Media Hype for Your Home Theater

Decorating tips to create your awesome media room

It’s no secret that the cost of movie tickets these days has sky-rocketed. You only hope that after shelling out close to twenty dollars per person at the local San Antonio multi-plex that the movie you’ve selected is beyond fantastic. Many theaters now provide cushy seating, full menus, and some even serve wine. The beauty of having your own home theater is that you can have all the above, without ever having to leave your house. Luckily, creating a dedicated media space in your home is easier than you think, and lots of fun to design and to decorate.

Theme-work makes the dream work

Planning the décor for your home theater takes a bit of consideration. If you prefer a cohesive look you can achieve this by taking the same style, colors, etc., of the rest of your home and applying it to your media room. Another option is to go with a completely different style, for example replicating an authentic movie theater. You can go old- school with velvet curtains, red carpet, or a more contemporary rendition of today’s theaters.

Whatever you decide, the décor here is all about movies, which can be easily achieved by using items associated with theaters. Your interior designer will be of great help when it comes to furniture and storage selection, space planning, and sourcing unique theme art and accessories. Whatever your design taste, contemporary or vintage, this is the one room where you can go theme-crazy.

To see, or not to see…

In the rest of your home you strive for as much light as possible. In your media room however, optimal darkness is the goal. This can be achieved by:

• Wall Color – Use a darker shade interior paint for the walls, especially behind and around the flat-screen. Going matte is best, as gloss or semi-gloss will produce a glare.
• Window Treatments – For optional room darkening in a room with windows consider going with shades that have a darkening liner. These are more attractive than black-out curtains and these liners can be sewn directly to the face fabric of your shade. Also, for ultimate flexibility and convenience they can operate independently. Consider also the convenience of motorized window treatments that can be adjusted with the touch of a button, or set up on your smart phone or tablet.

Quiet on the set!

Unless you’re planning to outfit everyone with personal wireless headphones you’ll want to make your media room is as acoustically sound as possible, which means deadening the room’s sound reverberation. Hard surfaces (walls, and floors) are not best for a media room since sound waves bounce off hard surfaces and travel. They will drastically impact the sound coming out of your speakers, and not in a good way!

Hopefully you’re now ready for ACTION! You can create an awesome media room that’s beautifully designed, wonderfully decorated, dimly lit, and has the right acoustical balance by designing tons of soft surfaces comfy enough for all to hunker down for hours of binge movie watching.