Joker Room Build Thread

This thread is going to be an ongoing record of the build progress on our Media/Game/Entertaining Hybrid room. It will be a master of none of those tasks but we hope it will do all of them moderately well. Let me first start by thanking everyone on the forum for the hard work and dedication you put into making this a truly great place for the exchange of ideas.

A Little about us. We're transplants from right outside of Boston that are currently living outside of Austin TX. Boston ==> Austin go figure. We recently purchased our first home, and it truly it awesome being a homeowner. So far we have put a lot of our own sweat and hard work into making it our own. We have only hired one sub contractor and that was to pour stamped concrete in the blistering Austin summer heat.

This home we purchase happens to have what the builder called a "bonus" room. It is about 17' x 23' with no real purpose other than a second living room or for what we intend to use it for.


The photo above shows the room that will be used. Don't mind the color samples, some foreshadowing of what's to come.

This room certainly has some limitations. For starters it has two large windows that can be seen on the right hand side of the first photo. It also has textured walls, so that will severely limit screen choice. Furthermore, as can be seen in the next picture it is open to the hall way.


The space also has some strange angles with partially vaulted ceilings and in the first photo you can see the bump out that accommodates the chimney. Above the room is the attic, and behind the wall that would be against your back in the first photo is an easily accessible crawl space.

More to follow...

So the real reason I have been lurking the forum for months is because I am a boy who likes my toys and I wanted a BIG screen to watch sports and movies and whatever other eye candy I can get my hands on. Currently I watch all my home entertainment on a 46" samsung LCD, it's awesome for it's purpose. It is staying where it is in our living room for every day viewing. However, I wanted something more for NFL sunday ticket and movies.

After just purchasing our home I knew there was no way I was going to convince my wife to drop a large sum of money into a new TV or projector. So with limited funds I began the search for something that would fit the criteria I had. For the past few months I have been researching and digging into projectors. I had several in online shopping carts but didn't pull the trigger more than once. I finally came across an Epson 705 HD refurbished by the manufacturer. At the price they offered it seemed almost like a steal. I understand that it has some limitations, and compared to the DLP porjectors in it's price range it may not have the best picture. However, the dead pixles with lower priced DLPs really scared me away.

The projector arrived this past week and after throwing and episode of "dexter" onto our builder tan textured walls I was pleased with my decision.

To complement the projector I also ordered a ceiling mount, 25' HDMI cable and 25' 14 gauge power cable. Those have yet to arrive, as soon as they do the projector will be mounted.

So to fill the time before the projector mount arrives we have turned our attention to the room itself.

We knew we needed to address those issues that would really limit our enjoyment of the new projector. The eggshell tan walls were the first thing that had to go. This is where you will understand the name given to this build.



The two pictures above were the color samples we were looking at. I may have stacked the deck towards the ones I wanted because we ended up going with both the far right paint colors.


Cutting in. I actually have a reason for all the swirls. Thats my technique to ensure I don't get to much paint on my cut brush. I prefer to only have a small amount on the very tips of the brush while cutting.


This picture shows the inspiration for this thread's title. My wife really wanted an accent wall. The entire time I was painting all I could think about was how this color seemed very similar to the joker's coat in the original batman.


This is the rear wall. This is going to be more of an entertainment area. Possibly a dart board, maybe a fossball table. I'm thinking two sconces would be perfect for added light and would be super easy to install.


That's the progress so far.

Now onto my plans and questions.

1. Most important is the screen. I was leaning towards spandex, but I have no need for an AT screen. I plan on mounting my speakers where they can be seen(I'm so vain). I am now thinking about using sintra. With the Epson 705HD and the ambient light issues(which I will address) this screen will most likely have to be painted, but at least that would be a down the road prospect.
a. Is this a reasonable choice for my purposes?
b. Also what type of adhesive do most use to adhere the sintra to the wall?
c. Will my textured walls be a problem with the sintra? I plan on using 5' x 10' 6mm like most suggest.

2. Next to be addressed is the ambient light issue. The windows will be easiest, and will be done first. My wife loves curtains so this should be simple to just get a well made light blocking curtain, which in conjunction with the blinds should do a decent job. The biggest issue it the opening to the hallway. I am contemplating using 2" x 4" s to build up an entrance and then wrap them with either MDF or pine which will then be painted. Once that is done another set of curtains will be added across that entrance. This gives us the added bonus of also giving us a defined cut off point to the ceiling at the entrance. that way if we decide to pain the ceiling it will have a termination point. What say you?

3. Audio, can't believe I forgot to discuss this.
Yamaha RX-V373 5.1-Channel AV Receiver
Polk Audio RM6750 5.1 Channel Home Theater Speaker System or some other alternative
Sonos Connect ZP90 to connect to existing system.
What say the hive?

4. Man made lighting
I love the look of the dropped crown and rope lighting. However, the angles of this room are a bit tricky with the vaulted and non vaulted ceilings. I installed a 3 piece crown in our master bedroom that came out great.
http://thejoyofmoldings.com/flying-crown-molding/ I'm a big follower of this blog(has some great stuff) and I am still deciding what to do. I saw some great color changing LED light strips that I would love to install.
I also want to install two sconces on the back wall. I have open space on my breaker and may just wire in a new circuit for the new lighting with room to expand for future ideas.

