[vicuna]

So, I'm no good at naming threads... Ah well.


Anyway, I'll be chronicling my adventures of remodling here. So first, the backstory.


I have a full basement w/o room dividers that was 80% finished (100% badly). So, we're refinishing it into a rec area.

On the left, we'll have a pool table, a small kitchenette-type thing, and a dry-bar near the sliding glass doors that exit the basement (on the invisible wall).


The floor joists above this side of the basement are much higher than the other side, and we have to soffet in the support beams.

This side of the room will have some in-ceiling stereo speakers (Pheonix Gold 6.5") volume-controlled by a dial that we'll probably install behind the bar.


Between the back congregational area (which will probably hold an arcade machine and possibly a card table) and the Media room, we're planning a half-wall with countertop as a divider and drink-placer-place.

A mockup of the view from these seats:

The Media Room will have 2 couches at 90deg angles. Each couch will face it's own projector screen (main couch will have a wall-mounted fixed screen, the 2nd is motorized retractable) and individual 5.1 surround. (Yes, it sounds odd. But the compromise makes my wife happy.)


We're planning on painting the media room walls a dark reddish color, and go two-tone w/chair rail for the rest of the room.

Any thoughts/comments are appreciated!

 

[vicuna]

Okay, so the next thing we have to decide on is whether to recess some of the ceiling in the media room. The ceilings on this side of the basement are much lower than the other side, and due to ductwork, we're going to be stuck w/ 7' ceilings on the perimeter of the media room (at least). The room is about 13'x18'.


The white discs are in-ceiling speakers. I haven't put in lights yet.

Due to ductwork, the sides of the inset will probably have to be 4' from each side of the wall (which leaves about a 5.5' wide inset). The ceiling over the seating area is approximately 13'x12' (12' from couch to fireplace).


Does this look like enough room to do an insert that will look nice?


Thanks

-PW

 

[DaveWolf]

Interesting setup, why the need for two projectors and two screens? Is one of you going to be listening on headphones while the other one enjoys 5.1 surround????

 

[vicuna]

Actually.. Yes! We're suprisingly fair-minded about it too... Whichever of us is playing a rather... tame game (RPGs, racing,etc) will use headphones, while the other gets 5.1 goodness.

The big reason is so that we aren't both in entirely different parts of the house. My wife'll want to play Eternal Sonatta some weekend, but not want to sit by herself for several hours. And that game may be fun, but it's boring to watch.

We each get our own bigscreen goodness.


Also, we like to have friends over for multiplayer games. This way, we can have 8 ppl at once in the same room!

 

[smakovits]

or way more people for something like the super bowl...2 screens means way more viewing space. very awesome. it funny, you and your wife will have your own projector to be in the same area, while most of us are just sent to the basement to get away from the wife.

 

[jamis]

A really interesting layout for sure!


That ceiling design is just begging for a fiber optic star ceiling in the higher portion!


Also, if you aren't planning on using the fireplace as a fireplace, I could see using the alcoves for speakers and doing a nice big acoustically transparent 2.35:1 scope screen (fixed or retractable) over much of it.


Just some thoughts

 

[vicuna]

Yeah, we're not really the 'typical' married couple. We probably spend more time together than most people could stand.

We're planning on installing a gas insert into the fireplace. So, the alcoves won't be used for wood or anything. So far, I've been considering glass shelving w/ inset lighting for the alcoves.


And sadly, I think my wife'd shoot me if I put fiber-optic anything in the room.

(She's got issues w/ fiber optic christmas trees, angels, etc.... Thinks all fiber optics are "tacky!" >:})


I hadn't really considered 2.35... Time to do a little more reading.

Thanks for the comments

 

[jamis]

There are some great star ceiling examples in these forums. I would have done it had I a higher ceiling.


They can add quite a bit of interest and aren't tacky at all. Show her some examples.

http://www.numinus.com
http://www.iskypanels.com
http://www.fosi.com/gallery/Starceiling.htm
http://www.trinorthlighting.com/Stor...ain_page=index

 

[vicuna]

Well, alas, the wife wasn't swayed... She still doesn't like the fiber optics. Honestly, I don't think she likes the idea of the starfield anyway.


At any rate, once I get this cardreader working, I'll post a few 'before' pics.

