With increasing frequency new homes are incorporating home theaters into their floor plans. If you do not plan to buy a new home you can also upgrade a recreation room, basement or family room to make an excellent home theater. No longer do families crowd into the den to watch a 13” TV set, or set up the projector in the family room to enjoy vacation and graduation movies. Technology has made giant strides over the last several years and making the home theater experience within the reach of nearly everyone. Gone are the days of sticky floors and overpriced concessions, and while you can certainly bust the bank installing a home theater in your house, you can also create one on a budget. And to do that we can take inspiration from some high dollar designs.

Begin with a Plan

Before doing anything you need to come up with a good plan for your space. The easiest way to do this is to draw an outline of the space on graph paper ensuring that you are keeping it to scale, and then cut out your furnishings, also to scale, and find a layout that works for the room.

As you are designing the placement of your TV and the seating,keep the viewer’s comfort in mind. Make sure that everyone has a comfortable and unobstructed view of the screen especially if you are planning to have more than a single row of seats. You may even want to consider building a raised plywood platform as a sturdy solution for second row viewing. Light is also a challenge in a home theater. Typically you are trying to draw more light into a room, whereas in a home theater you want to block light from entering the space. With this in mind, you want to install light blocking curtains on any windows in the space. You can do this very simply by sewing special dark out fabric to the backs of your existing curtains, or you can make completely new curtains or shades. Heavy fabric drapes are actually great solution for the windows, because they work to dampen sound as well. Lighting fixtures with dimmer switches help make your lighting options versatile, and dimmer switches can be found at any home improvement store. You can also add all around lighting by adding recessed ceiling lights to the room which is a cheap easy way to take care of all of your lighting needs for the space.

Theater Colors

Colors should be dark and completely neutral. Colors like blues, greens and reds can bounce light back into the room and actually tint the color on the screen. So go with deep browns and dark grays to keep your screen colors vibrant and pure. Any paint on the walls should be a flat finish, as any shiny finish will simply reflect light back into the room. Light is a concern even when the shades are drawn, because the movie itself is a light source, and when a scene is particularly bright you do not want you room competing with the show. Rich deep colored fabrics absorb light and sound, so if you want to work any burgundy, dark blue or forest green into the room you can do this in the carpet, upholstery and drapes.

Consider Comfort in your Design

This room is supposed to make watching a movie fun, and for that to happen you have to be comfortable. Have seating that is supportive and that you can really settle into. Allow ample legroom especially if you have a second row of seating, and have ample places for viewers to place food and drinks. You should also plan is to make moving about the room as non-disruptive as possible so that if someone needs to excuse themselves mid movie that it does not distract the rest of the movie viewers. There should also be enough ambient lighting on the floor to prevent missteps and tripping.

Use Favorite Movies for Inspiration

Really the sky is the limit when it comes to ideas for your home theater. This is your space, and the only limit to its design is your creativity and maybe your budget a little. But you can take inspiration from any high dollar project and find a way to get the same function, look and feel for pennies on the dollar with just a little creative imagination.

When you are designing your home theater consider using your favorite movie to inspire the décor of the space. You do not necessarily want a literal translation of the theme, but there are elements of any film that when applied to a home theater space can really make it sing. Larger-than-life themes will fit right in so go big and choose wall sculptures and large canvas art that offer epic size visual impact.

Movies like Star Wars can give birth to themes like black space with a black on black theme, or Death Star with a more industrial aesthetic, or light saber with a high tech LED lighting theme. Or you could take a movie like the Titanic and dominate the ceiling with a beautiful beaded chandelier as crystals would be bouncing light all over the room. And then you could complete the seating with opulently upholstered chairs. Or you could create a Batman inspired home theater with bat cave seating complete with glass encased Batman suit.

Even on a budget with limited space, you can create a home theater that is fun, functional and fabulous for you, your friends and family to enjoy.

All text copyright Shanel. Photo from Flickr - "Stealth Computer (except for the dang printers)" courtesy of TexasDarkHorse.