5. The back of the room is perfect for a bar area.

The red box highlights a wall that adjoins to a bathroom. I haven't explored yet but the shower is on the opposite side which would be great for installing a wet bar.

Ok enough for tonight. I would love to hear from the collective minds here because you guys have some amazing ideas and great creativity.

I just typed a very long winded post it is lost somewhere out there.



The above two photos show the progress so far this weekend. The first picture shows the reason for the name of this thread. I couldn't stop thinking how similar the color was to the joker's coat in the original batman. My wife really wanted an accent wall, and you know the saying happy wife... Actually I really like the wall, with the lights off it's extremely dark. I think it will look great with a black velvet wrapped screen.

In the interest of time I am going to move on to my ideas going forward.

1. Most important is the screen. I am planning on using sintra and adhering it the the wall and wrapping with black velvet lined MDF.
a. Is sintra going to work on my textured walls. I plan on getting the 5' x 7' 6mm thickness.
b. what kind of adhesive should I use.

2. Next would be to control ambient light.
a. Curtains for the windows are simple
b. Controlling the light from the hallway will be more difficult. Our plan is to use 2" x 4"s to build out a small entrance by attaching one to the ceiling and the two walls. Then wrapping them in MDF of pine and painting. After that using more light blocking curtains to control the light from the hall way, that allows the opening to still exist which is what my wife wants but also allows us to have light control.

3. Audio system
a. Yamaha RX-V373 5.1-Channel AV Receiver
b. Polk Audio RM6750 5.1 Channel Home Theater Speaker System (Set of Six, Black)
c. Sonos ZP 90

4. Additional lighting.
a. Rope lighting above crown
b. Sconces on the back wall

5. Bar area

The above image shows a wall that adjoins to a bathroom. That wall shares a wall with a shower. i haven't investigated very far yet but water and a waste water are close. A wet bar is a possibility.

That was a lot less detailed than my original post but who likes doing the same thing twice?

What are the thoughts of the collective? I would love to hear from your experienced and creative point of views.

So both of my posts showed up. Go figure haha.

I plan on dealing with the textured walls by using a Sintra substrate then possibly painting the Sintra based upon performance.

The 25 foot power cable will not be run in the wall it is only temporary. I needed it to power the projector until I decide to start putting holes in the walls for new electrical i.e. sconces rope lighting etc. I hate crawling around through blown insulation and only want to do it once.

Any thoughts on the rest of those ideas?

Sitting at work(I'm the staff duty officer for my brigade tonight, 24 hr shift), and I was contempling something. I think I might have a sub electrical panel in the walk in crawl space adjoining the room that I'm building in. There are two water heaters in there I can't wait to get home and investigate. That will make my life so much easier.

After getting home from working about 36 hours straight I really wasn't motivated to do anything. I decided to quickly check to see if that sub panel was where I thought.


Unfortunately a sub panel did not exsist. I even checked the main panel to see if there were any 50 amp ciricutis coming off it and maybe the panel was somewhere else, no go there. However, I expored further.



So on the other side of the red wall is a bathroom, and on the other side of the yellow boxed wall is the water heater "crawl Space"


Entrance to the "crawl space"

Well, crawl space is not a good description.
However, look what I found right on the other side of the yellow boxed wall from the pic above.


A hot and cold water supply. Could come in handy if we decide to put in a wet bar eventualy, i'm pulling for that one.

So not sub panel, but a hot and cold water supply. there is also a vent that I could see so a waster water pipe must be near by,

Ok exhuasted.

So today I got the frame that the screen is going to sit on built. I intend to wrap the frame with led or rope lightinging and I wanted the glow from behind effect.


However, upon brining the screen upstairs from the garage it snapped. I am obviously dismayed about this but I am not defeated.


I've asked for suggestions over in the DIY screen section but would love to hear from anyone.

This is what the screen looked like prior to adjusting height of projector and squaring it to the screen.


Next step is to construct the Velvet border.

I have started looking into doing a DIY rack for the few A/V components I will have. Hopefully by the new year I will have a new Receiver, speakers, and a sub.

back to work...

No new progress on the room in a physical sense. However, my A/V receiver is on its way!!

My father got a panasonic viera 55" that he wanted installed on his tile fireplace sorround. Paul's TV quoted him $1200!!! Can you believe that price. He had already paid them when I told him I could do it. His TV is up and everything works flawlessly. He's happy and has $1200 in his pocket. He did also say that I could get whatever receiver I wanted for XMas and they would cover the costs.

MY Yamaha RX-673 is on the way. Origionaly I was only going for 5.1 but now I am bumping it to 7.2

Speakers and sub are all on their way. Hopefully by next weekend I will have the speakers, sub, and receiver in hand and have them hooked up.

I also purchased the materials for the speaker stands and AV Cabinet I am going to make.

Finally, I also patched the crack from breaking the laminate screen. It is not great, but I can live with it for a bit. I will fix the screen by skimming and painting or just putting another piece of laminate over it in the future.

