 Filed Under: Traditional $$ Pro Interiors Posted Mon Aug 25, 2008, 8:42 PM ET — By Jamie Sorcher, Photos Neil Wilson
A home with historic heritage goes high tech. Old-world charm and modern-day technology are balanced in just the right proportion in this Montclair, New Jersey home. For this 3,500-square-foot Cotswold-style home the task, recalls architect John Reimnitz, “was to create a much larger, modern space for them that still had the same sort of quality and details of the existing house.” Filed Under: Casual $$ Reader Interiors Posted Mon Feb 4, 2008, 5:04 PM ET — By Ray Coronado
We wired the room, installed the equipment, and calibrated the system ourselves—and we couldn't be prouder. My home theater desire started in 1994 when I went to a friend's home theater to watch Jurassic Park on laserdisc. All I could say that day was, "Wow. . .that was amazing." For the next 10 years, my living room was my theater, but my wife suggested that we do a room addition to the house and make it my dedicated home theater. I was all in favor. Filed Under: Casual $$ Pro Interiors Posted Thu Dec 20, 2007, 12:24 PM ET — By Krissy Rushing
Actor Donnie Wahlberg is not opposed to bringing his work home with him to this sleek, simple, high-performance home theater. If it weren't for Hollywood, we wouldn't have home theater. It is not only the old movie theaters that today's homeowners find inspiration in—it is also the film community that pushes the envelope for high-tech theater at home. In fact, many early home theaters were film theaters, with directors installing full film-projection systems in their homes in order to watch the dailies. Of course, this type of theater usually required a special staff, such as a professional projectionist, to make the image look right. Filed Under: Casual $$ Posted Wed Nov 21, 2007, 1:48 PM ET — By Krissy Rushing
The breeze off the Pacific brings unparalleled ambiance to this Maui outdoor theater. Outdoor theaters are becoming more and more popular, although what constitutes a theater is up for interpretation. Many magazines today sing the outdoor theater's praises, but that theater might be just a plasma in a cabana or a couple of outdoor speakers. Engineered Environments in Alameda, California, however, has set the bar high for outdoor home theater. Filed Under: Casual $$ Reader Interiors Posted Wed Nov 14, 2007, 2:43 AM ET — By Joe Klusnick
For my first true home theater, I didn't mess around. The first two homes my family and I lived in suffered from the shortcoming of not having a dedicated space for our home theater, so the TV-based systems with huge tower speakers dominated the family rooms. When it came time to search for our third home, my wife and I made sure to find one with a space for me to practice my hobby. Filed Under: Reader Interiors Traditional $$ Posted Mon Nov 5, 2007, 4:15 PM ET — By Bill Yung
A reader finds home theater inspiration in his first theater, giving him the craving to upgrade. As is the case for many others, the motivation for our theater was our previous theater, which was barely 12 feet by 14 feet with a ceiling less than 8 feet high. While constricted by the physical dimensions of the space, this theater was enough to get me hooked on the idea of owning a home theater and brought to light the many possible shortcomings and pitfalls of building one. Filed Under: $$ Pro Interiors Posted Tue Oct 23, 2007, 3:29 PM ET — By Krissy Rushing
How one custom-installation firm turned a greenhouse into a multi-purpose media room and lived to tell about it. When you are designing a home theater, there is literally nothing worse than having a greenhouse-like structure to work with. Glass reflects sound, not to mention that it floods the room with light, which can interfere with a projection system. Frankentek, a New Jersey–based custom-integration firm, didn't let that stop them when they were asked to turn a greenhouse attached to a 20,000-square-foot Old English home in Southern New Jersey into a multipurpose media room. "They actually had a functioning greenhouse that spanned the main house and the indoor swimming pool," says Edward Wickham, CIO of Frankentek. "When we began work on this project, there was dirt instead of a floor!" Filed Under: $$ Reader Interiors Traditional Posted Mon Oct 22, 2007, 2:37 PM ET — By Ruben Ortiz
This homeowner takes DIY to another level. I fell in love with movie theaters after my first outing—to see Star Wars as a kid in the '70s. Since then, the moviegoing experience has fascinated me every time. Ten years ago, my wife and I purchased our first house. Not knowing much about home theaters, we built a modest movie theater. Because of the odd shape of that particular home, a professional installation was not going to work. Consequently, we settled for a projector and a wall with some theater decorations. Filed Under: $$ Pro Interiors Traditional Posted Wed Oct 17, 2007, 2:45 AM ET — By Richard Charschan
