Quick floor plan in Flash MX. Not to scale.

Side wall sketch with marker/pen. Trying to figure out soundboard and movie poster placement.

Thumbnail sidewall drawings and movie posters with fluted trim around the edges.

Front view of screen, first drawing.

Another side wall render.

The door wall.

Just a HUGE sample of the carpet we may purchase from Lowe's for the theater.

A FREAKEN mess.

Hey. . . tape!

Just painting

Door area. We will remove the door, paint the trim, and add soundboard with black and red fabric to help insulate the main door into the room. Hopefully this will be a cheap and inexpensive way to get the job done. Not perfect, but do-able.

Track lighting from Lowes.

Another track light view. These were a pain unfortunately to add to the ceiling. All the boxes were lined up the wrong way, so we had to purchase a brace. Even now its a tad crooked. May look into picture frame wire, to help level it out.

More tracklights. 2 of them are in the room, one at the rear for the snacks/posters and one up front for the main screen wall

Screen will cover window, as well as a blackout shade from behind. Curtains and valence will also shadow the screen.

A Lutron Maestro IR dimmer. Works great, and can be programmed. Well worth the money, once again purchased at Lowes.

2-5-06

Some great floating frames I found at Linen's and Things here in Oregon. These were a tad expensive (about 15 bucks a piece) but allowed me to frame my 35mm film cells so people could view the cell from both sides. These were a tad difficult to photograph due to the reflective glass, but look great with the film pieces inside.

2-5-06

A closer shot of the frames. These cells are from E.T. and Episode I The Phantom Menace.

2-5-06

Captain Power magazine, from 1987 framed in a, well, floating frame. It was a bit tight, this frame was meant for one piece of paper, not a thick magazine, but hey, it worked!

2-5-06

Final shot of this, for your sake and mine. All the small cartoon/film cells next to each other. These will be placed on glass shelf in the back of the room. Should look sweet.

2-6-06

These are some lithograph cells that came with The Transformer Season 1-2 collector boxes. I don't think they have any real value to them, other then they look cool, and have some of the principle characters. Perhaps some value is retained that these collector boxes are no longer available, but time will test that matter. I bought the frames at "Michaels" to accomdate the 5x7 cells. So far they look great on the wall. Here, I'm just holding them up though. :)

2-6-06

Another shot of the next 3 cells I've acquired.

2-6-06

These are the two floating frames I snagged at Michaels to hold my last two frames. Luckily one of them had Megatron, who is one of my favorite characters. These will most likely have an LED light attached to a shelf to help light up the cells from behind.

2-6-06

Eh, why not, one more shot of the cells

2-6-06

Ok a rather horrible picture of an awesome resin mini-bust of the Garthim-Master from The Dark Crystal. When I develop my 35mm prints, I will post a better picture, the color and details are a little lost here. It really is a sweet replica.

2-6-06

Second shot of the Skesis bust. Not enough light unfortunately.

2-6-06

Three-quarter shot of Skesis

2-9-06

Painting the interior of the door that faces the movie room. Same colors as the wall, of course. It took 3 coats to get it to finally look worthwhile. Sort of a pain. Still need to do the bottom half, but its looking pretty good.

2-10-06

Ok, lower half finally painted. The black was only 2 coats, with no primer. It was actually the easiest part of the whole door. So now, it looks just like our walls, it should be flush, hence, we will never find our way out again. Oh well, its probably best to die in a home theater anyway. You die entertained! Oh, and we purchased a black matt door knob to go with it, so it should look great.

2-10-06

Final shot of wet black paint. Door knob will be connected in an hour, and then, its back upstairs!

2-10-06

Door is done, finally. Had to repaint some trim around the door, once it was on. Too much white paint around the sides of the door made it look butt ugly. So, after that was finished off, and the black doorknob was installed, the door looks great. Not in this picture, but hey, take my word for it.

2-10-06

Just another shot of the finished door. We are thinking about hanging a curtain (wine color/velvet material) in front of the door, in the "nook" area, so you come in through curtains, into the main theater area. We're going to test it out later. Got to see it on paper first.

2-15-06

The Dark Crystal novel. I've wanted this for a long time, anything that expands on the characters and time of this film, has been a joy to read. This is just another piece of movie memorabilia that will hang in the HT room, along with the cell prints I have of this movie. This is one of the most creative movies I've ever seen. I got lucky with this book, it is a first edition, that I bought in a bundle off E-bay, with a bunch of other books I just tossed in the trash. It's not a prop, I know, but its definatetly going to share space with my other collectibles, once it's well read!

