Everyone loves watching movies inside a theater as they provide not only the best picture and sound quality but also the most comfort anyone could get. When you’re inside the theater, you can focus all your attention to the film and shut the world right behind you. With that, wouldn’t it be great if you could bring the experience to your home?
While you can watch a movie in your living room and bedroom, nothing beats the feeling of watching inside a cinema. To allow yourself and your family to enjoy watching films without leaving the comfort of your home, perhaps it’s time to set up a home theater and let the cinematic experience come to you.
Moreover, listed in this article are tips for setting up a home theater for everyone in your home to enjoy.
1. Choose The Perfect Sound System
One reason you get the cinematic experience from theaters is that their acoustics and sound systems are designed to provide the best quality. You expect to feel the intensity of the sound from every scene only a theater could provide. To allow your home theater to have the same experience, get yourself the best sound system for your needs.
According to TheMarket, a popular e-commerce platform, one of the initial sound systems you should get for your home theater is a soundbar. It could provide the same theater-quality sound at the fraction of the price of high-end surround-sound systems. What’s great about this is that a soundbar helps release echo around the area, adding to the cinematic effect.
Moreover, if you have the budget and would want to improve on the soundbar system you currently have, consider adding more speakers around the room. If you have a bigger home theater, install speakers in the front, add more in every corner, and—this might seem overkill—add overhead speakers to truly feel the sound’s vibrations. In this way, you can genuinely surround your home theater with quality sounds with which you’ll surely enjoy watching a movie.
2. Keep The Room Pitch Dark
Even when you don’t have a home theater at home, turning off the lights is second nature every time you watch your favorite movie so you could enjoy the film better. With that, you may want to continue the habit in your home theater by allowing the entire room to be pitch dark.
If your home theater has windows and you don’t want to or it’s costly to remove them, you may need to use or apply specific window treatments to disallow light from coming inside. The best option you could go for is using blackout curtains, ideally bigger than the window’s size, to ensure that you cover every corner. Moreover, you can also choose to add a double rod for dual blackout curtains so you can be at ease that not a peep of light will make it through.
Apart from addressing your window situation, you’ll also need to cover the gap between the door and the wall and the floor as light could still get through. If you turn off the lights inside your home theater and still see light coming from the gaps of your door, you should add a door strip to block all light that could invade your home theater.
3. Get Comfortable Seats
One of the best feelings in the world is being able to watch your favorite movie in the most comfortable seats ever. It’d just be amazing to watch a movie while you surround your body with pure comfort and luxury. With that, give yourself a treat and get seat recliners or home cinema seats to take your home theater experience to the next level. Who knows, maybe your chairs would be much more comfortable than the ones you sit in the cinema?
Ideally, you should look for a seat that provides maximum comfort at every angle. It’d also be ideal to add a reclining feature so you and your family can sit back, relax, get your feet up, and enjoy the movie. Depending on your preference, there are recliner sofas available for two people so you could cuddle up with your special someone while watching a movie.
To add more to your cinematic experience, you could get seats with cupholders. That way, you wouldn’t have to worry about where to put your drink as you watch your movie. After all, a movie is a lot more enjoyable with a soda in your hand.
4. TV Versus Projector Screen
Of course, a home theater would never be complete without a screen with which to watch films. As you design your home theater, you should provide a blank space in the front wall to provide an appropriate area for your screen. Ideally, you’ve already done your research and decided on the size of the screen that you’d like to have so you can adjust the design of the wall appropriately.
As you have a place for your screen, you’ll now need to contemplate whether you’ll have a TV or a projector screen for your main display. If you’d like to achieve a crystal-clear image along with maximum color clarity, you should go for a TV. However, it’ll be challenging to find a TV with a large enough screen, and it’ll also be expensive.
To nearly complete your cinematic experience, you should go for a projector screen wherein you place the projector at the back of the room and allow it to play the film, cinema-style. However, an affordable projector may not be able to provide the quality image you’ll be looking for. Look for a projector that can give maximum color opacity and clarity to enjoy every film you have. Along with this, you shouldn’t forget to add a blank white wall so you can have a clear surface on which to play your movie.
5. Add Dramatic Lights
As you enter your home theater, the initial ambiance that you should feel is like you’re in a cinema of your own. With that, you could add dramatic and warm lights around the room to finally complete the experience.
Ideally, you should add warm cove lighting to let anyone who enters know you mean business. Focus your rays on the aisle and the side walls to highlight the room’s coziness. You should also avoid adding chandeliers or track lights as they could only ruin the ambiance inside the room.
During lights-out, you may want to add embedded dot lights that would lead viewers on the aisle toward the bathroom or the exits. Moreover, don’t forget that you need to keep the lights minimal to avoid light obstructions.
Conclusion
If you have the budget, it’s never wrong to go crazy with your home theater so you’d get the best theater experience right in the comfort of your own home. With the right furniture, media system, and other customizations, you know you’ll have the best time watching a movie with the ones you love.