, Hello everybody. I have been a lurker on this site for years, but never post (I use the search function a lot though)! Like most of you I have dreamed since I was a kid of having a space of my own to set up a home theater. When I was a teenager my best friend and I would regularly head over to the home theater store and go into the screening rooms and marvel that people actually had the space and money to have a room like that in their house. All i had was a stereo hooked up to a tv. As a young adult in the military I moved off base into a house with a couple of other guys. We had too many couches so the solution was easy. Build risers! Haha.
Fast forward fifteen years and now I'm "married with children". We recently moved to St. Louis and for the first time I actually have space for a dedicated theater. Yeah! Needless to say I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do, but this website has been invaluable in helping to make many many decisions. So without naming names I want to say thank you to everyone that posts and answer questions.
Like I said above I don't post very often, but hopefully this thread will serve to inspire someone to make their dreams reality. I also must say that the theater isn't ideal in every way, but then whose is? I really treated this project as an exercise in what can I do with the resources I have available.
My on hand resources were as follows. Finished basement with a room approximately 17L x 13W x 8T with one overhead light, a 12 year old sony str-de845, sony PS3, misc. speakers I've collected over the years, and time. Before I started I decided that I wasn't going to spend any money from my paycheck which left me with one choice. SELL STUFF! its amazing how much junk we accumulate over the years. After I sold a bunch of stuff that I just don't need or use anymore I ended up with about $2500. Wow! Now comes the fun part. Buying stuff!
I honestly obsessed over some of this because when your budget is this tight you ant money you spend on one thing costs you another. I ended up buying a refurbed viewsonic pro8100 for $550 because it seemed like the most bang for the buck. Next was a 25ft. Hdmi cable, projector mount, combo outlet/cable run, 120v dimmable led rope light, paint, lumber, and hvac supplies. I really wanted to do a diy screen and found a local supplier for a 5x10 sheet of 6mm sintra. I still haven't purchased my paint for the screen yet, but that will happen soon. I sourced all of my seating from craigslist. Two white leather recliners ($140) and a row of three home theater recliners ($800).
I still need to build my risers and install the crown moulding that will house my rope lights, but that will be done by next. I may or may not have money left over for the take classics 5.1 and a new receiver, but you never know what you will find on cl or what santa is going to bring right?
Thanks for looking and pictures to follow,
JC
Fast forward fifteen years and now I'm "married with children". We recently moved to St. Louis and for the first time I actually have space for a dedicated theater. Yeah! Needless to say I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do, but this website has been invaluable in helping to make many many decisions. So without naming names I want to say thank you to everyone that posts and answer questions.
Like I said above I don't post very often, but hopefully this thread will serve to inspire someone to make their dreams reality. I also must say that the theater isn't ideal in every way, but then whose is? I really treated this project as an exercise in what can I do with the resources I have available.
My on hand resources were as follows. Finished basement with a room approximately 17L x 13W x 8T with one overhead light, a 12 year old sony str-de845, sony PS3, misc. speakers I've collected over the years, and time. Before I started I decided that I wasn't going to spend any money from my paycheck which left me with one choice. SELL STUFF! its amazing how much junk we accumulate over the years. After I sold a bunch of stuff that I just don't need or use anymore I ended up with about $2500. Wow! Now comes the fun part. Buying stuff!
I honestly obsessed over some of this because when your budget is this tight you ant money you spend on one thing costs you another. I ended up buying a refurbed viewsonic pro8100 for $550 because it seemed like the most bang for the buck. Next was a 25ft. Hdmi cable, projector mount, combo outlet/cable run, 120v dimmable led rope light, paint, lumber, and hvac supplies. I really wanted to do a diy screen and found a local supplier for a 5x10 sheet of 6mm sintra. I still haven't purchased my paint for the screen yet, but that will happen soon. I sourced all of my seating from craigslist. Two white leather recliners ($140) and a row of three home theater recliners ($800).
I still need to build my risers and install the crown moulding that will house my rope lights, but that will be done by next. I may or may not have money left over for the take classics 5.1 and a new receiver, but you never know what you will find on cl or what santa is going to bring right?
Thanks for looking and pictures to follow,
JC
