Recently Filed in Basement

One of the first things Phillip Thomas did after buying his 3,300-square-foot single-family home was finish the basement. He put in a bar, built a bedroom for his college-age son and threw in a nice-size bathroom. But he always felt that something was missing: a home theater. “At the time, I thought that adding one would blow our budget out of the water,” Thomas says. So he and his family waited. After a few months of saving up, they contacted a local custom electronics professional… View this story
Basement • Home Theater • Cool Homes

Wanting a new home theater doesn’t always mean leaving your old electronics behind. This homeowner wanted to add some spark to his existing viewing environment by upgrading to a two-piece projector-screen setup. He was plenty satisfied, though, with the Sony home theater in a box (HTIB) system he already owned. So when it came time to outfit his previously finished basement, the homeowner contacted Aurora, Ill.-based Epic Integrated A/V to expand that HTIB into a full theater—at a matinee price. Incorporating the equipment he already owned helped… View this story
Basement • Home Theater • Cool Homes

This theater project faced some difficulties, mainly in the limited amount of time the homeowners could meet with custom electronics pro Audio Video Concepts and solidify the plans. For one thing, part of those plans included scrapping the original basement plan for a theater brought by the builder. The plan didn’t meet the homeowners’ vision of what they wanted their theater room to be, says Audio Video Concepts’ Rob Roessler, so they found a different location in the basement and began reworking the builder’s plan.… View this story
Basement • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Home Theater • Cool Homes

Talk about a fish out of water. This New Jersey homeowner is a Boston sports fanatic, but thanks to some creative thinking and some help from a local custom electronics firm, his nightly trips down to the basement take him into the Hub rather than the Holland Tunnel. As an equal-opportunity Boston sports nut, this homeowner and his family actually get to enjoy pieces of all the major Boston sports teams, as the space combines elements of the Sox, Pats, Bruins and Celtics. We’re not… View this story
Basement • Sports • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Home Theater • Cool Homes

Chase Blackburn has been multitasking on and off the football field. The 26-year-old is making a name for himself in the NFL as an up-and-coming linebacker for the New York Giants (he’s been solid on “D” since making the Giants’ roster as a rookie free agent from Akron in June 2005). He’s led the team in special teams tackles in each of the past four seasons, and has become targeted as someone to be “double teamed”—as a linebacker he was also recently pegged by the… View this story
Multiroom Audio • Basement • Home Theater • Multiroom AV • Cool Homes

This Pennsylvania home has music and video everywhere—23 rooms’ worth of distributed audio, plus eight zones featuring video. But the homeowners didn’t want a truly dedicated theater room focused on the best of both to be closed off from the rest of the home. Good thing there was plenty of space to work around. “Once the engineers at Elite Home Technologies saw the drawing of the basement, it was immediately apparent that smack in the middle of the open floorplan, 2,500 square foot space would… View this story
Basement • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Home Theater • Cool Homes

After the owners’ two sump pumps failed, a heavy rainfall deposited several inches of standing water throughout their finished basement. Both the carpeting and the Sheetrock were ruined, according to One Sound Choice, a custom electronics design and installation firm in Pompton Plains, N.J. The owners had contacted One Sound Choice, originally, just to restore the room. It’s only one of the company’s specialties, which also includes the design and installation of audio and video system, outdoor entertainment systems and solar systems. After discovering that… View this story
Basement • Home Theater • Cool Homes

Oh, the joys of adding electronics to a newly remodeled basement. This one’s walls might look sparse, but it’s heavy on entertainment—high-tech and low-tech, like playing poker, ping-pong or table hockey. For starters, there are separate flat-panels and two JBL surround-sound systems—one for high-definition movies and broadcasts and one dedicated just for video games. Custom electronics pro Advanced Media Systems also provided additional screens in the bar area, guest bedroom and bath as well as two in the gym. “Music from any one of multiple… View this story
Basement • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Cool Homes

Unless you can build your home theater from scratch, it’s likely that you’ll have to jump a few hurdles to get a room into shape. Often, it’s a choice of the lesser of two evils. The owners of this theater had originally planned on converting a lower-level guest bedroom into their media area, but after a chat with the custom electronics pros at Audio Video Interiors in Medina, Ohio, they decided that the larger storage area was a better choice. “The bedroom wasn’t big enough… View this story
Basement • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Cool Homes

These homeowners and their friends don’t head out to a bar when they want to go have fun—they head downstairs. This family bar and game room is a fantastic place to kick back and have a good time, especially if you want to play cards, billiards or watch TV. Atlanta-area custom electronics pros Digital Interiors integrated the technology, which includes whole-home Crestron control and A/V distribution into this 2008 Atlanta Magazine Dream Home (video link), creating the bar and game room area just outside the… View this story
Basement • Rec/Play Room • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Cool Homes

Not everyone likes to see their audio and video equipment blinking and buzzing away in the corner. Nor do some people admire speakers set out on the floor. The owners of this renovated basement wanted absolutely nothing but the screen to be seen in their theater, posing an interesting challenge to the home theater designers at Media Rooms Inc. in West Chester, Penn. “One wall was the foundation with very little space between it and the new drywall, while the other three walls abutted living… View this story
Basement • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Home Theater • Cool Homes • Slideshows

Basements are a prime spot for home theaters. They’re away from the rest of house so you can decorate them as you like and crank the audio without bothering anyone. They’re also a blank canvas, giving you and your contractor the liberty to build them out however you want. On the flip side, there’s always a possibility that the room could flood, and with few (if any) windows or doorways, it could be difficult to escape the room should you need to leave the house… View this story
Basement • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Home Theater • Cool Homes