5-10-06

Poster outlines, just using masking tape on the wall, to figure out the proper placement of posters and sound board that will be hanging on the wall around the room.

5-10-06

Same stuff, just opposite wall. About 7 or so movie posters will be framed and hung. The rest is sound boards and collectibles taking up the remaining wall space.

5-10-06

These are the wooden frames that will support the sound board on the wall. Light lumber, wood screws and glue, allow the sound board to hang on the wall, like a piece of art, absorb sound, and pretty much just look cool against the red walls

5-10-06

Frame and Board screwed together

5-10-06

Back of the frames, where the black fabric will wrap around.

5-10-06

Yeah, I caught him. The Home Theater gnome, trying to mess up my stuff. They are hard to spot, I caught this one like a deer in headlights.

5-10-06

Frame finished, and fabric stapled on the back. these will lay flat against the wall

5-10-06

Boom! 3 Done. about 3 or 4 more to do, they look great stacked together, though in the movie room their placement will be more complex, but here, they got together for a group shot. No Gnome in this one.

5-13-06

Ok. Our DVD Shelving has been installed. the colors are bit off, its difficult to capture the red, and then black shelves against black walls, so I had to adjust the brightness a bit, but voila, there they are, a cheap alternative to expensive shelving units. Purchased at Home Depot, 6 shelves, two 70inch black railings and 12 shelf brackets. So far so good!

5-13-06

Another shot. Up above the shelves we plan to hang a small cupboard or wall unit, to house all the misc. items and possibly nintendo stuff, we will see. I think there is enough room to squeeze one in comfortably, and still have space for crown molding in the future.

5-13-06

One more shot. yeah, that's it, that is my entire DVD collection. I am picky. But, we have room to grow now.

5-16-06

Ok a bit more done. Soundboard is up, and is actually working! They hang nicely, snug against the wall by a simple nail, now the pictures/posters are up next.

5-16-06

Ok posters are up. I know I've said this before, but this camera just simply does not capture the correct color of red, and the black just washes out, so in "real life" this color has more richness to its color and texture. But, besides all that the posters look great next to the black sound board frames

5-16-06

Opposite wall, has only 2 frames and 2 posters.

5-16-06

Back end of the room, hard to capture the entire wall.

5-16-06

Uh, another shot of the poster wall

5-16-06

and a final one

5-16-06

Starting to map out where the screen will go. Red velvet curtains will frame the sides, and a red vailance across the top. Below the screen will be the speakers, and possibly the components. It's been a challenge to figure out where to put them still.

5-25-06

Hmm, ok, back to the drawing board a bit. This is a quick thumbnail, about 1 inch by 2 inch each. Still trying to figure out a good layout for the front wall, rear and component section. We've had to do some changes, so, this is a slighly altered mock up.

5-25-06

Ok, another quick sketch. Front screen wall. This is only 1/2 of the screen, now with drapes/valance at the bottom surrounding the center spkr to hide wires/track and to just add some more ambience and sound absorption. Need to figure out the depth of the rods still.

6-12-06

Ok, really bad shot here, but regardless, the first set of curtains are up. Red Velvet curtains, 96' from Linens'N Things. We've already gone ahead and spray painted the curtain rods a flat black, even thought the valence will cover it up, we wanted to be sure and cover all the bases. For now, they are up and hanging, getting ready for our valence and then some Cafe curtains around the bottom.

6-12-06

Just another shot of the first "layer" of curtains. Valence, Cafe Curtains, and speaker wire are all coming up next. . .oh, and the screen at some point.

3-16-07 Budget Speakers

Sony 750's floorstanding tower speakers. Yes, these are not top of the line, but they provide, thus far, a nice booming sound to fill the room. Got them for 200 bucks, free shipping and no tax. It turned out to be a great deal. I'm hoping to test them out a little more this weekend.

3-27-07

Carpet install begins. Lovely floor! I won't bore you to death with every single detail, but I was amazed at how quickly our installer emptied out the room. The entire installation process was a breeze, really well done. Anyways, here you can see the bare bones of the floor. Should have just kept it that way.