 

[vicuna]

Okay, as promised, some 'before' pics.


Here's what you see when you first come down the stairs. (the side from the 2nd pic in the OP)

What we're dealing with:

The soffets are going to be near the 7' level, and around 8" wide. We can raise the ceiling on either side as high as 10'. Our current goal is 8'.


Here's the wall that the mini kitchenette (excuse for an accessible sink) goes on.

Here's the corner where the drybar's going:

 

[vicuna]

Here's where things start getting wonky. Our upstairs is split into 2 elevations. So, as you walk away from where the bar is going, you can see there is going to be a substantial drop (circa 6") to the far end of the room.


From there, there'd be another 6" drop as you turned left to go into the media room. So, we'd have 3 ceiling heights. In this configuration, we'd be using 2'x2' drop-tile ceiling (8') as far as the first drop. At that point, we'd drywall the rest over (7'6"), then drop another 6" and drywall the media room(7'). (This is what the SketchUps show.)

Our other alternative would be to do 2'x2' drop ceiling all long the rear of the room (between the soffet and the outter wall). We can get this up to 7'9"-7'10".

 

[vicuna]

So, I did a walkthrough with my electrician. I'm not the greatest with lighting, and he didn't seem to want to be pushy. So, I was hoping someone here could help out.


I put some lighting into SketchUp (I'm having problems w/ the rendering plugins, so I can't really tell what it'll look like).


So, here's the entryway. The ceiling height is 8' w/ 7' soffets. In the small ceilng area (right off the stairs), I put 2 small canlights. Then 4 as teh main lighting. Then 3 pendants over the pool table and 2 small cans over the sink.

The bar's an L-bar with 3 pendants over the main part (7' long), and 1 pendant over the short-side (~3ft).

The back area is 43' long, and around 10.5' wide and I've got pairs of cans back there. Does that look right, or will it be as bright as the sun?

Lastly, the Media room. I've got 2 cans in the walkway in front of the laundry room. In the main seating area, I have put 4 small can lights on either side of the inset ceiling. The dark gray circles are the 5.1 speakers.

So, how wrong am I? Is that way too many cans in the back walkway? Is it enough lighting in the media room? Should we have a couple of small canlights behind the counter (illuminating the tabletop for eaters)?


Any help is appreciated!

 

[vicuna]

A couple of pics after framing in the ceiling in the media room. Lights are hung as well.


Framed ceiling:

We decided to go with an arch behind the couch:

I bought some conduit to make later cable runs easier (hopefully):

And installed it all over the place:

 

[vicuna]

The dywalling has started.

A sortof bad view of the inset:

 

[jmangels]

What software did you use to do the layout and 3D renderings?

 

[Spartan94]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jmangels /forum/post/15670120


What software did you use to do the layout and 3D renderings?

google sketchup

 

[vicuna]

Yup, http://sketchup.google.com/download/

 

[vicuna]

Here are a couple more updates. Most of the drywall is up, soffets are done, and all the electric is run (except the canlights in the drop ceiling, of course).


Here's the drybar area, there's electric and speaker wire running down the right corner. These'll be going into the bar itself for outlets and volume control. They're coming down on different walls... should be around 8-10" apart. I'm hoping that's sufficent to reduce/eliminate any interference.

The arch is looking pretty good. We'll lose about 4" off the top, due to pipes and such, so the top of the arch will be near the drop-ceiling.

Behind the arch, we're putting in a new door to the storage room. A dartboard will go on the wall to the left of the door, and a fishtank will be going on the right-side wall. And if you look on the left wall (past the arch), you'll see a breaker box. Apparently, we had a "60A di-pole" line running into the basement already, hooked up to our furnace of all things. Our electrician was able to use that line to give us more power and several more breakers downstairs. In all, a good thing.

Lastly, a view through the arch, into the media room. I'm thinking the view will be acceptable. You'll see over the people's heads, but under the projector. Here's to hoping!

 

[Old]

Very interesting!

Looking forward to see the end result.

Great job so far.


Btw, once you go 2.35, you will never go back. It's worth the minimal effort.

Old.

 

[eRob]

Can two projecting pictures cross each other at the same time and still work? Room looks great btw, awesome setup.