Just wanted to share my experiences from the construction and setup of my small dedicated home theater room. I'm a complete novice when it comes to construction and home theater technology, so I hope this post proves that if I can put together a somewhat decent home theater...anybody can!

CONSTRUCTION BEGINS:


The home theater began as unused room in our unfinished basement. When my wife and I bought our house, the basement was just concrete-brick walls. About two years ago, I framed and insulated the walls and hung drywall so the bedroom above wouldn't be so cold in the winter.

Since that time, we have been using the room for extra storage. In late July 2009, we decided to turn this partially finished room into a dedicated home theater. You gotta love it when your wife/girlfriend/significant other actually says "I think we need to sell our TV, buy a bigger one, and set up a surround sound system." I think I've got a keeper!

This picture was taken in mid-August when the insulation was being pulled down to make room for speaker wire/ethernet cable installation in the floor joists. The rear speaker wire will run through the ceiling and the far wall. Outlet boxes and a conduit have been installed in the wall to accept the wire/cables.



The room through the doorway in the above picture is currently being used for storage as well, but in a few months (early 2010) I'm going to be converting that room into a concession stand/media storage room.

More pictures to be posted soon!

Speaker wire and ethernet cable have been installed and the last of the junk has been removed from the room. Insulation has been replaced. Next, the far wall will be repaired where I installed the conduit and after that the ceiling will be put in.



Here you can see the blue outlet boxes in the ceiling where the speaker wire will come out. I've wired the room for 6.1 surround sound, but initially we will just be running 5.1. I knew that I would be kicking myself later if I did not run the center surround speaker wire through the ceiling...

All the drywall has been repaired, now it is time for the ceiling!





The ceiling is installed. Thanks to some help from my strong friends, the ceiling went up in no time. I tell you, a drywall lift is one of man's best inventions! Mudding and sanding the ceiling was hot, dirty, backbreaking work...and this was a tiny space! I can't imagine doing this over an entire house!

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Ceiling has been textured (to help hide my not-so-great mudding job ) and the walls have been primed.



Top coat painted, turned out better than I expected it to. I was working really quickly during this period because the TV was going to be delivered in 4 days.



Wall plates and outlet covers have been installed, floor has been cleaned and ready for carpet installation. Three days until the TV arrives!

Thanks, Rick! Equipment will be located on/near the TV stand...I'll have pictures up very soon. The theater is actually finished, I'm just now getting around to putting up pictures documenting the work.

By the way, I love your setup...looks incredibly clean and professional. If I would have been planning for this room to become a home theater since the beginning I would have done a lot of things differently (like make a dedicated audio rack in another part of the room). Bravo on a job well done!

I actually didn't realize that you were completed with the room Brandon, thought you were still in the early stages and was going to throw in a suggestion or two but it looks like you have it covered and the room looks fantastic ... great job!

New boards have been installed on the stairs, will finish them soon. My wife and I liked the color of the primer in the stairwell and the way it contrasted with the red theater walls, so we had a top coat made that matched the primer grey.



Another view of the new stairs.



Carpet has been installed along with the baseboards. The TV was going to be delivered the following morning!

Here is the box the TV was packaged in...it was bigger than our couch! I spent the morning quickly putting the TV stand together so the delivery men would have a place to put the TV.



The TV in its new home. Panasonic Viera 65" Plasma. I feel sorry for the poor delivery guys who had to lug this 145lb monster down the stairs and around that tight corner!

This is like time lapse photography - that or the elves have been extremely busy.

Looks great man. What color is on the walls? Is that a V10, or S1, or ???

The color is Pittsburgh Paints "Merlot." The HDTV is the S1 model...I would have loved the V1 model, but I got a great price and couldn't justify $1200 extra for the V1.

Will post more pictures very soon!

Thanks for the info. And many thanks for the photos.

After the TV was installed, I continued working on the rest of the room while I was waiting for the delivery of my Axiom speaker system.



Patching the drywall around the stairs.



