No St. Louis basement finishing project would be complete without a home theater system added to the design.
For most of our customers a new basement means new opportunities to entertain and a home theater is usually the focal point for many of their events.
To truly utilize your space, your systems must be carefully planned in order to accommodate your vision for your theater.
There is more to basement theater design than simply bolting a flat screen to your wall and adding a few speakers.
Do you want speakers in your ceiling? Do you want speakers in your walls? Do you want your T.V. to not face any windows or doors looking outside? These are all important questions you need to be asking yourself when thinking about your home theater set-up.
Here are 5 tips to help you plan your home theater:
1. Seating Arrangement for Your Home Theater
There are many ways to design great home theater seating. Some will prefer individual recliners while others will prefer a curved sectional sofa.
No matter what you choose, first make sure it’s comfortable.
Nobody will watch a two and a half hour movie if they can’t relax in their seat. Second, make sure your choice fits within the design and dimensions of your project.
2. Component Selection for Your A/V Equipment
You’ll want to have all your theater components/electronics selected early on in the design process and certainly before you start construction. This ensures that you’ll be able to effectively hide any unwanted wires. Nobody wants dangling extension cords in their basement.
For example, if you decide to use a projector instead of a TV, you can design everything around that component to make sure the projector is housed properly and none of its wires are exposed.
The same goes for any media players like blu ray, dvd players, and video game systems. Even the type of TV you choose will influence the design.
Do you want your TV hanging or on a stand? Knowing what you want beforehand helps you design a place for everything to stay in and keeps your basement clean and manageable.
3. Lighting Design and Specifications for Home Theaters
Lighting can be a very important aspect to your basement home theater design.
Whether you have a walk out or not will essentially determine not only the type of lighting you will get, but the placement of it as well. Being aware of where your natural light is coming from in the basement can also influence where you will place your TV, as to avoid any unwanted glare during daytime viewing.
4. Food Prep and Convenience
If you are putting a home theater in your basement, chances are you are not going to want to run back and forth to your upstairs kitchen for refreshments. Having some sort of wetbar downstairs can help avoid these unwanted trips back and forth while you are in the middle of watching something in your home theater.
Even if you don’t have a ton of space in your basement you can still design an area with a small refrigerator, a couple of cabinets for food storage, and a microwave.
If you do have the space then you can start adding things like a stove, a popcorn machine, or even a whole bar area. The choices are endless.
5. Speaker System Design and Specifications
No basement theater would be complete without a surround sound system implemented into the design. These systems can start with only four speakers and move up to well over a dozen. Space will be a factor in your choice. Also whether you want all your speakers in the walls and ceiling, or if you want some of them free standing will influence your design.
Spending some time researching these areas on the front end will save you tons of headaches in the middle of construction and will also keep unforeseeable costs to a minimum.
The more prepared you are the better your finished product will be.
If you are interested in adding a theater to your basement remodeling project in the St. Louis metro area, then please contact us today and let us show you what Marvelous Basements can do.