Many do-it-yourselfers take their sweet time when building a theater. Rick Inesta didn’t have that luxury. He had wanted an entertainment space in the basement of his home for some time. With guests expected for the holidays, Rick had the fire he needed to ignite his project. “Although the drywall was already hung when we built our house five years ago, I only had about three weeks to complete the entire project before we had guests coming to stay with us for the Thanksgiving holiday,” he says. “Trying to get long-lead items like fixtures, flooring and furniture was a challenge.”

Rick was up for the challenge—but he also had some help. By day, Rick is a custom home builder (http://www.inesta-homes.com), so he called in a few favors and got his electrician, flooring guys and trim carpenters to help with the details. Rick could then work on the bigger picture: the theater. The end result is a 900-square-foot space featuring a 5.1-channel surround-sound system, Sony PlayStation 3, a 1080p projector and Screen Goo paint to create his 108-inch screen.

Even when the big “screen” isn’t buzzing, the room has plenty of entertainment to offer, thanks to a wet bar and a game room with billiards, a poker table and an arcade-style electronic dartboard. If you can’t decide which area has the most action, there’s a long countertop with bar stools for snacking at the back of the theater. “This helps to partition such a long room into two separate spaces, without putting up a full wall to close the space off,” Rick says.

Despite all the entertainment the room has to offer, Rick says one of the best attributes is that his lair doesn’t feel like your typical basement. The fact that the room has no ceiling drops for HVAC or plumbing certainly helps, keeping the ceiling out of view during entertaining, movie marathons or a few belts at the bar. Also, the dark colors and custom wood paneling make this a nice cozy area, which gets even cozier with the corner fireplace flickering on cold nights.

Rachel Cericola - Contributing Writer

Over the past 15 years, Rachel Cericola has covered entertainment, web and technology trends. Check her out at www.rachelcericola.com.