[Talley]

Well.. After much posting I figured I'd share my progress. I've owned my home for 8 years and we have a 14.25x20.75 room with a 12' cathedral ceiling. The room was originally divided in half and I knocked down the wall that split the room in two. Repaired the Sheetrock, did new carpet and the room lived as a kids play room for years and then later moved into a couch/family/tv room where we kept a modest 46" TV and this is where we would have the "fun" Christmas tree and enjoy our Christmas mornings at.

I've begged for years to turn this into either a Hi-Fi room or a 100% dedicated theater. The Wife finally caved but her only requirement was in no way to jeopardize the ability to have our kids Christmas in this room.

So... Our "Talley Theater" is a 90% dedicated space with needing to leave one corner open for a christmas tree and such.

I'll start with the original photos of the room (see attached).

The room also had some wood paneling and all the trim was stained. I removed everything, matched the texture and installed all new baseboards and also did the crown molding myself too. The room also had two 4' wide openings that I ended up routing in the hinge locations and added french doors.

 

[Talley]

Flash forward to now...

This is how the room currently sits.

My system is in my signature. My screen has not come in yet and we have a deep red burgundy color picked out for the walls but I won't paint until the screen shows up.

I need to work on my acoustic panels which I just have 4 panels stuck one in each corner (I have 16 panels total I can make). I also will build some 2D diffusers for the ceiling and various spots. The wife is OK with any acoustical treatments as long as it does not impare the ability to put a Christmas tree up . I also want to build some coffee tables where some 2D diffusers are mounted upside down on the bottom so I can flip the tables over and have floor diffusion as well.

I also plan on building a wooden box w/ nice trim over the entire projector but leave large space behind it for proper ventilation so this helps hide the projector and also directs any noise up instead of above our head.

You can see the french doors crown and other improvements I made.

 

[Talley]

OH... Yes the NHT speaker makes for a good spacer for the time being until I can modify the rack to accomodate the large SVS Ultra Center speaker.

The rack is dual 3/4" MDF but I have plans on changing this out with maple countertop material with clear lacquer. I will also have 1 1/2" maple blocks under the sub too instead of screws and 2x4s but it serves as a fine enough decoupler for now.

I'll keep this thread updated with my progress and I'll get some photos of all the dedicated power installations I did.

I have a dedicated 200amp panel (60a 240v feed) for the AV gear and have 10 - 20 amp circuits. I have dedicated outlets so EVERY equipment gets a dedicated feed/outlet/breaker.

I also have an Isolated ground system installed (3 ground rods actually). My panel is 62' feet from the outlet box but I ran #4awg cable for one circuit the Krell is hooked up to and three #6awg feeders and three #10awg feeders and a #14awg feeder for my network 8 port switch and another #14awg feeder for the projector.

Needless to say I have plenty of power

Also every single connection up to the Leviton snap in outlets were coated with a copper anti oxide compound for greater electrical transfer.

 

[Talley]

Wife wanted to leave all the trim white and the doors also but has agreed to allow me to put curtain rods up above the french doors and have dark curtains that I can close up to block the shiny white.

You can see the red color we picked out in the above projector photo and I suspect this will help a ton on the screen colors/blacks/whites. Just painting the ceiling to the darker grey helped ALOT.

I also built some panels that fit over the two windows and have filled the Triangles with 4" thick minwool material. I will wrap these panels with fabric so they look decent. The panels I built are just 1/8" wood panels that attached to a 1x3 wooden frame and each panel will have a handle on it and simply hang at the window with a screw on each side up top. I'll install 2" blinds in each window so on the outside will look like normal blinds but on the inside the painted panel will blend in nicely which you cannot even see behind the curtains. This way I can remove the panels during christmas and open the blinds up and have my light back.

Currently the room is 96% dark during the day time and when I get the curtains over the french doors I suspect I can get around 98-99% dark. The panels also have weather stripping on the edges to seal against the wall. They do OK for costing next to nothing to make.

 

[ellisr63]

Looks like it is coming along nicely. I'll bet you can't wait to fire up a movie on the new screen. :T

 

[Talley]

Well I'm very impressed with a standard "Kilz2" painted wall that is textured. For a few people who have came over to watch a movie they could not tell.

To me it just gives a grainy look but YES... Cannot wait to have a real screen and the walls dark. I should see a good improvement with my colors then.

 

[Serenity Now]

I may have missed it, but what is your screen size and are you going to do an AT screen? For a bit ai know you were thinking of GoldenEar Tritons. What changed your mind? Room looks good. Your pics dont do justice to the ammount of work you have already done. Removing a wall and all that goes with re-routing electrical can be a chore. Goid work.

 

[Talley]

I may have missed it, but what is your screen size and are you going to do an AT screen? For a bit ai know you were thinking of GoldenEar Tritons. What changed your mind? Room looks good. Your pics dont do justice to the ammount of work you have already done. Removing a wall and all that goes with re-routing electrical can be a chore. Goid work.

