Media room design: ideas, furniture and home theater decor

Entertainment center furniture ideas

2010-10-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

Entertainment centers these days are a dime a dozen in every sense except the price. Starting at $100 they can be found "wherever TVs are sold", not to mention regular furniture stores. But what if you need something unique, stylish or fitting your theme-based home theater? There are entertainment centers available online that can capture your imagination. I tried to provide large images (accessible with a click, check them out, they are stunning), but don't forget to come back to this page to see more.

Grand Europian Style (at the top of the article) with concealed media storage (behind the fluted columns!).

This is a tropical style entertainment center - complete with woven rattan door and drawer inserts.

This period-looking entertainment armoire will work best in a room that is only occasionally used to watch videos. You will not have to constantly stare and a huge black screen in the middle of your home library or study.

This Italian Riviera entertainment center has a beautiful layered look that points to excellent craftsmanship.

This entertainment center brings Italian Renaissance style to your media room. Some of the features include a laminated serving shelf for wine opening and drink mixing.

This 4-piece entertainment center from Parker House is made in rural European style and has such unlikely features as hanging wine glass racks and reversible shelves with wine storage.

This impressive wall system deserves to have some of its features listed here, because they are not entirely obvious from the picture.

Multiple wiring ports including large cable access
Removable back panels for easy access to components
Surge protected power strips in each pier cabinet
Shelving engineered for easy transit of cables between components
Case levelers accessible from inside the bottom door compartments
Hand grips engineered in all pieces to make moving furniture easy and safe
Expandable bridge and shelf accommodates most rear-projection televisions
Rheostat controlled lighting operates pier cabinet and light bridge fixtures
Speaker cloth inserts for left and right channel or sub-woofer speakers in each pier unit
All-media storage pullout libraries provide access to CDs, DVDs, and video cassettes
Ventilated audio compartments for heat dissipation prolongs furniture and component life

This sleek-looking entertainment center features a lot of storage for your media, without creating any clutter.

Made out of metal, this white entertainment center has a stunning modern look.

This antique-looking entertainment center is actually hand-painted. It is made with solid wood and brass finished hardware.

Media room furniture: comfort and beyond in the home theater room

2010-05-20T06:19:00.000-07:00

When one mentions media room furniture the fist thing that comes to mind is chairs. Big cushy, comfortable chairs that any reasonable human being would love to spend a couple of hours in (as the Berkline Reno seating pictured above). A definite staple in the world of home theater seating. And certainly, everyone seems to be an expert on what is comfortable: it just feels right! I will leave it to the masses to decide what particular chairs, sofas, recliners etc. are comfortable. There are, however, additional things to consider when purchasing furniture for the media room or TV room.

It is essential that no piece of furniture in the media room creates unwanted glare that will interfere with the viewing experience. Just because something looks good and feels comfortable it does not mean that it's the right thing for a home theater room! Leather chairs, for instance, should be banned from such environments (unless you only have one row of seats). Microfiber will look just as good, but the light will not be bouncing all over the room, causing fatigue and disturbing the sense of vision in a manner not intended by film directors. This principle goes across the board. If you are buying tables, trays, media storage units avoid polished surfaces or cover them whenever possible.
Avoid furniture that causes noise pollution. You may not notice this in a crowded show room of a furniture store, but many recliners can really disturb home theater audiences. Consider ottomans or over-sized chairs that provide plenty of space for someone to stretch out comfortably. Naturally, you should avoid swiveling and rocking chairs.
Even the heaviest of home theater furniture pieces can slide across the room over time, changing the configuration of the seating area that you have originally created. Unless you have plans to use your media room for purposes other than watching movies, consider properly installing the chairs. This may limit you to only certain choices of models and types of furniture, but if you are going for a recognizable "theater" look, it is essential.

Home theater rooms - some more pictures with commentaries

2010-04-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite home theater design in this entire set of pictures. All the components are surrounded by a traditional painting style frame. It works very well functionally, because you can easily connect all the components of the home theater system, hiding the cords behind the frame. You also get plenty of storage for your DVDs. A soft rug on the hard wood floor helps to keep the sound from bouncing around the room.