New stairs have been finished. The color of the stain matches the TV stand and the Boston Cherry finish of the Axiom speakers



Started making acoustic panels for the walls. Found a really great deal on rigid fiberglass board, so the panels ended up costing only $9 each to make.



Acoustic panel 1X4" frame. Each full panel is 2X4'.



Stretching the fabric over the wood frame



Back of the acoustic panel, filled with fiberglass board.



Two completed panels, installed on the wall. Each panel weighs 14lbs. It is hung from the wall like a picture using two anchored picture hangers, then four small metal clips anchor each panel to the wall. I was afraid that the subwoofer might one day knock a panel from the wall...nothing ruins movie night like having an acoustic panel hit you in the head

Purchased the receiver! Due to budget and advice from JC and Brent at Axiom, I decided to save some money and go with a low-end Denon. It works perfectly for my size room and has all the features that I could ever want...for now



We settled on a very simple seating arrangement in the home theater. These "wave lounger" chairs are super comfortable and can easily be moved around so everyone gets a good view of the screen. They give the home theater a very informal, relaxed feel...which is exactly what we were wanting in this room!



Here is a final picture of the stairwell after all the painting has been completed. All we need now is to install a handrail (that is next week's project!)

Unfortunately, I did not take any more "in progress" pictures. I was putting so much work into installing speakers and calibrating the system that I completely forgot the camera existed!

So, here are the final pictures of the completed home theater!



Had to take another shot so the poor QS4 could get in the picture!



Close up of the front and all the equipment.



One final shot of the front stage.

That looks amazing! Thanks for sharing your prorgess.

Very nice!

Thanks for sharing. It looks awesome.

What kind of fabric is that again ? Is it acoustic material or just something you picked up from a fabric store ?

Very nice, the panels look like mine.

Very nice and claen looking setup and room.

The end result came out excellent Brandon, I really like the red/black combination and you put them together perfectly ... congrats!

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone, I really appreciate it.

The fabric on the acoustic panels is plain black broadcloth. I was going to use burlap because of it is so acoustically transparent, but I really REALLY hated the look of burlap...like hanging a square potato sack on the wall. So while broadcloth was not the best choice acoustically, it looked the best...and the panels still function very well.

<snicker> Look everyone! Rick had his period! <snicker-snicker>

Awesome room!

Wow, great job!

Excellent looking room, BWeasner!! Thank you for posting the pics and sharing with us.

That convinces me, when I build an HT room I want a color like that Merlot. It looks very elegant and rich.

That HT room stuff looks like too much work. I'll just go strait for the Merlot.

I agree. Love the colour selection with the black panels. I may very well just do the <damn copycat!> I didn't think the red would look so nice. Thanks again for giving me that perspective.

What everyone said about the room colors.

Just beautiful. I really like how the stairs came out. Great!

Excellent work! I'm sure that you will enjoy that room for years to come.

Nice to see someone else use the M22's for Left and Right channel. LOL. I'm still waiting on delivery of mine.

Nicely done, can't wait till I get a chance to do a dedicated HT room.

Wow - that looks great!

Wow!

Great looking room for sure, I like the red a lot.

You are right about the ceiling and the mudding, I could not imagine doing that for a living. I was too cheap to rent a drywall lift so I had my poor 120 lb wife holding up one side, with some 2 x 4's on the other side while I zapped in some screws... LOL fun times.

EDIT: Forgot to mention I have an S1 as well in the living room, great set.

Really, really, really nice setup. Love the color choices too. Very sharp.

Congrats on the new setup!

Yes, I love the color on the walls. And making those (I forgot what to call them) sound muffling things that hang on the wall, just gave me an idea for my own walls. My left wall is solid, except for an entry door far back. My right wall has a double window in the middle of it. Now if I made 2 exact same sized sound damping thingiebabobs, the same size as the windows (but a little larger), then when done you couldn't tell a window was there. Awesome!

Thanks for the comments! I'm glad my choice of color has helped to inspire other people. It is a deep, rich color that (despite what I have always been told) does NOT make the room look any smaller.

The black/red color scheme also helps the room "disappear" when the lights go down and the movie starts!