Thanks. I landed a great deal on the SVS Ultra System from Sonnie here. So I figured I'd try them out and to be honest.... So far... I do not desire more. Just want to add a second sub to even the room out a bit.

I ordered a Jamestown standard white screen in a 135" 16:9. I'll have to mount it 4" off the wall so I'll make a frame to move it out some so I can push it higher than the crown.

Still much to do with the room. I'll end up having 50% of the walls/ceiling covered in acoustic treatment and floor too.

I also need to take more pics DURING the process haha. Oh well.

 

[Talley]

Would love to get a 5 seat theater style seating but my couch is so comfy... and it has a pull out bed so IF the wife gets mad I know where I'm sleeping!!!

 

[ellisr63]

Thanks. I landed a great deal on the SVS Ultra System from Sonnie here. So I figured I'd try them out and to be honest.... So far... I do not desire more. Just want to add a second sub to even the room out a bit.

I ordered a Jamestown standard white screen in a 135" 16:9. I'll have to mount it 4" off the wall so I'll make a frame to move it out some so I can push it higher than the crown.

Still much to do with the room. I'll end up having 50% of the walls/ceiling covered in acoustic treatment and floor too.

I also need to take more pics DURING the process haha. Oh well.

Will it be mounted out from the wall and sealed all around the edges... The reason I ask is it might act like a drim if it is sealed all the way around with a cavity behind it. Just a thought. :T You could ask Bryan to be sure.

 

[Talley]

Will it be mounted out from the wall and sealed all around the edges... The reason I ask is it might act like a drim if it is sealed all the way around with a cavity behind it. Just a thought. :T You could ask Bryan to be sure.

Ah great point. No I was just gonna have a top and bottom piece of 2x4 stacked or something like that. My issue is my wall is kinda wavy so I want to shim some 2x4 top and bottom so I can align the screen perfectly.

I use nothing but laser measuring and leveling in the setting of speakers and screen to wall and such.

I do need to pick up a digital level 2' so I can use the spikes that came with the SVS ultras and get them plumbed perfectly both sides.

 

[ellisr63]

Ah great point. No I was just gonna have a top and bottom piece of 2x4 stacked or something like that. My issue is my wall is kinda wavy so I want to shim some 2x4 top and bottom so I can align the screen perfectly.

I use nothing but laser measuring and leveling in the setting of speakers and screen to wall and such.

I do need to pick up a digital level 2' so I can use the spikes that came with the SVS ultras and get them plumbed perfectly both sides.

You should be ok then. When I had my Jamestown screen... I had them make a 6" velvet border and then I used some scrap 4x4 pieces to space it out from the wall. It was not sealed at all to the wall.

 

[luisv]

Looks great thus far! Keep the pictures coming!

 

[Talley]

Looks great thus far! Keep the pictures coming!

Sure will. I'll get proactive with the theater work after I finish painting the inside of my home. It'll take a few weeks for my screen to arrive and then I'll paint the room and put the screen up all the same time.

I'm really excited to do this as I think the picture will turn out much much better than the textured primered wall I'm using now.

 

[luisv]

Looking forward to the pictures and seeing the progress of your build.

 

[Talley]

It's been awhile since I done anything due to other house projects but my Jamestown screen finally showed up so I managed to squeeze in a half day to paint the theater walls. Deep Burgundy! I love it. Looks black when lights are off.

Quick before/after shot. Don't mind the mess... it's been chaotic trying to get the house projects finished.

 

[Talley]

And again... don't mind the mess but I got my screen installed. Sorry for the phone photo.

I had to use 2x2 material to space the screen off the wall so the screen overlaps the crown molding which is fine by me. I needed the screen to be taller. 12.5' viewing distance and 135" Jamestown screen.

The screen kit is OK. It'll work as a cheap screen for now. My projector/screen combo will be fine until 4K stuff comes down in price then I'll upgrade to that. I'm waiting for $5k projector/screen combo price range.

 

[Talley]

Still need to get the maple for my audio rack (mdf now) and work on a better center speaker stand andor paint what I got but I need to redo my stand since my screen is bigger now. The sub sits 1" below the projected image but I'll be buying another sub here soon and will place the subs outside each main so that won't be an issue anymore.

My room is painted and screen up... time to get everything back in place and enjoy for a little bit then...

acoustics!

 

[willis7469]

Looking really good! You've been quieter than usual. Now I see why.

 

[Talley]

Looking really good! You've been quieter than usual. Now I see why.

repainted entire inside house.... installed crown/coffer in master bedroom and installed crown in patio. Tons of other honey dew list etc stuff...

I also been revamping my entire studio lighting stuff so I've been lurking on the camera forums more often the past two months. Cameras/Theater these are my current hobbies that consume my life


I took a normal square bedroom, added 4 recessed cans, switches added by bed for light/fan control, built the drop down box, installed the crown and painted everything.

It's amazing what this $600 project and everything done by myself can do to the look of a room. The entire ceiling is new sheetrock also done by me. (just need to install the trim kits on the lights and attach the fan/ceiling dome to cover the wiring.