I like everything here in terms of media room decor except the floor and the walls. The floor is too shiny and prone to distorting the sound. Exposed brick is cold and uninviting. But the entire media room looks uncluttered. The stands for the back speakers are substantial and solid.

One obvious problem is the lack of central seating. Really bad for surround sound. And I hope the wood paneling does not rattle.

Notice that the projector is retractable. This must have cost a bundle to install. The location of the side and back speakers is VERY wrong. They should not be on the ceiling, for goodness sake!

I like the lighting here, as long as it is on dimmers. It is essential to control the intensity of light, because even different movies can make you want to change how to room looks and feels. This home theater really needs a large rug in the middle.

The seating is all wrong. Only a couple of seats are actually facing the screen. Using a footstool for the central speaker makes everything look cheap.

Not bad, but must we have those chandeliers hanging over our heads??

See also:
Home media room pictures

Home theater accessories - a master list!

2010-04-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

I appears as if no home theater accessories are what you'd call "must have's." If your media room is set up right and you have a movie or show that you want to watch - you're in business. However, if you want to make an event out of it and invite friends and family you will need to make things a little bit more fun. I came up with a list of home theater accessories. Just go through it and decide what you want and then look around in order to buy those items. Obviously, if I mention a popcorn machine it implies that you need popcorn. But you already knew that anyway.

Candy Dispensers
Chicken Wing Buckets
Concession Signs
Cotton Candy Machines
Gumball Machines
Hot Dog Machines
Illuminated Poster Cases
Ketchup Dispensers
Machine Carts & Stands
Marquee Signs
Movie Poster Frames
Movie Posters
Movie Theater Barriers
Movie Theater Drink Cups
Movie Theater Style Soda Cups
Movie Theater Velour Ropes
Nacho Supplies
Popcorn Bags
Popcorn Machines
Popcorn Tubs & Boxes
Retro Diner Tableware
Snack Trays
Snow Cone Machines
Tickets
Vintage Movie Posters
Vintage Theater Signs
Warmers & Dispensers

Home theater cinema - dedicated, detached and high-end

2009-07-31T08:50:00.000-07:00

This is a high end idea for a media room. In fact, I don't think the term "media room" even applies here... If you have a lot of land, consider either converting an existing detached structure (a garage, an oar house, a barn - what have you) into a classy stand alone home theater or creating a new building with the same purpose. The advantages of such an approach are many:

You can stay away from any sources of noise.
No need to worry about the noise generated by the home theater itself.
The new building can be positioned to minimize daylight.
You can entertain various groups of people without having to really open up your house to anyone!

Depending on the climate in your area, a passage could be created from your main dwelling. A separate parking lot is also a plus.

See also:
Media room pictures

Mini fridge for the home theater

2009-06-12T11:50:00.000-07:00

>Here are a few factors to consider when you are choosing an important home theater accessory - a fridge.

Avoid shiny surfaces. A wood finish is preferable to steel, chrome or anything that can reflect light.
It must be very quiet. Better yet, make sure you can easily turn the unit off with an accessible switch. As long as all you keep in it is drinks, this should be no problem.
Consider installing the fridge in a specifically designed enclosed space. This will resolve the problem of shiny surfaces. Also, you can use extra sound-proofing materials - they can even double as a way of insulating the unit.
If you have a lot of seating in your home theater, consider installing a couple of mini-fridges. This will cut down on excessive walking, talking and passing of the drinks during the show. Smaller units will also be a lot easier to fit into whatever design you are planning. A big fridge really only belongs in the kitchen!
Consider if a cooler would serve your needs just as well. You will cut down on electricity, the noise and possible interference with the audio signal.

Replica phonograph for your steampunk themed TV room.

2009-05-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

I am not really all that keen on themed home theaters. It is highly unlikely that anyone ever intends to watch only movies that go with a certain media room decor. At the very best, you will eventually become blind to all the niceties you spend lots of money on, so only visitors can truly appreciate your efforts. But maybe that's worth it to you?

