Home Theater

With so many choices for TVs and projector screens and numerous possibilities for playback and audio, there isn't any reason why you shouldn’t have a home theater of your own. If you're planning on building a home theater room, here are some tips on how to do it right:

Channel the home theater mindset. Ideally, a home theater room should be a dedicated space for home entertainment, tucked away from other areas of the house and used solely for pure entertainment. The reason is simple: a home theater is notorious for producing a lot of noise, so you want to keep it away from the rest of the house. You'd also want a room that will offer you the least distractions.

Building a home theater room If you're building your home theater from scratch, it would be a good idea to make it rectangular in shape and rather large, with high ceilings and dark walls. The best home theater rooms make you feel as if you are in a real theater, only smaller. To make sure the sounds don’t wake up people down the street, you might want to think about adding insulation to keep the acoustics confined within the walls.

As for windows, that's really up to you. A home theater shouldn’t have windows; you can ensure proper ventilation by using a blower and an air conditioning unit. However, if you wish to have windows, simply cover them up with dark or heavy draperies. For a real theater look, add carpeting and dim lights.

Once you have installed your home theater equipment, get some comfy chairs. A good sofa will do nicely but if you prefer the look and feel of a real theater, install row seats, with the last row standing on a riser to keep it a little bit higher than the rest.

An advantage of using an unfinished room for your home theater is that you can make the necessary adjustments without rebuilding anything. You can also place the outlets in the right places and keep unsightly cables out of the way.

Using a room in the house Any room will do – attic, basement, den, family room, even your closet – as long as there is enough space and you can move in your equipment without throwing anybody out. If you can, choose a rectangular room over a square room. Rectangles are usually better at handling acoustics than squares and if the room has high ceilings, that's even better. But again, don’t worry. You can still tweak your equipment to make any room ideal for a home theater.