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Mark's Old Time Home Theatre Version 2.0!

723 views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  bhedges 
#1 ·
Mods: After studying the Home Entertainment & Theater Builder sub forums I decided my thread fits best in this section, please delete the thread in the theater/media room sub forum.


Hi guys, I recently moved and had to rebuild my home theatre. My new landlord is more lenient with things like painting/refinishing surfaces than the previous, so I took the opportunity to change things up and make some additions to what I had done previously. The space I have to work with is about 10'x12'x8'.


First off, here's a pic of the previous setup:




And here's the new place:




First off I tore out the nasty old carpet and did a minor sanding/restaining of the antique hardwood floors. My home theatre decor is supposed to be "old time" and this house is 100 years old so the existing floor and trim nicely complement my own furnishings. I painted the walls dark flat "denim blue" and installed the vintage print gold paneling as well.




This is the view from the recliner. The screen is a 100" 16x9 pull up from Elite Screens. The lamps are a recent addition, saw 'em at Menards and thought they would look good with my decor, and have been very pleased with how thye look and the light they can put out (150 watt incandescent bulbs). Curtains and curtain rods courtesy Walmart!




My flat dark blue ceiling does a great job sucking up light in the room, but I thought the ceiling looked bare, and it's one of the few surfaces that wasn't destined for the drapes I already owned, so I decided to put a centrally located decoration on it. I picked up a big metal victorian style tile at Hobby Lobby. The scarlet color pretty much fits in with my other red stuff. It came very glossy so I used a "liquid sandpaper" deglosser product on it. After a few coats it took a lot of the shine off. It still reflect a bit of light but I believe the added decoration to the room is worth the price. The valences above the screen were NOT easy to install all on one rod like that! I have a two rod system but the back rod is dedicated to the wall drapes, and the front rod for valences. I am happy how it turned out. I have the screen wall as an accent wall, the side walls only have a single series of valences, not the fancy double drapery like seen above.




Here you can see my Indian wool rug, vintage steamer style chest/coffee table, and my Indian style brass stool that holds my center channel speaker. All of the cords for the front speakers and the Xbox kinect device are hidden underneath the rug! I store a wireless keyboard, blankets and sweaters in the trunk.






Here you can see my brass wall lamps on both sides of the room, in lit and unlit condition. I had to perform surgery on one of them and move it a bit higher than the other 3 in the room, in order for it to fit over the door. I use vintage style "Edison bulbs" in them and they give a soft orange light. The lamps are just outdoor brass lamps that I decided to use inside the house. When I bought them they were super new and shiny looking, so I used salt, vinegar and ammonia to antique them. I like how they look now, and they give necessary light in this very dark room of mine! All of my lights are on a remote controlled 900mhz wireless outlet system. I can light up the two floorstanding lamps by the screen, the four wall lamps, my rear floor and table lamp,

and even the popcorn nightlight by the door (hey I had an extra outlet left from the pack I bought and thought why not lol). The front lights are button 1, wall lights button 2, rear lights button 3, and nightlight button 4. I could have programmed most of them to come on with a single button press, but decided I'd rather have zone control of the lighting, because sometimes we'll be playing kinect and want some softer lighting, sometimes we'll be getting food and seats set up with guests and want all the lights on briefly, and sometimes I'll be sitting in the chair reading a book and will only want the rear lights. No fancy dimmer system but overall it works good and I'm happy with the remote control lighting. I have a hook installed on the door side wall so I can hook the drapes away from the door for easy entrance/exit, and then once inside if I want the drapes symmetrical on both sides, I can let the drapes off the hook and they then cover ~1/2 of the door on that side.






Here you can see my home theater recliner, my end table and move poster rear wall. I was debating on classic posters from my lifetime such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, but I decided to go for vintage posters to fit in with my vintage decorating scheme. I mounted my Epson 8500UB using a celing mount. The ceiling wood joists actually went in the wrong direction for perfect distancing from the screen (they run parallel to the top and bottom of the screen, if they ran the parallel with the sides of the screen then I would have had my choice of whatever distance from the screen I wanted. Instead I had to choose either too close to the rear wall, or the next joist was a little too close to the screen. I had to adjust the mount's arm supports in an undesirable manner and put pressure on my screen to push it back an inch or two more, in order to really fill out the viewing area nicely. If I had it to do over I'd probably install a shelf high up on the wall and just set the projector on that.







