage will be surrounded on both sides with Star Wars architecture. This will serve to mask the sides as well as bring the Star Wars theme into the front of the room. I will also hang black velvet curtains between the screen and the stage surround to serve and adjustable vertical masking.

This entire project has been done on a VERY limited budget. Much of this was done by me to save money. I am an accountant, not a carpenter.

Theater before construction began



Entrance to theater



Facing the stage



Facing the risers



Here is a picture after drywall was done from the stage facing the future risers.



More pictures soon, I just need to add them to my photobucket account.

Just a few more pictures.

Each set of risers in 10". That is exactly the calculation based on my theater specs plugged into the riser hight calculator. The reason the risers must be 10" is because the screen is mounted so close to the ground. The back row is about 6 1/2' to the ceiling. I havn't decided on a front row yet. For now I have a huge love sack bean bag for the first row.

Pretty much. Right now it is all stored in a extra bedroom, but that is going to be the baby's room in 3 months. That means everything has to be out of there pretty soon.

I do get the whole basement though. Star Wars in the theater, sport stuff in the gym/gameroom, and Indiana Jones in the Guitar studio. I don't ever plan on growing up.

Trust me, I cannot wait to get to the Star Wars part of the theater. Hopefully I can really start that next week.

I have hung the front speakers and painted the supports black. I got my acoustic tiles delivered today. I will probably start hanging it tomorrow or Wednesday. After that is finished, The screen will go up. Once the screen is up and the projector and Anamorphic lens are dialed in (hopefully by the weekend), I will start building the actual Star Wars parts of the theater. I will post a few update pictures along with the boxes and tubs of stuff that needs to find a home in the room. It is a lot!!

Here is a current pic of the stage. I am gluing the acoustic tile to the wall tonight.



Just for fun, here is a little bit of my collection (mostly in boxes)

I have one under there already. The other will be in the front behind the screen. They are matching Velodyne subs.

Not too bad for a phone camera
I am pretty excited about this update. I have installed the acoustic tiles and I really couldn't be happier. Hopefully the screen will go up this weekend.





Clearly I was inspired by Sandman's theater.

The screen is up

It hasn't been tightened yet, but it is hanging. It took 4 people to hang it. My wife and I just watched a few movie scenes including the last 15 minutes of A New Hope in 1080p. AWESOME!!

Tomorrow I pick up a couple more theater seats. I will have two rows of three.

I will also tighten the screen and hopefully hang the anamorphic lens.



Pictures to follow.

Thanks, I got a great deal on the Yoda from a guy on craigslist.
Having a Star Wars museam next to the theater sounds pretty awesome.
Please post pics when you get started.

My screen is up and 95% done. I will add the side supports next weekend and finish tightening the screen. We watched Inception last night and it looked and sounded great.

Here are a few shots of the screen:
Backlight looks better in person. My DroidX only does so much in the dark.

There are a few waves in the screen, but they will easily be removed when the side supports are installed. The screen itself is 14' wide.


I also added a couple more seats from craigslist over the weekend. I was really suprised to find the same exact seats within 20 minutes of the house. I am going to have to lift the seats another 2-3" so the back row can fully view the screen. I also need to find a new spot for my mini fridge.



Here are a few action shots of the screen from the other night. The screen has been tightened since these pics were taken.

Just curious, as I have never worked with this before, but is mineral wool itchy? Do I need to wear gloves like if it was insulation. I just got a box of this for bass traps. I probably will not start until tomorrow. Also, has anyone used a sawzall to cut it? I am think that will work.

Over the past week I built the bass traps. I started with a sawzall, but it was too rough. I threw the material on the table saw and it cut smooth as butter. I think they turned out great. I still need to cover them, but I am not buying the velvet until next month. I also installed all of the floor trim.

The theater will have its first preopening night screening this weekend for the Packers / Steelers game. The screen looks awesome. It is 15' diag in 2:35:1 aspect.

Starting next week I will begin building the Star Wars architecture on the stage, risers, doors and trim. This is going to take some time, but it should help my theater stand out.

I will post update pictures as I complete each item.

Mine is VERY low. I have not added the masking yet, but it will probably be around 8" from the floor. That is the main reason my risers had to be 10" each.

My only other option would have been to use a MUCH smaller screen. The HVAC forced me to build a pretty deep soffit on the left. The right and front soffit were added for a uniform look. That left me with just over 6' from ceiling to stage.

Overall I like it a lot. It gives the look of a full wall for a screen. Gotta go BIG!!

MAJOR setback tonight.

The basement flooded!!

Luckily it was directly over the sump pit, but I had to remove the entire screen and stage to dry out the carpet and repair the cracked water line.

It will be a few weeks before I get it back to the condition it was in this morning.

I need to replace carpet pad, some carpet, insulation, drywall, and try to save the screen. I think the screen will be OK. crossing fingers...

So I have been working my butt off since the leak was found on Wednesday night. I stayed home from work Thursday to dry everything out. I have replaced the carpet pad, restretched the carpet, replaced the stage insulation, rebuilt the stage and replaced the stage carpeting. Everything is almost bacl to its original state. I think I have decided to rebuild the screen flat instead of curved. The curve was just a little bit too much of a pain at the size I want. I know I will get more pincusion this way, but I will simply zoom the edges if needed.

I need to patch the hole in the ceiling where the leak was and repaint before hanging the screen. I hope to be back up and running by next weekend.

I should be back on track and building door trim before too long.

Total repair cost have been less than $300. Not too bad considering what went through my mind when I saw mess on Wednesday night.