3-27-07

More lovely flooring from the door

3-27-07

The 8lb. pad is now in place, loaded with scotchguard. Once again, "I'm" not doing this, we had this professionally installed by Lowes.

3-27-07

Back of the room now, carpet is down, still a bit of tightening to do.

3-27-07

Tools of the trade! There were some bizzare instruments on hand as the carpet was layed to rest.

3-27-07

All done. Now, its just too dark to take a good picture, but the red looks great with the red walls, and curtains. The light coming through just makes for a horrible picture, but oh well. The next few pics are the "finished' product

3-27-07

Poster wall.

3-27-07

At the end, I had a lot of cleaning up to do. Dust, dirt and grime just got on everything. So, it was another two hours of cleaning up, vacuuming, cleaning shelves, baseboards, and then "repainting" some of the baseboards. Carpet install was fairly easy (to watch) but it does leave a mess. Now, all we need are the chairs, coming in soon!

3-30-07

Ok, dropped the Wharfdales, and went with my first choice. 2 sets of Fluance Bipolar speakers. They should arrive next week. Here is a quick picture, from their website, of the actual speakers.

4-5-07

Nice new carpet. Nice new mess on top of it. Glorious!

4-5-07

After much toiling, the component rack; simple bracketed shelving, and wood I had cut at Lowes to size, then prime and painted them with the same paint as the walls. This configuration is only temporary, just trying it out.

4-5-07

Another shot of it.

4-5-07

oh ya, another shot too!

4-5-07

Ok, last minute decision. I decided to paint the back wall of the component shelf black, to help blend it into the wall and shelving unit. This may be a huge mistake, who knows, but I'm starting it regardless. So I took down on the racks and started.

4-5-07

BAM! Done. well, 1st coat anyways. I don't know, seems alright at the moment. Luckily, I did not drop a single drip of paint onto the new carpet. So far, so good. Watch me dump the bucket over on the 2nd coat.

4-6-07

Well they arrived safe and sound, my new Bipolar Surround speakers. Here are a few shots. I've barely tested them, since my HT is not even set up, but regardless, the surrounds were delivered on time from Fluance and well packaged.

4-6-07

Out of the box! I actually have 4 of these to cover the entire side and back surrounds for my 7.1 setup. The speakers were well built, and had some nice weight to them. The finish and connectors were solid, and the overall design was impressive, you know, for budget speakers.

4-6-07

They are about 10 inches high, by 11 inches in width. Depth is somewhere around 5 inches. They are tiny, not as tiny as a satellite speaker, but small enough to be out of the way.

4-6-07

Just the back. Can't wait to finally mount these and get them running. But that is another day.

4-11-07

Chairs! Wow, finally they have arrived, and look fantastic in the room. The black and red contrast each other beautifully, even though the camera doesn't quite pick it all up. We purchased our chairs through "The Chair Outlet", and have no regrets. Great service all around, and we will definately be doing business with them again in the future, you know, for the NEXT home theater room!

4-11-07

We purchased 4 all together. Would have loved 5, but I'm still not sure if we can or not. Regardless, the four we have are great, and comfy. The "sweet" spot is the first row, right chair. Das my seat!

4-11-07

Just another shot. The back row will be up on a riser at some point soon.

4-12-07

Ok, a new day, just another shot, this time with a few more pics placed in the back. Yippee!

4-12-07

Last shot. . .promise. (for the chairs that is)

4-12-07

Components again, this time a bit more filled out, minus the junk at the bottom and my random helmet placement.

4-19-07

Ok, the Newtronixs Wii Wireless Sensor Bar. This is the sensor that will pretty much stay up in the movie room, as the Wii gets moved around from our living room to HT room. I am actually slowly replacing or buying duplicates of the components of the Wii, so I don't have to disconnect a ton of crap to bring it from one room to another. Just unhook, and hook back up, that's the ideal. Anyways, here is the bar, the AC adapter and Battery pack

4-19-07

The bar upclose and blurry! I happen to have an outlet, right below the screen, so the AC adapter will give it all the juice it needs.

4-26-07

New surge protector and USB power source for the HT room. Perhaps it is overkill to some degree, but I wanted something that could handle what I currently have, and what I most likely "will" have some time in the future. Upgrades are sure to happen. So, this should arrive sometime next week.

