[macadoo]

Hello everyone.

I've been a member of AVS for about three years now, posting here and there but mostly just reading . I thought it was about time I showcased my theater, a work in progress.


Some background; I bought my first LCD projector as a way of projecting my drawings onto canvas to speed the painting process (I'm an artist and an art teacher). So I'm sitting in my studio looking at the inputs on the projector, looking at my DVD player, looking at a large, blank, white canvas....then a lightbulb goes off, lol. A few days later we had a primitive home theater. After a few months of tweaking, we had a pretty nice little basement theater.


Not long after, we bought our first house and it turned out to be an old one-room school house that had been renovated. It's quiet, has about an acre of land, and has very dark skies for my telescope. One night, during a walk, we saw a boloid meteor that took about five seconds to burn up. It was beautiful

My first project, of course, was the home theater. This basement room was a gym for the previous owners. The floor was okay, if a little worn. We have concrete covered with a vapor barrier, covered with foil backed insulation sheathing, covered with 3/4" playwood, all topped with a low shag carpeting. The wall at the end (screen wall) was a half wall so I framed and drywalled the rest, making a storage room behind accessed from the utility room.

I painted it with a flat Moca brown, ran all new wiring for the projector, sconces, etc. and put up a piece of masonite painted flat black for the screen backing. In hindsight I would reconsider the flat paint for the walls. It makes for good screenings but all one need do is run a finger across it to leave a mark. And touch-ups don't blend very well. Next time satin or eggshell.

I should mention here that the thing I am most proud of is that this theater is made completely from recycled, garage-saled, or repaired items and equipment.

1. The screen is 84" diag. and was built just as I would build a stretcher for a painting. My first screen was canvas with an experimental paint job including pearlescent components. I eventually settled on plain ol' black-out cloth.

2. My projector is an Infocus Screenplay 4805 which I bought on ebay with the collapsing light tube. This was easily fixed and the bulb only had 300 hours on it. I would like to mention here that I think it best to let this particular projector fan-cool after use. I read a FAQ a couple years ago that claimed that it would increase your bulbs longevity if you just powered down without fan-cooling, it was more natural. It is my belief that this hot-soak is why so many light tubes fail.

3. My surround amp is a JVC Pro Logic II which I got at a yard sale for $10! I told the gal that it was worth much more and she told me it belonged to her X-husband and to get it out of her sight. Ummm....okay

I brought it home and there wasn't a darn thing wrong with it.

4. The large speakers are Kenwood stereo speakers I also got at a yard sale for $2. The cones needed a little tender loving care but sound great now.

5. The center and surround speakers are also Kenwood that I got from a pawn shop. I fixed a few DVD players for him and he gave them to me.

6. The Sony subs were acquired in the same manner. One is powered and the other is driven by the large amp on the right of the cabinet.

7. Sony DVD player (bought new actually).

8. The cabinet was cobbled together from an old laundry room, hanging-type cabinet and hand built components. I may eventually replace this with an equipment closet and build one of those cool stages everyone seems to like.

9. The surround speaker mounts were hand made. I will include photos later.

10. PS2 purchased at yet another yard sale for $10. I'm not a gamer (although I'd like to be) so I don't know if this was a good deal.

11. The chairs are from Barnes & Noble and are really quite comfortable but will soon be replaced with a couple of faux leather rocker recliners. I want to build a small riser for them as well.

Now for some questions:The furnace ducting is obviously an issue. I looked into moving it but options are few and not very feasable. When I do the ceiling (another obvious issue) I could easily build a soffit. But that would make for a somewhat strange shape to the room. I could lose the window and make another soffit on the right for the purpose of symetry. I could even use that soffit as storage I suppose.

The back of the room has a table (also from Barnes & Nobel) for playing games and such and is (for now anyway) my wife's sewing area. However, the room is pretty dark. Originaly I was going to paint this area to match the rest of the theater but that would make it even darker. I've considered painting the ceiling white just above the table and adding a light fixture that shines up rather than down. I don't mean to say that I';d like my wife to be able to sew while we watch a movie. The two activities can be independant of each other. Any thoughts?