Anyway, I am rather partial to steampunk design principles. However, my interpretation of steampunk is a bit demanding. I want to see brand new objects, designed according to the aesthetics of the age of steam. They must be well-made and fully functional. If you share these lofty ideas, here is an item that would be a great addition to a suitable media room. This phonograph is a replica of and old Gramophone, but apart from a turntable it features a CD player and AM/FM radio. The replica is produced by Technosonic.

If you don't need modern audio capabilities, this replica RCA (sold on Amazon) is perhaps even more stylish. It comes complete with the famous "His Master's Voice" logo. The design is from the early 1900s (1902-1916, to be more precise). Of course, it would be silly to use this little gem on a regular basis to play 78 rpm records. But it suffices to know that it would work, should you ever have to use it!

Home theater power conditioner and battery backup

2009-03-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

Home theater power conditioner is probably something you have to worry about only if you have a very serious system in place. Also known as AC regenerators, these devices take AC wall power converts it to DC power, and then reconverts it back to "clean" AC power. The idea behind this is to protect your equipment and possibly improve the quality of image/sound. A backup battery is something that you should think about if you live in an area with frequent blackouts and generally unstable electric power. Not a bad thing to have if you want to make sure that your devices do not have to be reinitialized every time there is a power outage. Both these features (power conditioning and battery backup), along with voltage regulation are combined (rather inexpensively!) in APC AV H15 Home Theater 1500VA Power Filter and Power Conditioner:

From APC's power engineering labs comes the H Type Power Conditioner, a single unit that delivers pure, stable power for high performance AV. The preferred choice of power protection for high performance home entertainment systems, the H Type Power Conditioner combines surge protection, isolated noise filtering, and voltage regulation. Finally, there's a solution that eliminates stress on component power supplies, eradicates EMI/RFI and voltage fluctuation as a source of AV signal degradation, and protects equipment from damaging surges, spikes, voltages fluctuations, and lightning.

See also:
ButtKicker home theater subwoofer - audio connection to the action
Architectural speakers (inwall speakers) - pros and cons

Hip and chic TVs - home theater meets fashion

2009-02-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

This may be one of the most overlooked aspects of media room design: the actual TVs! It is usually taken for granted that the TV you are picking for your home media room is the right size, preferably 1080p, has a nice viewable angle and so on. Modern TVs are simply indistinguishable from each other: big black rectangles. Very rarely a little bit of silver or white is introduced. This, however, is only the impression you will get when visit the show rooms. Some manufacturers have limited edition TVs that can easily become true centerpieces of your design.

A very simple route to achieve an ultra modern and almost futuristic view is to make a very thin TV, and many companies have just such sets. Such is the Hitachi's 1.5 series:

JVC has a similar series named Procision. Slim TVs are also available from Sharp, LG and Panasonic.

Samsung has a line called Touch of Color. Here is the description:
While the crystal-like bezel frame catches light beautifully, it actually reduces reflection of light off the bezel. And since the rich red color is injection molded for a blown glass effect, instead of spray painted, there is less environmental impact. It's easy on your eyes as well as on the environment.

Sharp Aquos SE94 is said to have a "cornerstone design." This involves " textured finish with eye-catching corner accents and detachable bottom speakers to match modern home décors."

Swappable bezels (similar to software skins and cell phone panels that were popular not too long ago) are also used in Sony's XBR series.

In most cases, these hip TV sets are just as attractive in terms of tech features as their black rectangle counterparts. If you want to make your TV stand out, check out what's available! You may be surprised by the ever expanding options.

Home theater speakers in stereo mode: design perspective

2009-01-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

Most owners of surround systems know that they can play music CDs or enjoy great quality from other sources of stereo sound, such as satellite radio or even turn-tables. The surround home theater system can attempt to use all the speakers you have installed, or you can disable the surround mode. The second option probably produces better sound that is more true to the original recording, because the center speaker is disabled. One problem, however, remains. Your home theater system is calibrated and focused with the big screen as its main feature. Now, do you really want to sit in front of a blank screen listening to your favorite music? Probably not. In fact, there is something very unsettling about this. And yet, this is what you would have to do, if you want to hear the music at its best. There is a solution, however. You can set up a mode in which the home theater system will use the rear and the side (left or right speakers), thus focusing the audio on a different corner of the room. Add comfortable seating in that corner and you have a whole new way of enjoying music in your home.

