The Ultimate Home Cinema

Have you ever gone to the movies and thought about the many ways you could improve the experience? Those queues could be eliminated, and so could the attitude of the young kid at the door. It could be cleaner, the food is too expensive, and the only seat left by the time you get there is in the very first row where you strain your neck looking up at the screen. They call that entertainment?

The solution is not to go to the movies. Bring the movies home. Build the ultimate home cinema and make your home the place where all your friends come to for their cinematic enjoyment. If you’re making permanent changes to your home, just make sure you have some contents insurance, and a full refrigerator! The contents can be cold beer, chips, sandwich meats, or anything else you like to eat when you watch a movie. Ideally, you want to get a mini fridge to place next to your seat in the movie room. That way, you don’t need to move to get a refill of whatever you’re eating or drinking.

How do you begin building your home cinema? It starts with the TV. Ideally, a flat screen HD or plasma TV of 40 inches or more should be the centerpiece. Connect it to some external speakers and mount those around the room, creating a surround sound effect. You’ll also want a CD player and maybe a stereo receiver added on if you want to just listen to music. Finish it off with a gaming system of some kind if you’re into that type of thing, and you’ll be ready to start selecting furniture.

When you get to this step in creating your ultimate home cinema, you’ll need to assess the uses of the room you are working on. Will it be used solely for watching movies or is it going to double as a sitting room? Are adults going to be the only ones allowed in the room or should you also “kid-proof” it? Will anyone be sleeping in that room? Is it necessary to buy furniture that “converts” or “folds up” into something else?

The best move is to buy comfortable chairs for the principle residents of the house and then perhaps a sofa for when guests come over. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time in there, make sure the seats have good lower back support and that your remote controls are stored near your chair. You’ll want a universal to get the full home theatre experience, one that controls the TV, the lights, the stereo, and the game system with the click of a button.

The photos above show the luxe home theater in the 2010 Hampton Designer Showhouse.