I will post more detail pics with my next post.

All comments and suggestions welcome.

Thanks for looking,

-Mac

 

[macadoo]

Aha, I found a before picture. It's lousy but does show how I added to the partial wall (the seem) and was taken before I painted the ductwork flat black.

Here's a picture of the cabinet. Again, it was fabricated from an old laundry room hanging type unit and some left over MDF.

I think I might lean towards an art deco look when adding all the details so I designed and carved this mount for the right surround. I ran out of vacation time so for the left surround I knocked together something simple.

The left surround mount

This is the winow I would lose if I added the extra soffit for symetry. The curtain is a heavy, black corduroy. The window is something like 12" deep so we're always expecting the curtains to open with Punch and Judy poppiing out, lol.

That's about it for now. I anxiously await your thoughts on the two soffits and any ideas for making the back of the room lighter for non-screening activities.

-Mac

 

[kjlewie]

Nice touch with the art deco design.


I would agree with building the soffits for symmetry. The window will be a challenge though.


I would think you are on the right track with the sewing location by adding some task lighting when you complete the ceiling. Not sure you'd need a lighter color paint - the right lighting (track, recessed, hanging, etc.) would make all the difference.


Good luck.

 

[macadoo]

What do most folks do for windows such as this? I was thinking it should be reversable. Although I can't picture myself moving in the next million years (knock on wood), a window might be desireable to the next owner. I actually had a couple look at our last house and, standing in the theater, said "Oh, we don't watch television or movies. We'd just tear this out." I didn't sell them the house.

I was thinking just drywall over it from the inside. Maybe pushing the curtain against the glass so it looks okay from the outside.

Any anticipated problems there?

-Mac

 

[kjlewie]

I don't have any personal experience with windows but others have either made or built plugs to maintain the function of the window.

 

[macadoo]

Lol, that's exactly what I drew up, just didn't know what to call it. Thanks kjlewie.

 

[Tedd]

You don't need to loose the window if you do matching soffits. You could build a cover with 2 piano hinges to cover the window, and match the soffit/wall profile.


I kept my very small window, to be able to air out the theater. It is buried in the soffit, with the underside open. The front edge of the soffit is drywalled, with the window only exposed from the bottom of the soffit. Eventually, the window will get a cover that hinges up into the soffit. I plan to cover the soffits in black GOM fabric, so a matching window cover should just about be invisble in the theater.


This is a bit of a wild idea for the sewing area, but I'll toss it out there. How about a pull down blind (or 2/3) back there, for when the sewing area is in use. Light colour to reflect lighting. I'd beef up the lighting and use a couple of types, and put them on dimmers, to fine tune the lighting to perfection.

 

[Tedd]

The room actually looks long enough to accomodate the sewing area painted a more suitable colour. Why not just build the soffits to where the ductwork ends, and have the Mrs sew up a set of double sided curtains to act as room divider? With a header between the ends of the soffit, and the curtains against the wall, the transistion of paint treatments (suited to each area's activity) between the two areas would work nicely.


Or you could build some columns at the rear of the soffit, that are hinged to hide the curtains when they are not in use for movies. Maybe show off those sewing and woodworking skills...

 

[macadoo]

I like the curtain idea Tedd, I hadn't thought of that. Do you have a build thread with pics of your soffit/window solution?

I've been doing some critical looking and the two soffits are going to decrease ceiling height significantly. I'm not tall but have some tall friends

I'm researching how difficult it would be to move one of the main ducts. The duct on the right is the supply duct which would be easier to move than the cold air return.


Screenshot. Looks like I need to paint those track lights flat black.

So far, all I know for sure is that these systems are designed to produce consistent airflow to all rooms. However, we don't have consistent airflow anyway. Maybe I could improve on that.

Anyone ever do this or have experience working with ductwork? The physical work doesn't look that tough, the stuff's pretty light.

 

[Tedd]

Check your personal messages macadoo.