Home media room - how to justify having one in your house

2009-01-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

It is quite obvious that anyone who has doubts about their immediate financial situation should stay away from major home improvement projects, whatever they might be. For the rest of us, here are a few ideas that should help justify upgrading to a better movie/sports watching experience at home.

1. A lot of people would like to have a larger TV screen. I believe it is a mistake to get the biggest set you can afford and plop it in the focal center of whatever room you use to watch TV all the time. Here is why. At this point in time we have a great discrepancy in the quality of television signals that we feed into our TVs. There is Blu-ray, HD broadcasts, regular DVDs, SD digital broadcasts, regular cable channels, VCR tapes etc. The problem is that although Blu-ray discs will look good on pretty much any size TV screen you have, blowing up the picture of a regular SD cable broadcast would reveal extremely low quality (compared to Blu-ray). The simplest way to deal with that is to avoid watching such sources of the screen that is too large. This, in my opinion, justifies creating a separate media room where you will only watch high-quality content.

2. Human psychology is such that we get used to everything. It is a very simple fact that once you start watching everything on the biggest TV screen you can get very soon this will not feel special to you at all. Imagine if you spent several hours at the movie theater every night watching everything from movies, to nightly news. This would get old very soon. I believe that home movie experience is something that must be cherished and kept as something special. Using a huge TV or a projection screen for all your viewing needs will quickly cheapen this experience. So, the solution is to have a home media room and (also important!) not to use it too much.

3. This is perhaps a minor point, but things like that do add up on the scale of the entire countly. The bigger the screen, the more energy it consumes. If you are watching a news report about energy crises and global warming on a "65 plasma TV you are not a credit to humanity (unless you are strangely interested in Katy Curic's dental work). Limit the use of a bigger screen for special occasions. You will be happy you did (see above).

Home theater - choosing the best room

2009-01-20T11:18:00.000-08:00

Granted, not everybody has the option of choosing between several rooms in order to designate a potential home theater. But even if you have a choice of only two spaces, these tips may be helpful. Also, you may see a great deal of problems with the room you have already set your heart on before even installing all the equipment, saving yourself a monumental audio-visual failure.

1. Do not pick a room that is too big. Generally speaking, the larger a room the more difficult it is to properly fill it with sound. By selecting a large room for the home theater you increase the chances of having to invite a professional or spend a long time figuring out the best placement for the speakers and additional elements that can improve the sound. Also, the size of the room will determine the size of the screen. Not a big problem if you were going with a projection system, but if your plan was to use a plasma TV the price tag may turn out not too accommodating.

2. Avoid perfectly square rooms. They tend to produce some strange sounds. A rectangle would be ideal, especially if you are going to place the screen on the narrow side. The wall behind the screen should not have any windows or doors.

3. It should be relatively easy to keep the room dark. You may have to install curtains on the windows.

4. It is great if the walls are muted. Dark gray or black walls are best. Avoid shiny surfaces, they can create a lot of glare. Be prepared to install drapes throughout the room to absorb ambient light.

5. The ceiling should not be too high. Sound can become trapped in the upper part of the room, it can also resonate and echo. Sometimes hanging drapes or partitions can create a smaller space in a large room.

6. You want to have a good rug in the media room. Hardwood floors, so desirable in the kitchen, would be a glaring nightmare in a home theater. The sound would also bounce from a tile or wood floor.

