The wife and I decided that since we never use our garage other than a big heaping pile of storage it made sense to use it for something we both enjoy. Movies! We had a shed built and I moved all our junk into it this weekend. The garage space measures 21' x 16' usable (the other half of the 2 bay garage is being taken up by my zwift setup and the wifes elliptical). The other half of the garage bay we are using 3/4" thick horse stall mats. They aren't cheap here but they are super durable and great for the workout room side.
I finally got the garage cleaned out. The only things staying are the brown bookcases. I plan on putting the projector screen on the wall with the window above the bookcase and seats will be right around 14' from the screen, we can change where the screen goes if needed. I live in Alaska, so in another month daylight wont be an issue.
We are basically trying to do this inexpensively to see if we like the extra space. Wife wants to move into a bigger house with 2 living spaces where we could have a dedicated movie room. So this is basically a stop gap/trial to see if we will actually use this extra space before committing to moving into a bigger house.
We are looking at the BenQ 2050a projector and a silver ticket screen, the wife wants to keep the projector and screen under or around $800 since we will have to spend money on speakers, flooring etc.
A few questions.
1. What should I do to get the acoustics better on the cheap?
2. What flooring recommendation would you guys suggest that doesn't break the bank and helps insulate us from the cold floor in the winter? Wife was thinking cheap carpet and use carpet tape to keep it in place? Should I buy padding if we go this route? I suggested the horse stall mats as they are 3/4 thick and black. The mats to fill the space would cost around $1000.
Well, we went into a flooring shop today and picked out grey carpeting made my mohawk. They come out tomorrow for measurements and then will give us a quote.
We plan to make drapes and hang them from the ceiling to divide the other half of the garage and to make it feel more like a dedicated room.
We went with the felt backed carpet pad since this is a temporary space for now and figured we could always use it in the future as a rug or something else if we did end up deciding to move.
Carpet should hopefully arrive tomorrow. Wife has a bunch of that polar fleece material in black, about 18 yards... I told her to get the old drapes out of storage and sew the black polar fleece fabric on to them to hopefully help soak up the light. I know its not velvet, but hopefully since its in black it should help. Wife is on board, so hopefully I can get her a little more into it and step up the projector price to get something like the UHD50!
We currently only have enough drapes to cover the garage door area. Not sure if we are going to build a wall between the two bays or just use drapes, time will tell.
Well, I decided to lay the carpet myself and I have to say it didn't come out half bad. First time cutting carpet and it was 12' x 29'. I had to cut around a few corners that aren't in this picture that lead to the house. Wife was very impressed. The space feels more like a loft/trendy store than a garage now.
We are curious if we mount a projector to the right of the garage head will the garage head interfere with the projected image? Plan to put the projector about 4' to the right of the garage head in the picture but plan to get a mount so its lower than the garage head.
Wife is leaning towards a 65" TV and I am leaning towards a projector and screen. That way the screen will cover the window. We plan to get another book shelf to match the one on the right and stick it on the left hand side to make the area seem symmetrical. Oh and the wife made the curtains.
The area rug is going away. Wife wanted me to lay it out and take pictures of it so she can sell it.
I have a klipsch 12" subwoofer that is in my living room that I will be moving into here. I purchased a Atmos speaker bar to try and keep it wife friendly but it just doesn't simulate surround sound well. For a purely music driven application I would be 100% happy with the sound bar, but since this is going to be 90% HT and 10% Music I convinced the wife to go with a 5.1 system.
So now becomes the question...
What speakers should I go with for around $1000 budget? I have a spare 789 denon receiver.
Room is 20x24 with an L shape going into the house that is 9'x10. Seating distance from speakers would be about 13'
Plan to put up drapes up in the L shaped area to make the room more square and hopefully just be filling the 20x24 space. Currently with the soundbar I can't turn it up past 15 without blowing my ears out. Volume starts at 0 on those sound bars and goes up, not your typical receiver -db thing to positive.
Anyhow...
I was looking at Ascends 170/340/200 series line. Need Fronts, Center, Rears.
A guy local to me also has this setup and said he would take $850.
Ok, used some blue tape and roughed out what a 120" projector screen would look like. I would more than likely lower it by 4" so its not so close to the garage track. The TV on the bookcase is 32" for reference.
Purchased some Ascend HTM-200SE's for surrounds and a couch and chair for the room. The seating position is 13' from the wall.
Is 120" too big for this seating position? Wife is concerned it is going to be too big.
Well, it all depends on personal preference. Back in 2008 I had a projector and a 120" screen. My seating position was between eleven and twelve feet and I thought it was great, I was very happy with it. Alas, I only have one kinda bad picture of it:
Actually, I found another pic from the house I lived in before that one. Same projector and screen, but it looks like I sat even closer in this one and still I remember enjoying it.
Ok, I went with Ascend for my surround setup. Just need some input on a projector. I don't mind a used model.
I can mount the projector as far as 20' away if needed.
Looking for sharpness, color accuracy and black levels. Trying to stay under $1300 if possible. Don't need 3d, wireless, alexa etc. Going for quality of picture over features. Would like keystone correction. Will only be producing a 110" image.
Here is a daytime picture with the camera over exposed so you can see how we did the drapes. It's no where near this bright EVER. Really happy with the picture quality of the projector. If we have to convert the space back to a garage I just remove the drapes, remove the furniture and roll up the carpet.
If your looking to do a budget conversion and not have to deal with painting and then re-painting if you have to move or re-purpose the space, this is by far the easiest method.
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