 

[macadoo]

Okay, I have a question about the ductwork and I'll try to word it so it's understandable.

If I move the main supply duct (the right hand rectangular duct in the picture) to the other side of the wall I will need to extend the 6" round ducts to reach. Doing this will require going over the main beam of the house, parallel with and in-between the floor joists. However, the area above the beam and between each floor joist is blocked with something I will call a sill plate (although it's in the middle of the house and not at a foundation wall). So the floor joists sit on top of the beam at right angles but the spaces between the joists and directly above the beam are blocked. Okay, I'll try to get a pic in the next few days.

My question is, can I cut through this "sill plate" to extend my round duct? It doesn't seem to be load bearing.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[macadoo]

I had a 20% off coupon for BigLots so I picked up a couple new additions for the theater. They're big and maybe a little ugly but man-oh-man they do sit nice. These are rocker recliners which I prefer over a simple recliner.

We call them "Joey" and "Chandler".

So it looks like it's time to build the riser

But before I do that I'm going to remove that main supply duct (right hand duct) and shunt the vent ducts to the other supply duct on the other side of the left-hand wall. There are only two vent supplies that have to be relocated so I don't think it will change the dynamics of the airflow much. It may even it out a little anyway.

Once that main supply duct is removed I can build a soffit over the return duct and build a matching soffit on the right-hand wall of the theater for symetry. That soffit can then be used for storage. I'll have to cap the window first though. When all that is complete I can start thinking about the ceiling.

It looks as though we're going to have an early winter here in the midwest. I'll just use the time I spend doing yardwork playing in the theater

Have a good day all.

 

[macadoo]

Hello everyone,

It's been a while but I have some updates to the theater I would like to share. First update was replacing the old cabinet with a DIY equipment rack. It opens in the back which is located in the utility room.

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Here's a neat little trick. I used MDF for the cabinet but also for the shelves. You know how hard it is to paint MDF end grain? I sealed the end grain with wood glue, just smeared on a good layer and wiped off the excess with a rag, let it dry, and sanded. That way I didn't get that fuzzy edge I've seen so many times. Works like a charm.

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With the new equipment rack up and running I decided to build a couple subs. My father had given me a couple of stereo spekers before he passed on but they were a bit 70s looking so I pulled the 10" woofers and built these. Man oh man, they can sure rattle the teeth. They're powered by a 120 watt per channel amplifier I had lying around.

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Next I needed to move the rectangular supply duct to the other side of room so I needed to loose the window.

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With the window drywalled over I was able to reroute the ductwork. I was leary of the effects on airflow but it didn't change it at all. The space seems so much larger without both rectangular ducts hanging on the left.

[/IMG]


Finally came the time to build the long awaited soffits. I was a little short on wood so I decided to to simply hang supports directly from the rafters. Big mistake! Lol, the rafters aren't very even and it took forever to even out the supports.

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I used 1/2" MDF so I needed a way to hold the panels in place while I screwed them in. Notice the cleats I screwed to the wall under the 2x2 to create a kind of cradle to hold the panel.

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One soffit down, one to go.

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Well that's it for now. This weekend I may tackle the other soffit. This time I'll build a full frame and srew to the lowest rafters.

An interesting note; One of the division secretaries at school found our house (at the time, a one room schoolhouse) on a map dated 1847! No wonder the rafters aren't even, lol. They're not even pine. It seems that oak was common in this area at that time....but I would swear it drills and smells more like mahogany.

Next on the list:

1. A ceiling

2. A couple of short risers (my ceilings aren't very high)

3. New carpeting

4. Better lighting


Happy building, everyone.

 

[macadoo]

For the right-hand soffit I decided to work smarter rather than harder. The solid frame made all the difference, although at 16 ft. long it was still a little too flexible.

The soffits are finished! I actually have a few small ones to build in the back of the theater but they can wait.

Look at that paint. I haven't been happy with that flat stuff. Too difficult to touch up, you can tell the difference between brushwork and roller, and even slightly bumping it, with say your shoulder, changes the sheen. It's just awful.