Media room lighting

2009-01-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

Avoid natural ambient light in your home theater room. Lighting is very important in any theater, and there is no reason why you should allow something unpredictable and unmanagable as outside light to ever enter the room where you watch movies and sports. The simplest way to address this issue is to have no windows at all. This is a big reason why basements are such a good choice for creating media room. If this option is unavailable, install heavy curtains or blackout shades (they will also cut off the outside noise). Motorized drapes may be useful, because they would make it easier to convert the media room to serve other purposes during the day.
If possible, integrate the lighting into the entire home theater system. This means that your media room will benefit from having a designer work on the lighting early on. Ideally, you want to have control over the sources of light in the media room from the same remote that you use to manipulate your electronic equipment.
It is a very good idea to have several lighting presents. This way the lighting in the room can be changed quickly to accommodate the needs of the moment. Otherwise you will be going from switch to switch, changing the levels. Yes, the levels, which brings us to the next point.
You should always have a few lights at low levels when you are watching a movie. Just enough to see your snacks and so on. Soft recessed lighting will suffice, and there is no need to worry about any interferance with the TV or projector, because the contrast between the screen and the rest of the room will remain just fine.
Consider using floor level track lights, like the ones you see in a movie theater.
Avoid using shiny fabrics and materials in your home theater furniture. A shiny leather chair will reflect the light and create unwanted glare. Microfiber furniture is probably the best solution.

Architectural speakers (inwall speakers) - pros and cons

2009-01-07T12:36:00.000-08:00

If the design you chose for your media room is miles away from the ordinary techno look of today's electronic devices, something you might want to do is conceal the speakers. This is achieved by using so called architectural speakers (or inwall speakers, which sounds a lot less sophisticated somehow). These speakers can be easily recessed in the walls and cabinetry. Sometimes they can even be painted, completing the illusion that the sound is coming from the walls. Architectural speakers are manufactured by some of the leading brands, so techically there is no need to skip on the quality of the sound in your home media room (read below, however). Now, add to this the fact that inwall speakers greatly reduce clutter and you pretty much have the pro side of this argument. How about the cons?

It is not easy to install architectural speakers. Holes must be made and cords have to be laid down. Once the deed is done you cannot move these speakers. You better be sure that they are exactly where you want them to be.
In a traditional speaker the enclosure ("the box") is carefully designed to resonate just the right way thereby improving the performance of the device. Architectural speakers have to rely upon the surrounding material of the wall, so the sound is not always ideal.
Loud sound coming from the inwall speakers can resonate through the walls (and the halls!) of your house. This may even end up in some objects hanging on the wall to rattle or shift.

So, while the manufacturers are trying to find workarounds for these issues, why not use a combined approach, and install some speakers in the wall, while leaving a few in their natural state, so to speak?

Home theater decor - a simple and flexible solution

2009-01-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

This may not be an idea that would work for everybody, but depending on the general design of your home theater the results may be stunning. Here is a story first.

A few years ago my co-worker stopped by a local video store on the day after Halloween. They were about the get rid of what was the main item in their decorative approach for the spooky season: life-size cutouts of characters from some classic horror movies. There was a Frankenstein, Nosferatu and the green monster holding tight a frightened, though ultimately curious, damsel. Ok, I am not sure if they were really life size :) My friend was able to get all of these cutouts at no charge and they were used to decorate our rather informal office for quite a while.

So, here is the deal. No matter how formal or conceptual your home theater room is you can always quickly add some interest to it by adding an occasional movie star's cutout. Yes, I know, many people like to use posters in some areas of their media rooms (where they are out of sight when you are actually watching a movie). This design move largely follows what you would normally see in a video store or at a movie theater. A life-size cutout, however, does not have a permanent status in any design. It is clearly an ad-hoc item, but the curious thing about cutouts is that, despite being 2d they provide some depth and reality to any space.

Another great thing is that you can have an enture collection of movie-star cutouts. They can be stored very easily and you can mix and match them for whatever party or function you are intending to host in you home theater room. Use them as conversation starters or excellent photo opportunities for your guests. And, of course, when you have parties during sports events, it is possible to get cutouts of popular players!

