Help design my media room

Need a few suggestions on room setup here, as well as a couple questions before I start anything permanent

room is about 12x24 and has that horrid 70's wood paneling which is going to be replaced

has a gas fireplace off center on the left side, which partially blocks the screen

Top side of the floorplan is a double sliding door leading outside, I'm informed it stays so no removing it and putting in a full wall

bottom right side is a half wall + doorway, leading to the kitchen. I'm planning on making it a full wall with a pocket door


1) How difficult / costly would it be to cap the gasline and just demolish the fireplace? It doesn't extend into the attic and looks like it'd be a simple chisel and crowbar job after the line's cut and capped, or am I underestimating?

2) The plan is to go with a 110" screen, and it leaves two options, wall mounting it on the south side of the room, which is why I'm considering a pocket door. Or hanging it from the ceiling infront of the sliding double doors.

3) As far as sound setup goes, I currently have recessed lights and was considering removing them for ceiling mounting speaker installation. How would the sound be on something like that, or am I better going with floor standing speakers?

4)I was also considering mounting a soundbar to the (decorative) beam running through the middle of the room and angling it so that it would throw the sound down towards the seating, what are you folks thoughts on that?


pic of the room as it is currently laid out

1)no basement, just a crawlspace beneath the house, and it's a metal pipe going up through the attic. Probably just cut and cap it from the attic as the roof is fairly new and I don't want to damage and replace part or all of it

2)double set of curtains are currently hung on the door, one set decorative, the other set blackout cloth, keeps it dark enough that i'm tripping over things with the lights out, I've had the screen on both ends of the room, and it's viewable wether setting infront of the doors or hanging on the wall. It's currently infront of the doors as it makes for better flow for the room. I've seen a few threads where people have ceiling hung screens and was considering that as an option.

3/4) I'm kind of on the fence, I have a cheap HTIB 5.1 system currently, only considered the speaker bar as an alternative for ease of install. Much prefer a 5.1/7.1 system though, which leads me to the fact that a couple of the outlets in the room are FUBAR and the recessed lights in the ceiling need to be rewired, so we're yanking the panneling, and doing the rewiring before we hang new drywall, which would include wiring for sound, internet, etc. and I figured with their being 8 lights (4 on each side of the beam) I could pull the 4 above the seating and replaced them with recessed speakers to avoid a wall mounted / floor standing option


My main concern is a ceiling hung screen would block the sliding door, though while rarely used, I still need access too and I'd be worried about someone bumping the screen if I was entertaining during the summer. On the other end of the room are the main two entries, which would mean any time someone entered / exited the room they'd be walking infront of the screen and everyone's view

considering the amount i'll be spending on someone to rewire (im an idiot when it comes to the stuff) I'll probably end up with a nice reciver and go up from there with the speakers. Of course if I went with ceilling speakers I'd have to factor that in as well.