5-15-07

The day before install. Nice, pretty ceiling. About to be jacked up!! Well, regardless, here is a pic of the ceiling area where, roughly, the projector will be mounted tomorrow morning.

5-15-07

Empty component area, ready for the electrician to begin the cord runs.

5-15-07

Rear speakers outlined for install.

5-15-07

Rear surround placement. These speakers are up high, unfortunately, due to some shelf placement. But, regardless, it should work just fine.

5-15-07

Just the theater, in a mess, before the electrician comes. screen still needs a place to go, but I don't think it will be a problem.

5-16-07

Component area. So far so good, all the wires made it through. There was a terrible time with the top plate. Drilling was near impossible due to some really knotted wood. However, no fireblocks or anything to get in the way after the drilling was complete.

5-16-07

Rear speakers, with speaker wire pulled and ready.

5-16-07

Another speaker ready. By far, the easiest one to pull through and set up.

5-16-07

Just a closer look

5-16-07

Wires from the ceiling! This is before the Panamax surge protector was installed, and the cords were still being pulled through.

5-16-07

Another messy shot of the room and cable runs.

5-16-07

Final shot

5-16-07

Flushed speakers! What do you know. I have yet to test everything just yet, but the speakers look great against the red walls.

5-16-07

One more closer shot. At this time, all the rear surrounds are wired and hung.

5-17-07

First shot of the projector and mount, up and running. Well, not running, but up.

5-17-07

Side shot. The mount is a universal Chief Mount.

5-17-07

I went ahead and hooked everything up. I figured, why not, and I'm paying for it, so might as well. I didn't want to get stuck with something I needed and have to climb back up.

5-17-07

The projector again, and my son, dangerously close to a death wish.

5-19-07

Front of the room. Almost done. Valence still needs to go up, and the screen mounted. Right now, its just sitting there looking pretty. Hopefully tomorrow I can get it down.

5-19-07

Components, pretty much done.

5-19-07

Another weird shot of the room, near completion.

5-19-07

This time with the projector in the shot.

5-19-07

Back of the room, with the fridge and surrounds up and running. Still need to hang a black curtain on the back wall, and finish some decorating with a few more posters and such.

7-8-07

Quick sketch of the stage in front of the theater. I really want to raise the speakers up a bit, and bring a bit more to the front end. This will probably be placed this fall. No rush any more, everything else now is just candy. I guess the room, in essence, will never truly be "done". Its always fun now to add a bit more here and there.

8-13-07

Main hallway to the HT room. This will be the "feature" wall, displaying whatever movie is playing at the time. It will also leave room to have varius props, right outside the theater. Still trying to find a mannequin for my storm trooper armor.

8-13-07

The door to the theater. Nothing special. Or at least I can't figure out what to do here, but it works for now.

8-13-07

Door, once its closed.

8-13-07

Main door and DVD area.

8-13-07

Front row area.

8-13-07

Another poster corner area.

8-13-07

Just another poster corner, with sound board, curtains and various other framed magazines.

8-13-07

Main poster wall, near the back of the theater.

8-13-07

Side Shot. The riser is only temporary, it doesn't match what-so-ever, and will be redone with steps, this fall.

8-13-07

Theater again, from the front row. Fridge is way in the back.

8-13-07

Close up of the sound board that frames the room as simple panels. So far, I've found no need to do the entire wall. The panels come on and off at will to access power outlets or to replace them later on, if need be.

8-13-07

Poster wall

8-13-07

Screen area. Valance to come soon, and stage this fall.

8-13-07

Screen wall from further away. The lack of a valence (or valance) is driving me nuts. Can't stand the tabs.

8-13-07

Just a corner, with tower speakers.

8-13-07

Component Area again, with a few sound boards and posters up.

8-13-07

Components. Out in the free air. No cabinet for these guys. Perhaps in the future. I'm eventually going to clean the wire area with some wire-tracks later. messy.

8-13-07

Projector, cords and Panamax Surge Protector. and Chief Universal mount.

9-6-07

The King Leonidas sword from trueswords.com Hard to pick up the details, but its actually a very heavy, sharp, fantastic prop for the movie room.

9-6-07

Sword is aged, and looks like it came right out of the film.

9-6-07

Blade

9-6-07

Leather strap

9-6-07

Probably the best shot. Hard to photograph this item, its very long and heavy. Can't wait to put it up!