As an example check out this Elvis Presley Life Size Cutout

See also:

Home media rooom pictures
Media room furniture
Home theater accessories - a master list

ButtKicker home theater subwoofer - audio connection to the action

2009-01-01T17:03:00.000-08:00

When a self-respecting (and proud) owner of a home room wants to show off his media room the weapon of choice most usually happens to be in the category of "movies where stuff blows up." Certainly, most modern home theater systems have adequate subwoofers that can shake the floor a bit. But is that going to be enough for you? No buts about it. It won't! You need the very best of what modern ground shaking technology can offer. You need a tremor in the box, an explosion in a can - ButtKicker BKA300 or something comparable. For about $300 this little gadget will reproduce the lowest of the low when it comes to audio frequencies. A wireless design makes it very easy to install in any media room.

See also:
Architectural speakers (inwall speakers) - pros and cons

Home media room idea for the future

2008-12-29T11:39:00.000-08:00

Here is one very cool idea that, I believe, will eventually find its implementation on the home media room market.

It is no secret that most people who install media rooms in their homes have some disposable income. Usually this indicates that premium products may find a comfortable niche here, even though at first the idea seems cost-prohibitive. Here is what I am talking about.

If you have visited a regular movie theater in the past two years you have noticed that many feature films are now shown in digital format. What's more interesting, however, there is a technology in place that allows movie theaters to play films that are beamed down from the satellite. The only logical step would be to open up this service to home subscribers. This way any well-to-do home media room owner/movie lover can pay to view some new theatrical releases at the same time they are actually shown in regular theaters! Obviously, there would be a very high ticket price, but it is impossible to beat the convenience.

See also:
Media room furniture

Media room pictures

2008-12-28T17:12:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of notable designs for a home media room (home theater, TV room).

See also:

10 most common home theater mistakes

2008-12-27T08:23:00.000-08:00

A little do's and don'ts tutotial:

Media Room Must Have's

2008-12-27T06:14:00.001-08:00

Large screen TV. The size depends on the room. There is a tendency to use projection systems, but I personally do not like the quality. Plus, using a projection system significantly reduces your lighting options for the media room. Besides, there is additional maintenance involved - you have to replace those bulbs from time to time! Plasma TVs generally are considered a better choice for home theaters, because they tend to provide better blacks, but modern LCDs are catching up very successfully. Also, try to get a 1080p model. You will not regret it later.
Comfortable media room furniture. Armchairs, love seats - what have you. I implore you not to use the seats that emulate as closely as possible the seats you encounter at the movie theaters. Why? Unless you can obtain the seats from a demolished theater which somehow have a great sentimental value, stick with what's most confortable!
A refrigerator. Yep. No matter how close the kitchen is you can always have a little fridge to keep your drinks cool. Just make sure you don't get a noisy one. You can even turn it off for the duration of the movie, if you wish.
A surround sound system. A home media room simply would not make sense without one. The have come down in price a lot!
A Blu Ray player. Getting cheaper all the time!

That's all folks! What I mean to say is that you don't have to overspend to have a nice home theater experience. You can certainly have a basic setup for under 5 thousand dollars. You can even go lower than that. All it takes is finding a spare room.

The 1 million dollar media room

2008-12-27T06:10:00.000-08:00

1 million dollar media room:

Home media room: storage idea

2008-12-27T05:28:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, the very concept of a home media room (home theater room) derived from the time-hallowed tradition of having a whole room in the house dedicated to books, that is having a home library. Such a room necessarily demanded some space assigned where you can enjoy the books: with desks, armchairs and other kinds of comfortable seating solutions. Now, remember that books are properly considered to be media, just as movies and music (which you should know if you ever used media rate to send books or CDs by USPS). It is natural then to also have special storage in your media room to house your collections of CDs and DVDs. There is a small complication, however.

Firstly, DVD and CD covers are usually quite colorful, much more so than book covers. This creates unwanted distraction even when the light in the media room is turned off. Also, because DVDs and CDs generally do not differ much in terms of their size this results in rather monotonous looking shelves of boxes, a problem hardly alleviated by the presense of boxed sets.

Secondly, a decent home theater requires good accustics. Numerous plastic boxes are not likely to achieve this.

What's the solution? It seems as if you really want to have enclosed shelving. If possible, these storage units should also have additional padding, to prevent the sound from getting trapped the room, causing dinny sounds and undesited reverb.