Home Theater Room Design

Home Theater Room Design Thoughts

There are few basic things that affect the sound quality of your home theater.

• Room size and design: Sound waves bounce off hard surfaces and resonate throughout the room. A room that is all one size, without variations in wall and ceiling surfaces is going to sound different than a room with walls that stick out and a ceiling that isn't the same height throughout the room.
• Surfaces in the room: Hard surfaces bounce sound waves around, creating an echo, while soft surfaces absorb the sound, making it dull.
• Furnishings: Furniture placement is also important in home theater room design because pieces absorb and effectively block the sound from traveling around the room.
• Sound system placement: There are plenty of theories on sound system placement, but you want to make sure your home theater system speakers aren't blocked by walls or furniture.

Basic Home Theater Design

So, you have a finished room that you want to turn into a home theater and don't know where to begin? Well, here are some basics on the overall room design without getting too caught up in the technical jargon of acoustics and how sound waves travel.

• Furniture: Experts warn against using high-backed chairs because they absorb sound. Recliners aren't favored either because they say that by reclining backward moves a person's head and ears below the optimal sound level.
• Consider a soft wall surface: Hard walls that are all the same length can wreak havoc on sound quality because the sound bounces around from hard surface to hard surface, creating reverberation and harsh noise. This can be solved by softening the walls with decorative drapes. Think of the thick velvet walls of movie theaters way back when. You could cover all of your walls with soft drapes or maybe just one or two depending on your style preference.
• Lighting: The lighting in your home theater comes from two sources, electrical lights and natural lights. If you are planning a home theater in a room that usually gets a lot of natural sunlight during the day, you will want to purchase heavy drapes to block the sunlight, which can cause glare. As for the electrical lights, install a few wall sconces or recessed lighting on dimmer switches.
• Paint: Always go with a darker colored paint for your home theater. It best replicates the dark walls of commercial theaters.

Speaker Placement

Even the best designed home theaters fall short of the overall theater feel if the speakers aren't properly placed. Here are some guidelines for speaker placement for an average "out of the box" home theater speaker system.

• Place the center speaker directly above or below the television. The center speaker should also be centered in relation to the television and not off to one side or the other.
• Put the front speakers at the left and right side of the center speaker and television. You want these speakers to angle in slightly, as if they are pointing to the center chair in the room.
• Place surround speakers on the left and right side of the main seating area.
• The surround sound back speaker is placed in the rear of the home theater, directly opposite and at the same level of the front center speaker.
• Place your back surround sound speakers so they are angled in toward the center of the room and facing toward the front side speakers. They don't have to be directly facing toward each other, but do have to face toward the center of the room.

The most important element of home theater design is the acoustics. If you aren't very well versed in this area, consider buying a book to learn more about how to make your home theater look and feel like a commercial movie theater.