What activities does your family enjoy when they want to spend time together? Board games are perfect for a family that relishes friendly competition. More outdoor-oriented families might enjoy riding bikes around the park. But watching a movie together has been a standard family bonding activity ever since the first picture shows.
But several things can ruin a day at the cinema. Long ticket lines can fray your patience, and people talking into their cellphones or squalling infants could prevent you from enjoying the film. You can avoid all these annoyances by setting up a home movie theater.
Before you roll out the red carpet, you’ll need to prepare the room and install the hardware that will transform a room in your house into a cinema.
Setting the Stage
A great home movie theater needs the right acoustics and lighting. You’ll have more fun watching movies if you don’t have to hear the noise of cars rumbling by or the roar of your neighbor’s lawnmower. Great acoustics can also make sounds richer and easier to distinguish. You can begin improving the sound quality of your home theater by installing either a second layer of drywall or replacing the walls with acoustic boards. You should also replace and hollow-core doors, which amplify sounds, to solid doors for better soundproofing. Have contractors install plush carpeting, especially if you have wooden, linoleum, or tiled floors.
Curtains made of heavy fabrics can block out any sound and light that can come from the room’s windows. Motorized versions, like those from licensed dealers of Hunter Douglas products, can even give your home movie theater an elegant and expensive atmosphere. At the end of the movie, you can simply use a remote to brighten up the room. Look for any other place where light leaks in, like under the door, and cover them up. If you like, install dimmer switches for additional control over the room’s lighting. Once the room has the best acoustics and light level, start shopping for projection hardware and other furnishings.
Fountains of Light
The centerpiece of your home theater is the projector. Look for devices with a brightness that’s as high as 2.500 lumens and a lamp life of ideally about 4,000 hours. A projector with these specifications can project images you can see even in daylight and last for a long time. You can settle for projectors with 2,000-lumen specifications as long as your home theater is reasonably light-proofed.
Although you can project your movies on a blank wall, installing a projector solely for film-watching can make you feel like you’re in a theater. You can further the illusion of being in an actual cinema by using red velvet wallpaper on the walls and installing elegant sconce lighting. Upholster plush reclining armchairs with red velvet to make luxurious, comfortable, and theater-appropriate seats.
No movie theater would be complete without a top-notch popcorn maker to provide you with delicious puffy kernels during your viewing sessions. Consider the quality of the kernels a popcorn maker churns out, as well as how easy it is to use before you place one in your movie room.
Once the room is ready, and the projector has warmed up, it’s time to roll out the red carpet, put your best clothes on, and huddle with your family. It’s time to watch a movie.