The finished theater, and my dream recording studio. What an amazing adventure. Starting with a design, cement, and sheetrock, we have come a long way and now have a beautiful theater. It's almost time to roll out the red carpet for the premier of the AcousticSmart showroom theater—after we take care of a few final touches. Filed Under: $$ Pro Interiors Traditional Posted Mon Oct 15, 2007, 2:09 PM ET — By Richard Charschan
It looks like our Sheetrock Theater is now complete. We overcame many challenges, and the theater is finally roughed out. Most of the heavy lifting is behind us, and we can look forward to putting on the finishing touches that will turn this space into the room of our dreams. With the platforms, lighting, walls, and wiring in place, you can start to really visualize this space as a theater. Filed Under: Pro Interiors $$ Traditional Posted Mon Oct 8, 2007, 12:45 PM ET — By Krissy Rushing and Richard Charschan
A step-by-step journey of transforming a garage into a world-class home theater. You've heard of do-it-yourselfers. In fact, you've probably seen them featured on the pages of Audio Video Interiors. But Richard Charschan has something on them—he's a pro. The president of AcousticSmart—a family-owned company that specializes in the design and fabrication of acoustically treated custom home theater interiors and home theater seating—Charschan has gone without a dedicated space of his own for quite some time now. "It's like the shoemaker who has holes in his own shoes," he says. "I wanted something that would serve as a corporate showroom, as well as be a great addition for me and my family." This multi-part column will take you, the reader, from beginning to end pictorially, helping you understand visually how a pro installs his own home theater. Filed Under: $$ Reader Interiors Traditional Posted Wed Oct 3, 2007, 1:11 PM ET — By Grant and Cathy Ovsak
How we transformed our room from Brady Bunch shag to old-Hollywood glamour. Eight years ago, we were in the market for a home that was a little outdated but in a good school district. The home we wound up buying included a "party room" that had been featured in a well-known home-decorating magazine. "Wow, this one might have potential," we thought. Filed Under: Casual $$ Reader Interiors Posted Sun Sep 23, 2007, 3:19 PM ET — By Brad Wescott
Her style, his performance—in a room they can both enjoy. Welcome to the ultimate his-and-her home theater. This home theater and family room was a labor of love that my wife and I designed and constructed. We did all the wiring, electrical setup, lighting, texturing, drywalling, painting, and flooring. The room measures 16 by 23 by 18 feet and is painted a flat latex chamois. The rear of the room opens to the kitchen where my wife can cook, entertain, and watch a movie all at the same time. Filed Under: Reader Interiors $$ Casual Posted Mon Sep 3, 2007, 8:04 PM ET — By Doug Christianson
An electrical background and a passion for gear garnered this reader a great DIY theater. The process of building the DJ Theater began in 1995, the year when Dolby Digital was made available to the public in various receivers. Prior to this time, hobbyists like me had no need for a dedicated theater room due to the simple system requirements of Dolby Pro Logic. With the emergence of Dolby Digital, a dedicated room seemed appropriate. The only question that now remained was: How does a person build a theater room to accommodate unknown future needs at a reasonable cost? Filed Under: Reader Interiors $$ Traditional Posted Wed Aug 29, 2007, 2:00 AM ET — By Charles Bloom
Everything I needed was online. For several years, my wife and I talked about buying or building a new house in Pinecrest, Florida, near the house that I grew up in. As luck would have it, the house next door to the one I grew up in came up for sale at a very reasonable price, so we purchased it, tore it down, and began planning our new home. I knew from the start that a dedicated home theater would be included, but I had no experience in designing or building one. Fortunately, there is a universe of information available on the Internet. I found a fantastic resource, www.avsforum.com, where a mixture of amateurs and professionals share their audio/video/theater-building expertise free of charge. Filed Under: Reader Interiors $$ Casual Posted Wed Aug 29, 2007, 1:37 AM ET — By James Robinson