Here you can see my perpendicular to the wall mounted clock (I liked the victorian style and the fact that it can't reflect light back at the screen mounted in this fashion). The clock is double sided so entering the room or entering the snack closet, you can get a glimpse of the time. I installed a little shelft just because I had some space there, and decided to put the candy and beverages I have available on the shelf as a sort of viewable menu. I'm working on drawing out a chalboard concession menu that simply says "popcorn hot dogs candy soda pop enjoy the show!" but I'm using printed out computer pages with the vintage script, having to cut them out to make templates, filling them in with chalk dust and then doing touchups by hand. It's tedious so I think it's gonna take me a week or so to complete it, I just work on it when I feel like it.




Here you can see the popcorn / beverage / media tower closet. I knocked out some of the existing shelving so I could fit my computer tower, popcorn machine and a fridge (not yet installed). I do intend to organize and zip tie my cords better than this, but I'm waiting until my fridge and computer/display situation is finalized before I do so. I want a 20" lcd monitor on a dvi switcher so I can switch between my home theater pc and my windows home server using the same monitor, which will be placed on top of the xbox 360. In order to control my IR devices behind the closet door while sitting in the theatre room, I recently upgraded to a Logitech Harmony system that is wireless and can use any Apple iOS device as a remote (but also comes with a remote). Works great! I did have to run an IR blaster along the closet wall and out underneath the popcorn nightlight, in order for the Logitech hub to be able to control the Epson projector (which is an IR device).













I opted to use bar stools to hold my full size rear speakers. I do this rather than mounting rear bookshelf speakers because it allows me to put my rear speakers where I want, even if a wall isn't present (like in my previous apartment). It also gets the tweeters up to a nice height as the stools are about 36" and the tweeters are at the top of the floorstanding speakers. It's also easy to hide the speaker cable by taping it to the leg of the stool. My entire setup involves no behind the wall wiring at all, and no holes drilled through walls. All the cords are run under the closet door, under the carpet, behind curtains, under or on the wall/floor trim (which has separated from the floor over 100 years lol), behind the wastebasket, under the chair, behind the black base of the pull up screen, or behind the legs of the bar stools. There are cords everywhere they are just well disguised







A pull up screen definitely comes with advantages and disadvantages. It's great for renters, and great for hiding cords behind it. One drawback is that mine has developed some screen warping/waviness. I have helped the problem a great deal by hanging an 8 foot long piece of pine wall trim right below the bottom of the viewing area, and then exerting pressure on the flat trim by placing some black foam behind my front speakers. The whole thing is supported by two strings, one on each side run behind the screen and then they are supported by the center pole support / pull up handle thing. It's in the shape of a triangle but of course most of the string is behind the screen and not visible, the foam is only visible if you walk up close to the screen and look behind the speakers. After painting the wood trim flat black it's really hard to tell that it's not an actual part of the screen. I'm gonna use black magic marker to die the white string I used, and then from the rear of the room it's gonna be really hard to tell that the string is even there. It has made a huge difference in the screen waviness, which is the worst right at the bottom of the screen for some reason.


Well I guess that's about it. Other than doing some organization in the server/popcorn room, my installation is pretty much done. I do plan to add 4 old time theater seats, two to the left of the recliner and two to the right (with a front and back row). If necessary I will take the coffee table chest out and even have a place for a sixth seat. Right now it's just the recliner and a zero gravity fold up chair for guests lol!


It's been a lot of work and planning, was interesting and challenging but I'm glad it's mostly done! It's a very pleasant room to watch movies, or just sit and read a book in. I guess it's my "man cave" and I really enjoy it!
 
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#2 ·

That's an amazing theater room, especially for a rental where you're constricted by what you can modify. I love the how the curtains and tiles below it give it the look of an old ornate movie palace. It looks like a very cozy spot to watch a movie, or just read a book.
 
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