Movie Buffs know that there’s no greater joy than having a home theatre in the comfort of your home. What’s the point of paying $10.00 for a small popcorn when you can devour as much as you want in a spacious recliner? If you’re thinking of turning your basement, living room, or office into a cinematic experience, consider these tips before buying furniture or electronics.
Always Consider These 8 Things Before Spending Money
1. Soundproofing
Whether you plan on setting up your home theatre in the basement or in the living room, sound travels easily between drywall. Besides annoying your neighbors, your average home won’t have the best acoustics. To solve both problems, add soundproof acoustic wall panels, plush drapes, and long rugs to block out noise from getting out or coming into your home theatre.
2. Sectional Sofas
When searching for home theatre seats, you’ve probably seen fancy recliners with convenient cup holders. Although recliners are a great opinion, one of the points of a home theatre is to get away from single seating. Instead, add multiple sectional sofas that you can pull apart and move around with ease. Now, you’ll have the freedom to kick back, take a nap, or spread out.
3. Black Paint
There’s a reason why traditional cinemas don’t paint their walls neon yellow. While, yes, neon yellow can be distracting by itself, many brighter colors reflect light around the room. To improve your viewing experience, opt for neutral colors, like dark browns or beiges, but black paint is the best option. Make sure the paint isn’t glossy but uses a matte finish, or light will still be an issue.
4. Lighting
A home theatre is all about creating a dedicated viewing experience, and ambient light can help with that. Wall sconces, recessed lighting, LED lighting strips, or task lamps that utilize dimmers will give you the option to illuminate the room without becoming distracting. Never install hanging features because they’ll reflect light back on the screen or cause an annoying echo.
5. HDR TVs
In the not-so-distant past, movie projectors were the best option for movie quality, but now that isn’t the case. Recently the price of big TVs has fallen sharply while their performance has increased significantly, especially when it comes to HDR video. Projectors can’t keep up with the contrast ratio needed to display HDR correctly and have issues with brightness and light.
6. Surround Sound
All streaming sites give you the option to watch movies in 5.1 surround sound (5 speakers), but some can even display in 7.1 surround sound (7 speakers). If you want to upgrade your movie experience immediately, get a decent system with a receiver. A word of advice: avoid 5.1 systems that provide a soundbar as they are often needlessly more expensive than 7.1 models.
7. Popcorn Machine
If you miss the smell of fresh popcorn while at home, buy a popcorn machine with a cart for your theatre. Most of the modern popcorn carts are hands-free, add butter for you, and mix the oil and kernels perfectly. Many theatres will sell their own butter recipe to independence or allow you to contact their suppliers, but you can probably make better popcorn at home, anyway!
8. Decorate
Although decorating your space won’t improve the sound or picture quality, it can do wonders for immersion. If your home theatre is in the basement, you can add movie posters in the hallway towards the room. You can also install a cinema lightbox or marquee that displays what movie is playing downstairs. If you really want to step up your decor game, add a Silver Stanchion Posts Queue directly in front of your home theatre door or inside behind the designated seating area.
