First Things First

So, you made the decision to convert an extra room to a home theater and do the work yourself. Congratulations! You have made a great decision to save yourself some extra cash in labor. Doing the work yourself will save hundreds or thousands of dollars. Saving money isn’t easy, but it is well worth it.

Select the Room

The first giant step in creating a theater room is the room selection. Most websites only cover converting an attic, basement, or living room, but a lot of people live in houses that don’t have a basement or adequate space in the attic to create a room. Also, converting a living room into a theater is not only tacky, but doing so severely limits the ability to entertain guests for a party or family function. Besides the living room, where else can a theater room be put? Most homeowners have a ‘guest room’ that really isn’t a guest room, but a room with no purpose. An unused office space was exactly the case for me. I have used the spare bedroom as an office, so the designated office room in our floor plan quickly became the room to be used as a theater.

Take Measurements

Once I committed to the idea of converting my office into a theater, I needed to do the next obvious thing and take measurements. If the room is too small for a full-sized couch to fit in, then the room is not large enough.

Below is a schematic of the measurements I took.

Be sure to include how much of the room is accessible by the attic.  Accessing the space directly above the room will help make running wires and cables easier.  Speaking of wires and cables, make note of exact locations of light switches, cable outlets, and electrical outlets. I did not include measurements of the locations of outlets and light switches in the above graphic to keep everything simple and readable.

Figure Out Room Setup 

Now that everything is measured, you can figure out how you wish to set up your theater.  There are several options to consider.  For instance, if your room has a closet, are you going to use that closet for housing your video/audio equipment (Blu-ray player, tuner, cable box, etc.)? If you don’t have a closet, like my situation, where are you going to put everything?  Some like the equipment to be out of view and choose to put everything behind the viewing area.  Some find a way to put everything in front of the viewing area in an entertainment hutch/cabinet of some sort.  Don’t be afraid to change your mind about the location of the equipment.  Until the wires and cables are run, you can opt to change the setup however you’d like.