Anyway, time to start thinking about the ceiling

 

[Mazeroth]

Looking much better!

 

[macadoo]

Thanks Maz, I've been working hard at it.

 

[macadoo]

Finally, I can give something back to the forum and people that have given me so much inspiration and so many solutions.


So, my problem ceiling. It's short, like 7.5 feet. So dropping a ceiling wasn't an option. I have junction boxes everywhere, something like eleven in just the theater area alone. The pleasures of having a 177 year old house

Code says that junction boxes must have access so drywall wasn't an option. Plus, I have committment issues and want to have access to my wiring and plumbing

Also, I wanted something light enough that I could hang by myself.

I did some research and found that extruded polystrene, in other words that pink foam insulation board, is code as long as your house is not a rental. So I started cutting up my own tiles, beveling them on the sides for aesthetics. They take roll-on paint well, are light, and better acoustically than drywall or wood. Better, but not great.


I screwed the tiles directly to the floor joists using drywall screws, sinking them into the foam about a quarter of an inch. Then I simply covered the screw holes with 3/8" wood buttons. I painted the buttons before pressing them into the holes.

The tiles looked pretty good but it was a little too utilitarian for my tastes so I thought I'd spruce them up with those little wood accents. But I couldn't find anything I liked, especially sice I wanted a muted art deco look. So here's what I did:


***

Since I'm a sculptor, I had some oil clay sitting around. This is clay that doesn't harden so that it can be reused after the mold is made. I drew up my design and transfered it to the clay slab (rolled with rolling pin).

I cut out the form with a kitchen knife and began forming the fins into what I wanted.

Once the form was sculpted, I used art silicone from a supplier I use (let me know if you would like the website) to cover the clay. I didn't have enough silicone to just pour it over the form so I used thickener. Note the clay wall surrounding the form. This will contain the plaster.

After the silicone is set, about 12 hours in this case, I used plaster to make a mother mold to hold the silicone mold in the correct shape.

Be sure to use a release agent on the silicone or you'll have a heck of a time separating the silicone and plaster.


Here's the mold in it's mother mold ready for casting.

I used a liquid casting plastic because I'm familiar with it and I had some sitting around. It's a two part resin that can be demolded in 20 minutes, another plus. It goes in clear and turns white after it cures.

The finished cast. Now I just needed to make 39 more.

Next I used gorilla glue to glue the accents in place on the tiles. Some of you that know my small theater may notice that I've changed my color scheme. I was inspired by YW84U's Tanner Ridge Cinema.

And the painted tile

The plastic accents made the tiles quite a bit heavier. I thought about using a two part expanding foam but have had little experience with it. I did try spray foam with disastrous results.


I'm very pleased with the look of the ceiling so far. I have four more tiles with accents to make and many without the accents to hang. but, between school and making art, I'm slowly getting there.

-Mac

 

[dcg58]

Great job on the ceiling. The art deco accents really add to the look.

If you are having trouble with matte finish paint try the Benjamin Moore Aura line in Matte finish. It is scrubbable and doesn't show marks like others I have seen.

 

[macadoo]

Thanks dcg58, That original mocha color was Dutch Boy. Really not good at all. When I repainted I used eggshell on the walls but used Behr paint and primer in one. Much much better. And I used Behr flat on the ceiling and that's been much better as well.

I'm really enjoying the new color scheme.

Now, if I could only stay awake through an entire movie! Lol.

 

[PatrickGSR94]

aw man I kinda liked the industrial-ness of the exposed ductwork and joists. Oh well, it's coming along.


Saw the note in your OP with your theory of the 4805 light tubes failing because people just turned them straight off. I actually have been doing that myself for several years with my 4805, probably because we both read the same thing in the 4805 owner's thread. Well now mine is 6 years old (still on original bulb!) and the light tube is sure enough failing. Oh well, got a new Panny AR100U 1080p arriving tomorrow, so the 4805 will be retired, might try to get a few bucks for it.


How much did you pay for yours on eBay by chance?