The Place to Be

By Kurt Krueger • Posted: Nov 15, 2010

My wife and I have always loved movies, so I decided to make a small Home Theater in our unfinished basement. We had lots of space so made half the area a theater and the other half a bar area. The design and floor plan were totally inspired by Home Theater magazine, of course.

I'm a union pipe fitter and I'm pretty handy, but I still had a carpenter buddy of mine do the walls in the basement. I did all of the wiring myself, including speaker wires, HDMI cables, GFI'S, dimmer switches, etc.

One of the biggest obstacles we encountered was a low air duct that was visible as soon as you entered the theater. To solve this, I moved the screen slightly to the right and painted the ceiling black. It's still there but now, no one ever notices it.

My wife and i use the theater at least three times a week, even more for me because i like to play my Playstation 3 games here, too! My two year old daughter is even starting to realize that bigger is better when it comes to watching movies like Toy Story 3.

It has definitely become "the place to be" whenever we entertain friends and family. We love our little theater and hope to inspire other people to do the same.

EQUIPMENT
Sony VPL-VW100 Projector 1080p
Carada 106" fixed screen
Dennon 3808ci Receiver
Klipsch RB-61 Home Theater 7.1 System
Sony S550 Blu-ray player
Sony PS3 60GB
Harmony 1000 Touch Screen Remote

Comments

Submitted by towerguy on January 17, 2011 - 4:11pm.

shooby doo must be jealous to make a comment like that. Your home theater looks great and is close to where our home theater will be when complete. I also started building my home theater in an unfinished basement and it has really evolved into something special. There is a lot left to be done and I'm working on it today as well (2nd row riser). The only upgrades left to accomplish for equipment will be to a 1080P projector from our very capable Panasonic PT-AX200U (720P/1080I) projector that I started with. We just upgraded to a Stewart Films 106" fixed 16:9 from a Da-Lite 90" Insta-Theater. We loved the Da-Lite but the Stewart Firehawk is awesome.We'll replace a sofa in the 2nd row with theater chairs but, for now, it works great and the kids prefer it.We have a long way to go but we're having a great time getting there.

Submitted by shooby doo on November 28, 2010 - 2:44pm.

Nice, but it reminds of me of a porn theater. Do you watch a lot of XXX there?

Submitted by Bradski on January 20, 2011 - 7:47am.

Great Job! I'm in the same position, almost; unfinished basement, movie lover (as well as wife), and young daughter who will hopefully learn to love film like we do. Thanks for the inspiration, looks great, and I like the movie posters. Nice touch.