Credit: Chad Jones (via Flickr)
If there’s one home improvement project I’m most looking forward to, it will be converting part of the basement into a home theater. Do you have a home theater, or would you like one?
Home theaters come in a wide variety of styles. Some are very casual, featuring big screen televisions and a living room style lounge area. And some are more elegant, mimicking more traditional theater designs — big projection screens, elevated theater seating with built-in cup holders, speakers built into the walls, and even bars, popcorn machines, and other fun theater add-ons.
If you’re considering creating a home theater of your own, check out these examples people shared online for some design inspiration. We’ll start with casual designs and move toward more traditional theater styles.
Which of these home theater designs is the most inspiring for you? What things would you want in your own dream theater? And if you’ve already created one, feel free to link us to photos in the comments below. We’d love to hear what the process was like for you.
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I will never understand why you would want the seating to look like a cinema. Cinemas are made to cram lots of people in, your home should be much more comfortable and spacious.
obmitty - It has nothing to do with cramming seats in. And home theaters are usually extremely comfortable. Theater-style seating is more about stadium-style -- where the seats are on multiple levels so no one gets in anyone else's view. That doesn't mean the seats themselves have to be small or cramped in any way.
Not as good as a nice big couch you can really relax on. It's about trying to make your house look like a cinema as some sort of status simple, rather than a functional inviting room to relax in.
That's what living rooms, family rooms, dens, rec rooms, and "tv rooms" are all for. People who want an actual theater often like to style them as actual theaters. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. And it's not a status symbol thing. They're becoming extremely common (I'd know -- was just in the housing market and plenty of places had them ready to go). It's just one of many ways people choose to use bonus space in a basement when they don't need it all for storage. If you don't want one like there, there's an easy solution. Don't create one.
The Posh Living photo cracks me up in that they clearly wanted the room to look like an old-time movie theater.