Omaha Theater #5 - Page 4

Next weekend I'll start the digging out process. Once the theater room gets cleaned out and dusted I'll prime it all and paint the ceiling the Behr Mouse Ears black.

Today I was unboxing and lining up all the Berklines. I bought them from Roman during the power buy a while back and today was the first time 5 of them have been out of the box. I think one of the motors doesn't work on one of the chairs, hopefully they are under warranty.

In the back row middle I have two chairs in a "love seat" configuration, I hadn't thought about it before today but as I was looking at them, the one side of the love seat has no reclining buttons, since that unit comes with no arm rests. I need to take a closer look and figure out how that seat reclines, maybe it has a cord that daisy chains to the one next to it and they share the same recline buttons.

You are right. It was hidden on the side below the cushion seam. Also the motor works. You guys are right and the connector had come loose.

Looking forward to having some time to spend in the theater room tomorrow getting it all cleaned out, then priming and painting the ceiling.

This week I got all of my stuff cleared out of the soon-to-be baby room and moved downstairs and set up.

First thing I did was mounted my monitor to a wall mount bracket I bought from monoprice. As I was running the wires down through the wall, I thought I would try placing the entire pc in the equipment room and just running the mouse and keyboard wires through the wall to the desk. It turned out that it works great! It keeps the heat and fan noise isolated to the server room and out of my living area.

I also bought a Netgear MOCA set and used it to network my OOMA VOIP hub. It's set up in our main living room hooked into an unused coax jack in the wall. The coax carries the network signal between the phone and my router in the basement.

The theater room is cleaned out and the ceiling is primed, tonight I'll work on the first coat of flat black paint.

I've been looking at pictures of riser steps on google images, trying to figure out the best way to build it. I'm going to have matching steps on the left and right side, with built in step lights. I liked this design, which I believe comes from an AVS thread:

First coat of paint is up. Starting on the front stage next.

Main stage is built and the sand is going in. I'll make a curve on the front to match the curved ceiling above.

the framing for the riser is done. I used 2x10's for the outside and 2x8's for the joists. It's built on top of roofing felt and will have insulation in between the joists. I have the linear bar diffusors to use at the sides and back so it will also act as a bass trap.

I started carpet shopping and I am having a heck of a time trying to figure out what I want. I've been to stores varying from Lowes and then to custom higher end carpet only stores. At the custom place I thought the guy might have some ideas when I said I was building a theater room but I think I had better luck finding stuff at Lowes.

I can't even decide if I want pattern or no pattern, I just know I want it dark. The wall colors will be gom Baltic below the chair rail and gom medium gray above the chair rail.





I found some mohawk smartstrand plush carpet in a nice color, but it is a plain carpet no pattern. I don't know if it is going to be too plain and boring looking with fabric walls and carpet all with no pattern.

The Behr Mouse Ears black paint on the ceiling looks good but I've noticed that is has a definite sheen to it, even though it is listed as a flat paint. I've also noticed that you can really see any dust on it, and if you aren't extremely careful wiping it, it leaves lighter colored smudges. The can of paint says things like "durable" "cleanable" "lifetime warranty" but I don't think it's true.

I found a post on here from 2010 that talks about a film and photo industry paint called Rosco #6003 that is supposed to be the blackest flattest paint you can buy. There is a film and lighting supplier nearby so I had them order a gallon of it for me.

I also bought a gallon of flat varnish from Diamond Vogel. When the #6003 comes in I will put up a test on drywall to compare Mouse Ears, Mouse Ears covered in flat varnish, Rosco #6003, and Rosco #6003 covered in flat varnish. I'll get a picture of all four of them side by side to compare, in case anybody might find that useful when building their own theater room.

UPS dropped off the screen yesterday. The packing label said 38 pounds but the UPS guy complained it weighed a lot more than that. I bought a Jamestown frame with the Center Stage fabric. 120" wide, 2.4:1 AR. Woolly said he would come over tomorrow to help me assemble it.

It took exactly 6 weeks.

I primed a few things and got the first coat of Rustoleum Hammered Black paint on them. I'll hit them with another coat later on.

The Nailor linear bar diffusors are for the left and right side of the riser. There must not be much competition in the linear bar diffusor market because these things are expensive! I was supposed to use a 48" bar diffusor in the back behind the seats, when I went to order it, I found out it cost almost $300.

I contacted a local hvac wholesaler and bought two no name brand 24" heavy duty floor vents for $80. I'll use them end to end and figure (hope) it should do the same job as a 48" Nailor.

The good news: Woolly and I got the screen put together fairly painlessly. The instructions that James includes with the screens are the non AT screen instructions, with non AT pictures, but then includes footnotes if you have an AT screen. We didn't know that, and due to poor reading comprehension and going off photos rather than words, we did a few things wrong the first time. After realizing this and fully reading the instructions, we got it put together. (don't be like us, read the instructions fully before starting!)

The bad news: James sent me the wrong size screen. I ordered a 10' wide 2.4:1 screen, what I received is a 10.55' wide 2.52:1 screen.

The not as good as the good news: I called James, he answered right away, I told him the issue and he is going to get new top and bottoms sent off to me in a few days. I should be able to re-use the sides and the fabric.


The quality of the frame seems just fine. Learning from others past mistakes, I used a hand screwdriver when assembling so I wouldn't over tighten and strip out the wood screws and the frame. I did pre-drill very small pilot holes for the wood screws. The quality of the black velvet James uses seems good.




I spent some time working on the curve at the front of the stage and I hope to complete that today and get the stage top put on. I tried to match the stage curve to my proscenium curve and I think I came close:





I think when it is carpeted it should look like Jesto's stage did in his Bethesda build:

Nope we were pretty set on 10' viewable, he just made some kind of mistake. I don't need it immediately and he said he would have a replacement made and sent out in a few days, so it shouldn't be too big of a deal. I am glad I didn't wait a couple weeks and assemble it the day I want to hang it and watch a movie!

If you look close to the picture, they are sprayed black, it came that way so I think he has refined his process somewhere along the way.