How to Pick a Home Theater Room

Rectangular rooms tend to have better acoustics. Photo: Kelly Bradford

Whether you're building a home theater from scratch or transforming an old room, use these tips to find the perfect theater space.

Just about any room can function as a home theater. It just takes a good, solid plan, a knowledgeable and experienced audio/video installer, and realistic expectations to turn a space into a comfortable, high-performing entertainment wonderland. However, there are a few proven formulas that can have a huge effect on the way your entertainment system looks and sounds. For example, a rectangular-shaped room is better acoustically than a square-shaped one, a space with a high ceiling is usually preferred when a video projector will be installed and any room that has several walls of windows may be better served as a sitting room. This doesn’t mean you should discount square, window-laden spaces. In fact, many newer technologies, such as flat-panel TVs and built-in speakers are making it easier than ever to convert any type of room into a high-class home theater. It may just take more work and compromises to whip these less-than-perfect spaces into theater shape.

The best way to achieve audible and visual perfection is by constructing a dedicated home theater from scratch. This might be an addition to your current house or a room your architect worked into the blueprints before you broke ground. With nothing but your budget standing in your way, you can allocate the square footage, ceiling height and structural design necessary to create a state-of-the-art home theater.

If constructing a new space for a home theater isn’t an option, you can always transform an unfinished room into a theater. Basements, attics and bonus rooms are popular choices. They may require some major structural and design changes, but the results can be magnificent. Even better, you’ll finally put some of that unused area to good use.

Finally, there are homes that simply don’t have a square inch to spare for a dedicated theater. And that’s okay. In fact, some homeowners prefer to utilize finished family rooms, master suites and dens as their main entertainment areas. “The room is already furnished, which means you don’t have to spend your budget on new couches, chairs and lamps,” notes Mark Cloninger of Stereo One in Springfield, MO. “Plus, a family room tends to get used more than a dedicated theater,” adds Mike Esposito of Audio/Video Excellence in Pleasantville, NY. “Families might visit their theater on weekends and special occasions but relax in their family rooms every single day.”

Outbuildings such as garages, cabanas and pool houses are other potential candidates for audio/video overhauls. “We’ve even had clients who’ve turned their walk-in closets into theaters,” says Alan Weissman of Electronics Design Group in Piscataway, NJ. 

Building From Scratch
Ideal Attributes If you do have the opportunity to build a home theater from scratch, make it fairly large and rectangular. “If I had a blank slate, I’d shoot for a room that was 18 feet wide and 26 feet long with a 9- or 10-foot ceiling,” says Cloninger. “I would place the theater seats in rows, with the last row situated on a 12-inch riser.” Most theater designers recommend risers so that people seated in the back row can see over the heads of those seated in the front row. Plus, because the design resembles the stadium-style seating in commercial cinemas, it adds a touch of authenticity to the room.

Authenticity can also be achieved by locating the home theater away from the main living area of the house. “A home theater should be a destination,” says Weissman. “It should be a place to bring guests that feels different from the rest of the house.”

A home theater that’s off by itself can also help preserve your family’s sanity. Home theaters are notoriously loud, so keeping yours away from the bedrooms and main living areas will ensure all those ear-splitting explosions from your action flicks won’t interfere with conversations and slumber happening elsewhere. “You really need to think about what’s located next to [the home theater] as well as what’s above and below it,” Esposito confirms.

Just as it’s important to keep the sounds of a theater from seeping out, you’ll also want to prevent noise from outside the room—like the rumble of a dishwasher or the clamor of your kids—from sneaking in. An isolated locale is only part of the solution. Stuffing the inside of the walls with acoustical insulation can soak up the sounds before they pass through. Acoustical paneling applied to the surface of the walls adds extra absorption and will also improve the way your movies sound. “The fabric wall panels offer a soft surface for the sound waves to sink into, which eliminates audio reverb, caused by audio waves slapping against the walls, ceilings and floors,” explains home theater designer James Safronek of NXT Generation in Issaquah, WA. Opt for carpet instead of wood for the floor and small snack trays for each seat instead of one big marble-topped coffee table.

As for the video, a 10-foot ceiling will offer plenty of headroom for hanging a video projector and screen from the ceiling and for building wooden risers on the floor for the back rows of seats.

Everyone knows that video looks best in a dark room, so remember to not install windows in a dedicated theater and to select a dark color for the walls, floor and ceiling. Finish off the space with dimmable light fixtures and a sturdy yet stylish door.

An Unfinished Space
Good Alternatives Most home theater designers would be happy to head straight to the unfinished basement of an existing home to plan out a home theater. The space usually has great bones, meaning no large windows, plenty of square footage and a location that’s fairly isolated from the rest of the house. “The only problem we sometimes run into in a basement is a low ceiling,” says Weissman. “However, if you pick a projector with a long throw distance, you can place it on the back wall so that it’s out of the way.”

While a basement is one of the best places to turn into a home theater, unfinished bonus rooms and attics are also worth considering. Many of the same rules for building a home theater from scratch apply when working in an unfinished, preexisting room. You’ll need to insulate the walls with acoustical materials, windows should be covered with heavy draperies and carpeting should be added. You may also need to add lighting as well as a separate heating and cooling system.

In some cases, your home theater designer may recommend installing a prefabricated theater into an unfinished room. This involves constructing the entire home theater, including the walls and ceiling, off-site, and then placing the structure within the bonus room or basement. Basically, it’s like building a completely new room within a room. The handcrafted shell can totally change the look of the room, giving it a sophisticated, theatrical feel that might have been very difficult to accomplish when working with the concrete walls and floor of a basement, for example.

Existing Rooms
Good Candidates Building a completely new room or finishing a basement or bonus room can be a costly endeavor. Construction costs coupled with the expense of furnishing the space can quickly eat away at your budget, leaving you with less to spend on the screen, speakers and other equipment. This is one of the reasons why some homeowners prefer to turn existing rooms such as family rooms, bedrooms and living rooms into home theaters.

Thanks to in-wall speakers, flat-panel TVs, radio frequency remotes and motorized lifts, any room can be converted into a home theater without sacrificing its original design and function.  A family room can still look and feel like a family room, for example, even though it’s got a full-blown surround-sound system in it. The speakers can be mounted flush into the walls and ceilings and painted to match the surface. Traditional box speakers can be placed on bookshelves or tucked into the cavities of an entertainment cabinet where they’ll go virtually unnoticed. TVs and screens can blend into the room environment as well.

Certainly, the dimensions (something rectangular) and the size (something large) of the space should be considered, but most professional home theater designers agree that it’s the room’s lighting that will have the most impact on the overall cinematic experience. “We like to use a room where both natural and ambient light can be easily controlled,” says Audio Video Excellence’s Esposito. “The picture always looks better when the room can be darkened.” However, depending on the room, it may be impossible to completely keep out the light. “Plus, your family may actually prefer to watch movies in a bright room,” Safronek notes. In such cases, be sure to choose a screen that can present a crisp, vivid picture regardless of the lighting situation. “The equipment can be calibrated to automatically change the color and contrast based on the viewing situation,” Safronek continues.

Choose a Room That Works
Of course, each type of room has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages. A kitchen, for example, may offer the convenience of being centrally located, but its layout and design can be challenging to work a home theater system into. A master suite, meanwhile, may be the perfect shape and size, but you may not want the whole gang sprawled out on your duvet to watch a movie.

The stories on the following pages note some of the best and worst qualities of each type of room. By understanding what to expect in terms of audio and video performance, what compromises you’ll need to make and what special equipment and materials you may need to add to your budget, you’ll be able to select the spot that best suits your family’s lifestyle and viewing preferences.