5 Tips to Turn Your Basement into a Media Room
From wiring to gadgets to decor, a designer tips us off to the secrets for media room success
I'm a freelance writer and design enthusiast who believes the best design is collected, not decorated, and that homes should always be as comfortable and functional as they are chic. In addition to writing for Houzz, I work as the Head Copywriter for Layla Grayce and Zinc Door.
I'm a freelance writer and design enthusiast who believes the best design... More »
Sometimes it's just not possible to share the TV. What’s a family to do when one member is pulling for reruns of Seinfeld, and the other is rooting for the Kardashians? If you’re finding that remote-control wars are becoming common in your family room, it may be time to transform that unused space in your basement into a media room. On the rare occasion that everyone agrees, a media room can be the perfect home theater for movie nights.
We asked Deborah Wiener, owner of Designing Solutions, to give us her best tips to help you start planning a media room in your basement.
We asked Deborah Wiener, owner of Designing Solutions, to give us her best tips to help you start planning a media room in your basement.
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| 1. Plan your sound system. If possible, consider recessing speakers into your ceiling or walls. “This eliminates any visible wires while providing a true 'surround sound' effect,” says Wiener. In this example, speakers follow the same aesthetic of the built-in, integrating with the room’s decor. |
| Messing with the drywall to install recessed speakers isn’t always an option. If not, choose speakers in line with your room’s style so they appear more like decorative accessories than technical equipment. These contemporary speaks have a sculptural look that fits with the room’s modern style. |
2. Consider your media storage. “Design a small closet to hold all your media components, leaving your TV screen to star by itself without competing electronics,” says Wiener.
| If a separate storage closet doesn’t work in your space, transform the cabinets of a built-in into a space to house your electronics. “Ensure a long life for all electronics by using doors with screens or louvers to keep hot components aired and cool,” says Wiener. More media storage options |
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| 3. Get the seating right. Great seating can make or break a media room. The key is making sure everyone has an equally good view of the television — sectionals often accomplish this while providing ample space. “Today’s electronic recliners and wedge-shaped sectionals mean every seat is the best seat in the house,” says Wiener. “Many recliners require 'zero wall clearance,' meaning they recline forward into the room, instead of back against the wall, which makes them a perfect choice in a tight space.” Wiener suggests installing floor receptacles beneath electronic seating for wirefree walls. If your space is carpeted, cut a channel in the padding to run wires invisibly to a wall outlet. A small slit in the carpet can allow the cord to run to the chairs. |
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| 4. Perfect your acoustics. Consider all the hard and soft surfaces you want in your media room and how they will affect the quality of the sound. “You can easily improve acoustics with a thick carpeting and soft Roman fabric shades instead of hard blinds to help control the 'echo chamber' that large rooms with hard surfaces often suffer from,” says Wiener. |
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| If you prefer not to cover up your beautiful hardwood floors with carpeting, consider at least outfitting your media room with an area rug to help with the acoustics. |
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| Even light fixtures can make a difference when it comes to acoustics. Wiener suggests using fabric shades instead of glass or metal fixtures. |
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| Fabric wall panels make a big difference when it comes to acoustics, too. Outfit your panels with light fixtures to turn them into an interesting visual accessory that goes beyond function. |
| 5. Stay connected. If you want a true movie theater experience, hook everything up to a universal remote control. “With one finger, you’ll be able to control the AV equipment, dim the lights and even lower the window shades,” says Weiner. “You’ll have total control right from your armchair.” More guides to designing a great media room |
Ideabook published on Aug. 17, 2012.
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Modular wall units like those at http://www.contempospace.com/living-room-furniture/wall-units.html can be customized and combined to make the best use of any size wall.
To find out the optimal size for your television screen (or projection screen), the main factor is the viewing distance (the distance from where the display will be placed to where the audience will be seated). With today's higher resolution high-definition (HD) displays, your ideal viewing distance is roughly 2 times the diagonal measurement of your display size (in inches). (For the maximum "fully immersive" display size it would be 1.5 times).
For example, if your viewing distance is 10 feet (120 inches), then your maximum screen size is 80 inches [120 inches / 1.5 = 80 inches]. Your ideal screen size is 60 inches [120 inches / 2 = 60 inches].
