Congrats on your new home, Franco!!!
A room size of 16x18 is perfectly good for a front projector setup. The front projection gives you a complete flexibility with regard to the location of the electronics rack(s) -- it can go along the front wall, either besides (a narrow, vertical rack) or beneath (a low, horisontal rack) the big screen, or along the side or back walls. I would first decide on the approximate size and location of the screen, and then start arranging various placements from there.
Personally, I always recommend online sources over BB, CC type of stores -- there are far wider varieties, which you can research to your heart's content online. I seem to remember that chesseroo (who is currently taking a leave of absense from this forum
) and several others were doing some serious research on audio racks.
For relatively inexpensive racks,
RacksAndStands.com is a good place to start.