Recently Filed in Family Room

These homeowners had an odd shaped room, one that wasn’t built to be a dedicated theater like a basement ... but an old entertainment system that really needed an upgrade. After finding custom electronics pro Union Place, of Excelsior, Minn., they turned it into a gem of a theater, complete with constant image height screen setup for really immersing in CinemaScope aspect ratio films. “The homeowner was interested in the latest technology – constant height cinema. He had a large family and wanted to be… View this story
Family Room • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Cool Homes

Like a lot of installations we see, the homeowner in this case wanted the technology hidden. In this case, though, there’s a fantastic light show that does often take center stage, so who would want to see other technology? Well, OK, that might be saying a bit much, seeing as how there’s a 61-inch Runco plasma TV in this great room ... but it only pops up when called upon to deliver its great images. The team at Ohio-based Audio Video Interiors made sure that… View this story
Family Room • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Cool Homes

When it comes to northern California living, nature and beauty often collide. The challenge for designers and architects is bringing those inside the house—something even custom electronics professionals need to keep in mind, too. That’s what San Rafael-based Rolling Thunder Group deals with all the time. When it came to the area’s Fischer-Devereaux residence, the company had a helping hand from one of the owners. “Initially we were brought in to look at a non-functioning media room,” says Rolling Thunder Group’s Jeff Symonds. “Eventually we… View this story
Family Room • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Cool Homes

Sometimes you feel like a TV nut, sometimes you don’t—and sometimes you don’t even want to see the thing. The owners of this modern colonial home didn’t want a blank big screen standing in the way of quaint window views when they weren’t watching TV in their formal living room. “There’s a large bank of windows where they wanted to put the TV, and they wanted to be able to look outside when they were listening to music,” says Paul Diggin, project principal for custom… View this story
Flat Panel • Cabinets • TV Mounts • Family Room • Cool Homes

The man of this house may have asked for a “man cave,” but this audio/video hunter-gatherer has been perfectly happy to share the benefits of this bar and media room addition. “This project was part of a larger renovation/addition project. He somewhat jokingly requested a ‘man cave,’ but honestly, both husband and wife were very interested and involved in the concept and design of the space,” says Bryant Moore of North Carolina-based custom electronics installation firm Moore Audio Design. “It is used, equally, both as… View this story
Family Room • Media Room • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Cool Homes

When this home overlooking historic Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., was originally purchased, it was already equipped with a distributed audio system, volume controls in various rooms, a multidisc DVD/CD player and a multitude of remote controls. But over the course of a decade, those technologies became outdated, and the homeowners grew disgruntled with their system’s inability to keep pace with new entertainment options. Wires were strung about the house for Internet access. TVs had poor and intermittent reception. The in-coming satellite antenna cabling was… View this story
Family Room • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Home Theater • Enhancements • Cool Homes • Slideshows

A dual-viewing setup provides the best of both worlds: traditional high-def viewing on a flat-panel TV and special movie-time viewing on a large projection screen. But that can crowd a high-traffic family room, right? Not in this sleek space designed for Andrew and Diane Kahn’s San Francisco area home, where the A/V is plentiful and minimalist at the same time. “We had some pretty stringent guidelines from Diane,” says Jeff Symonds of systems installation company Rolling Thunder Group in San Rafael, Calif. “She didn’t want… View this story
Family Room • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Home Theater • Cool Homes • Slideshows

It may look like a contemporary family room with a surround-sound system. But this “Texas industrial deco” space doubles as a recording studio for homeowner David Ronn’s rock band, Plastic Farm Animals. Oh, and there’s the plastic and fiberglass Silver Surfer hanging on the wall. The Silver Surfer has always been one of David’s favorite comic book characters, so when the “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” came out, David went to eBay and got his hands on the item used to promote the… View this story
Family Room • Media Room • Themed Theaters • Home Theater • Audio • Cool Homes • Slideshows

When homeowners Michael and Jackie Moloney want to escape from their Long Island home for a night in the city, they can go right to the hustle and bustle of midtown Manhattan. Or at least they can look down on all of it from their 50th-floor apartment in Times Square. With floor-to-ceiling windows providing extraordinary views that extend from Central Park into New England on a clear day, the Moloneys might have preferred to face their L-shaped couch in the opposite direction. Though the current… View this story
Family Room • Home of the Year Awards 2008 • Home Theater • Cool Homes • Slideshows

He wanted a system that would blow his friends away. She wanted an entertainment setup that would be easy for her and the kids to operate. The owners of this contemporary media room found middle ground by calling in the experts at Beyond Home Theater in Santa Monica, CA. “This room would serve as the family’s main entertainment space, but it would also function as an area to socialize and hang out in,” says company owner Terence Mulholland. In keeping with this multipurpose concept, Mulholland… View this story
Digital Media Servers • Remote Controls • Surveillance • Family Room • Home of the Year Awards 2008 • Home Theater • Cool Homes • Slideshows

If the editors of Electronic House had this family room, we might never get off of the couch. The relaxing earth tones and casually elegant style echo the flowing, Prairie-style architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. And it’s all framed by sumptuous mahogany columns, red oak floors and maple walls. Then there’s the partial wall, sitting like an island several feet in front of a bank of floor-to-ceiling windows. The wall is open between the mahogany columns at the top and bottom, making it appear to… View this story
Acoustics • Shades and Blinds • Family Room • Home of the Year Awards 2008 • Home Theater • Cool Homes • Slideshows

Q. We don’t have a dedicated room for a home theater. Is there a right way to set up a family room to be almost as good? - Aimee, Ishpeming, MI A.We don’t really do “media rooms” or “entertainment centers,” but when I do come across someone that says, “I don’t have a space for a projector and screen or a big plasma display,” that just makes me want to try harder. Think out of the box. A decent retractable drop down screen, with cable-tensioned… View this story
Family Room • Home Theater • Ask a Pro