One of the most rewarding home improvement projects is creating an entertainment room for both your family and your guests.
While in the past this was seen as something only the rich and famous can afford, now anybody with little extra space and time can install one.
Some people may be able to add a brand new entertainment room to their home, while others may need to go with a remodeling route to transform an existing space.
Space Needed for Entertainment Rooms
The amount of space you need for an entertainment room will depend entirely on the entertaining type you are planning on doing.
For some people who want a very simple home theater, a large extra bedroom may be enough. For others who would like a room filled with several entertainment options, a finished basement may be more suitable.
Here are some of the most popular types of home entertainment room options:
Home Theater
To put in a home theater, you will need a large viewing area. That may be a big-screen TV, or it may also be a projector with a screen. Either way, make sure you plan ahead and carefully choose your seating area and inspect the walls for best mounting locations.
Another great addition to a home theater is movie-quality surround sound. Surround sound involves putting speakers around the room so that when you hear the movies, it feels like you’re in them.
Doing this yourself can get tricky since the best way to set them up is by running the wires behind the drywall. You may be able to do this on your own, depending on the structure of your house, especially if you can efficiently route the cables behind a baseboard or perhaps under the carpet. If you get stuck, you can leave this to a qualified technician so you can have a professional home theater set up in your entertainment room.
Soundproofing is another good idea, and if you need to remove the drywall to wire surround sound, it’s a good time to add insulation that is soundproof.
This will not only keep the sound in the entertainment room, without disturbing other parts of the house, but it will also significantly improve the sound quality of the room.
To finish off the feel of the home theater, consider adding a raised platform at the back, similar to how real movie theaters are set up. This will instantly make it feel more like the movies, plus you’ll be able to fit more people comfortably.
Game Room
This is a great way to get people interacting with each other in your entertainment space. There are many different games to choose from which allows you to make it your own.
Game rooms can include things like a pool table, a ping-pong table, or a dartboard. Depending on your budget, you may also add arcade games.
You can also add video game stations to a game room with several smaller televisions set up along with chairs and all the gaming equipment necessary for that system.
When setting up a game room, it’s usually a good idea to focus on interactive games that people can play together since the point of the entertainment room is not only to entertain but also to bring people together. Each of these stations needs plenty of power outlets and perhaps some extra ethernet jacks, so make sure you plan and run the necessary wires before you get started
Good luck and have fun turning your home entertainment dream into a reality!