You could go smaller than 60 inches, but then the display could start to look disproportionately small when viewing movies with larger groups of people. (You can use the 2.5 times formula to find your minimum size; in this example, your minimum display size is 48 inches [120 inches / 2.5 = 48 inches], but as you will see, this is indeed a very small display for such a large space.)
Don't forget to leave vertical space for your display to be placed at the correct and comfortable viewing height as well. You want the display to be at a comfortable "eyeball" height when seated. In other words, you don't want your display to be too elevated from your ideal seating position so that you have to strain your neck or eyes to look up at the screen -- this can become very uncomfortable and tiring for extended viewing sessions. (The classic example of installing a display too high up vertically is mounting a television above a fireplace mantle. This is fine if you're always standing up to view the display, but very uncomfortable when seated.)
I hope this helps!
Plus, they sound spectacular. Audiophiles across the world have loved the 'magical Maggie' sound for over 40 years. (No, I don't work for Magnepan, they just simply make a great product!)
@Amanda Simons:
That's funny :)
If he really wants to spend the money, he could purchase a very high-quality, large-size, flat-panel display rather than a projector. A high-quality panel (ie. Panasonic Viera VT30, VT50, etc.) almost always has a better contrast ratio (difference between blacker blacks and whiter whites), more vibrant and accurate colours, and a much richer and inkier black level than an equally priced projector.
Plus, projectors utilize lamps that can run quite hot, so they have fans that constantly spin to cool the unit down. That fan noise can be especially evident in smaller rooms.
When the display is too large for the viewing distance, the image looks too 'digital' and pixelated (ie. you can start to see all the individual dots that make up the overall image).
My two cents.
@brenda2244:
Don't forget to leave room for the height (not just the width) of the display panel as well. You will need some space around the panel to access the cabling, additional inputs, and provide the vents with air flow.
It might help to know which display you intend to purchase and mount first and then have the carpenters add a few inches around those dimensions. Better to measure twice and cut once than to cut twice and … well, I'm sure you understand the headache already! :)
That's a great question! I'm sure many others have experienced that same problem.
Personally, I've never been a fan of the television and fireplace being on the same parallel wall, but offset -- I don't know what it is, but it just "feels" uncomfortable to me. (Examples: Boston Architects: Eck | MacNeely Architects inc. or Honore-Transitional Family Room & Kitchen)
I think "the best of both worlds" solution is if you design the look and feel of the fireplace the way that you want to. Make it the fireplace of your dreams :)
Just add a motorized drop-down projection screen from the ceiling. That way, you still get a comfy "your own quiet space" look and warm feel of the fireplace you always wanted.
You can mount the motorized projection screen housing flush with and into the ceiling, so that no one knows that it's there (there will just be a long and thin rectangular slit in the ceiling). You will likely need the screen to have additional blacked-out space above the actual projected image so that the screen can drop low enough to be comfortably "eyeball" height. (In most cases, if you just have a drop-down screen with no extra black space above the image, you run into the same problem as mounting a television too high up on the mantle, since the image starts at the ceiling and only goes down a bit from there, so you're still craning your neck upwards to see it.)
The main con with this solution is increased cost, labour, and planning (compared to simply mounting a television on the wall). For the video side of things, you would need a projector, a motorized screen, mounts, cables, triggers, etc. You would also need some help with audio solutions for speaker placement / installation / wiring / cabling / power / etc. This could all be automated and controlled with some kind of one-touch system (ie. you touch the "Movie" button on the remote, the lights dim, the screen drops down, the speakers turn on, and you just sit back and enjoy; you touch the "Reading Room" button, the lights turn on, the fireplace lights up, the screen retracts into the ceiling, and the speakers turn off). I'm sure your local audio-video solutions / custom home theatre / home automation installation company would be happy to work alongside you with this.
Of course, the pro with this is, you can pretty much design your family lounge room (and your fireplace) however you want! The audio-video is integrated into the room to hide out-of-sight. When it's movie time, just push the "Movie" button and people will be wow'd :)
I tried to find some images on Houzz to describe what I had in mind, but it was surprisingly more difficult than I thought! Neither of these images perfectly reflect what I had in mind, but the concept is there: Mediterranean Classic or Master Bedroom
I hope this helps! My two cents.