I didn't go with sintra because it was hard to find in the size I wanted in the thickness I needed. I ended up with Wilsonart Laminate in the Fashion grey. I love the way my projector looks on it, however if you see above in my thread I did have some struggles with it, but that was all user error. I got it from travis tile down near the Austin airport. They had a full selection of wilsonart laminate and they supply all the other counter top vendors so they are really the only option for the laminate sheets in the austin area.


On the progress in our DIY home theater/game room. I started the rack build and it is coming along nicely. Making it 36" tall, 24" deep and shelve are 24" wide. It is fixed height shelves and it is screwed and glues. Going to have a hinged door finished with painted steel mesh on the front. Should look really good once it is all finished and painted. Also started my DIY speaker stands, cut the bases and the speaker seats.

Also hung our blackout curtains. Got four blackout curtains two rods(that i combined into one long rod, and 4 hooks to hold curtains back all from Kohls for roughly $100 a good buy in my opinion.

I will post some pics tomorrow, got to go prep for our New Years party.

So today I filled all the screw holes in the cabinet and door. I still need to sand, prime, sand, and throw a couple coats of paint. We're not completely decided on what color to paint. I was thinking of using the purple we used on the screen accent wall, then using a stencil to paint the jokers face to complete the AV rack as the Joker Theater.


The cabinet door frame will have a steel mesh in the center. I am undecided if I am going to paint it or leave it bare. I'm leaning towards leaving it bare.

The speaker stands are coming along as well. I got the first coat on the PVC and should have them together over the next few days.



I'm using the TNT Stubby method to build these. I also need to do one for my center.

Is using ceiling mounts for the rears crazy? I don't have a good way to put the rears on stands without them being in the way.

If all goes as planned I should have my receiver and sub by the weekend, I just got the email that my fronts and rears shipped still waiting to hear the center shipped.

Next project is pulling all the base off, cutting the drywall down, and running speaker wires for fronts and center as well as the sub cable.

BUSY BUSY weekend.

I'm at work but when I get home I will upload some pics.

Got the AV Rack Primed and painted between FRI and SAT. Then SAT night i removed base board and cut a channel for all speaker wires.

I also did a DIY dart board surround with the extra velveteen that I had left over after wrapping my MDF for my screen.

Speaker stands are coming along as well, they are assembled and filled with sand. Now I need to paint them. I am going to do the same thing for my surrounds and center channel.

Today the Sub and Center should show up.

I promised some updates with pictures.

so....



This met me at the door last Friday. I knew it was time to get my act in order and get some work done this weekend.


So I quickly unboxed the speakers and got them in place. Something was not quite right, I guess I need something better to put those speakers on than folding chairs.

I decided that things that don't make noise or pictures I wanted to try to save as much money as I possibly could.

I found a great design called the TNT Stubby speaker stand. That parts and assembly are easily acquired and put together. 3" PVC pipe sandwiched between your choice of wood/mdf or whatever you choose to use. Tension is created by running a threaded steel rod through the center. I will post pics, let me know if you have more questions. I also added a 1/2" PVC on the interior of the 3" to route speaker wires on my first pair. I have only made the stands for the front speakers as a proof of concept but I just purchased the materials to make the surround stands and the center channel stand.






I was going to paint the wooded portions either the accent wall purple or the gray from the walls. However, I think I am going to paint them all black so there is a more seamless appearance with the speakers themselves.

Above are the Blackout curtains that we purchased. Between the curtains and the blinds very little light comes through. Most of the ambient light issues still come from the hallway though.




Above are the only two photos I had from the Dart Board Surround build. I utilized 1/4" Hardboard, I purchased two 2'x4' pieces and trimmed one to 1'x4'. The total surround is 3'x4'. I then used contact cement to glue dropped ceiling tiles to the hardboard. This was all the wrapped with the extra velveteen from the screen frame. Great wall saver and a simple project.

Most of my effort lately has been to build a homemade AV Cabinet. I really wanted it to be something simple. I decided I didn't need adjustable shelving. I was going to leave it open in the front but decided I wanted some sort of protection for the equipment, but also wanted to keep the ventilation aspect.


Attach two plywood panels

Build a box

add a shelf

add more shelves

Create the frame for the door. Everything is screwed and glued, this thing is solid. I used pocket screws for the door frame, the kreg jig is a lifesaver.
'
Sand, prime, sand everything

paint the main unit

paint the back of the door frame, and then attach the wire mesh. I found this mesh in the chicken wire/barb wire area at home depot

attach the door to the main unit

This is the back of the door frame. The mesh is attached with staples. It looks unfinished and I intend to add something over it I just can't decide on what I want.

add a door pull

I'm very happy with the results. Suits my needs and was very easy on my budget. I also love looking at something I made with my own hands.

Yeah Kohls was hit or miss. We had to bring one set back that were supposedly "blackout" curtains. They were not. Good luck with your canvas screen. I may end up painting over my cracked screen or just get another piece of laminate.

They're multiplying!

My latest project was a pub height table for behind the couch. It is now the most popular seating area. Simple pine table with minwax stain and helmsman polyeurathane.