Hello and welcome back to my Home Improvement and DIY Series. Today I am sharing some ideas for creating a vintage style home movie theater. My husband and I have discussed turning a narrow, but long room in the basement into a home theater. Right now, the room is wasted space and it is just being crammed full of excess junk from my hoards. Since I have always tried to abide by William Morris’ philosophy: “Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful” then it is time to do something about the mess and utilize the space to it’s fullest potential. *This post contains affiliate links.
The room shown above is similar to the size of our prospective home movie theater in the basement, so I know there is plenty of potential there. Before getting into the techy stuff about designing a home theater, here are some furniture and decorative accessory ideas I am considering for our home theater.
Vintage theater seats and stadium seats are hugely popular right now, especially in farmhouse and fixer upper style homes. I love the old character of the seats.
Last summer I purchased four vintage theater seats at a yard sale and all of my family found them to be surprisingly quite comfortable. Currently they are being used in our living room for extra seating. Even if we decide to use some type of more modern recliner, in our home theater, I will definitely want to have a few vintage theater seats in the home theater as decor.
Many of the seats are designed with a beautiful art deco aesthetic which is a reminder of a time when going to the theater was the thing to do.
There are so many fun vintage style movie themed accessories that can be used to give a home theater vintage flair. I love these pillows from Ballard Designs!
Nostalgia KPM508 Vintage 2.5-Ounce Kettle Popcorn Maker
Freshly popped popcorn is a must-have for movie nights, and what could be better decor in a home theater than vintage popcorn machine?
As I was browsing Pinterest looking for home movie theater ideas, I came across these cool DIY Pallet seats. I think my teenage son and his friends would love to kick back and relax on this type of seating (I am sure our movie theater will end up doubling as a video game room hangout!)
While I am excited about decorating our home theater in vintage style, it really won’t be a true home theater without the right equipment. I would love to be able to create a real movie experience using a quality projector and surround sound system. Fortunately, home theater equipment and soundproofing solutions is not always be hugely expensive or invasive.
Home Movie Theater Tech Tips
To ensure that we get the best movie experience money can buy, a 4K TV or projector is the gold standard. 4K offers HDR (High Dynamic Range) meaning that there is a wider gamut of colors available when compared to standard definition or even high definition. It also offers a greater level of clarity and detail with textures so vivid that they look like you could reach out and touch them. The trouble is that you have to either have a large screen or be sitting fairly close to really notice the difference. This guide is useful in determining how close you have to be to the screen and / or what screen size you need to really get the most out of your 4K experience.
Optoma HD143X 1080p 3000 Lumens 3D DLP Home Theater Projector
4K needs a robust broadband connection in order to stream smoothly and seamlessly. Check out Optimum.com for a range of solutions that not only incorporate high speed broadband but integrated subscription services like Netflix. The last thing you want is for your viewing to be mired by long pauses or blocky low resolution.
A 5.1 or 7.1 surround setup
I hate cords and tech showing, especially in a vintage style room. Mounting speakers on the walls or cables and cords tangled everywhere will always take away from the room’s aesthetic, but there are ways to mitigate this. Rear (or surround) speakers can be made wireless in a range of ways and in-wall speakers can be rendered virtually invisible. There are even a range of elegant solutions to make speaker cables invisible too. I love the idea of using open crown molding to hide cords.
Ideally a home theater setup will include a robust amp with a subwoofer and satellite speakers. These can then attach to a blu ray player, Apple TV box, PC games console or other devices to your amp. All in the box solutions are available for your convenience but these tend not to offer the same quality of sound.
Installing A Video Wall
Another great idea is to install a video wall in your home theater. Of course you can also use video walls in other areas of your home.
A Userful video wall would also be great for those times when the kids would rather play video games down in the home theater room or for watching your favorite sporting events.
There are so many creative ideas online and many different ways to make super cool home theater! Do any of you have a home theater in your basement or family room? I love hearing from you!
Thanks for visiting!
Amber
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