From 30,000 feet to reality. So, when was the first time you heard the term home theater? For me, it was at about 30,000 feet. I was on my way back home from another business trip when I noticed a magazine left in the seat pocket in front of me. Curiosity got the best of me, and, before I knew it, I was flipping through page after page and getting more and more immersed in this amazing new world. Then there was that one thing that changed everything—I was reading an article, and there it was—the exact LCD projector I had been carrying with me all those months for boring business presentations (the NEC LT155). Someone was using it in a home theater installation. Could it be? I anxiously drove home and plugged my projector into my living-room DVD player, and voila! There it was, a glorious projected image on my living-room wall that was bigger than any TV I had ever seen or imagined. The DVD I was playing was so clear, and the image was bright and beautiful. Filed Under: Reader Interiors Casual $$ Staff Picks Posted Tue Aug 28, 2007, 5:22 PM ET — By Tony Reimer
Although it took a total of two years and six months of hard work, an equity line is what really helped me finish my theater. Home Theater magazine, Audio Video Interiors, and the Internet were my main sources of information. The room's dimensions are 13.5 by 19 by 8.33 feet, with a closet in the rear that houses the component rack. I gutted the room to the studs, even the ceiling, and installed a dedicated power circuit for audio, video, and lighting. I ran all the wiring for low voltage in the crawl space and for high voltage in the attic. Some crossing was unavoidable, but, at 90-degree angles, I've had no problems. To begin color selection, I started with the ceiling. I simulated the night sky with Ralph Lauren flat paint in magistrate black. I took a paint chip with me to the garment district in L.A. and found curtain fabric. With those colors to work with, I picked out the wall and trim paint and the carpet to match. I already had the black leather furniture. Filed Under: Reader Interiors Casual $$ Posted Tue Aug 28, 2007, 4:58 PM ET — By Glenn Mosby
Having lived in our home since 1979, we are the third owners of this tiny 750-square-foot, 1.5 story, 1943 frame bungalow. In 1998 we decided on some major interior and exterior modifications, which I designed and we had done. The exterior changes gave the house a fresh, neomodern look without spoiling the home's original character lines, allowing it to still fit in with our neighborhood. The interior changes opened up our main floor plan. I have since caught the carpentry bug and now design and do my own work. Filed Under: Reader Interiors $$ Casual Posted Tue Aug 28, 2007, 4:52 PM ET — By Kirk Bluth, Homeowner
My interest in home theaters stems from my father. Like anyone brought up by a good father, I wish to be like him and take interest in things that he finds interesting. One hobby of his is audio/video stuff. Several years ago, he turned a little-used living room in the basement of his home into a home theater. He had professional installers do the work, and I was amazed at the results: a drop-down tensioned screen, an HDTV projector, and top-quality picture and sound. I wanted to have a home theater, too. In the middle of my Air Force service at Hill AFB, Utah, my family and I decided to build a home. I had plans to build a dedicated home theater under the garage. Financial issues, including medical-school loans, a family of seven to feed, and limited military income caused these plans to end up on the back burner. Two years later, I finished my military obligation, and we moved to rural Webster, South Dakota. We built a new home, and this time I was determined to make the home theater happen! We designed our own home, and the basement home theater fit right into the plans. I had the contractor lower the foundation 4 feet to give the room some depth. I had read that square rooms are poor choices for home theaters, but, with a degree of oppositional defiance, I set out to make a square 25-by-25-foot home theater. Filed Under: Casual $$ Pro Interiors Posted Wed Aug 22, 2007, 5:52 PM ET — By Krissy Rushing
Harman engineer Dr. Floyd Toole's own home theater is surprisingly achievable. That's because he's a regular guy like you. Dr. Floyd Toole lives a charmed life. He's lucky enough to have a career that is also a lifelong passion. As he leans against his kitchen counter, glass of Pinot in hand, he muses on his life and career as an audio and acoustical engineer. Now as the vice president of acoustical engineering for Harman International, he spends his days helping others understand acoustic design, conducting research, and designing audio products that will sound good in any room, not just the anechoic chamber of a speaker lab or a highly treated dedicated theater. 1 2 Older Posts >
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