Home Theater – Part 4

A few more projects have completed in our new home theater.  Once the new curtains were hung, I realized it might be a good idea to have some lights near the back of the room for safety reasons.  I came across these Theater Night Lights and ordered 3.  They came in a brushed nickel finish which would have been ok, but I went ahead and spray painted the covers with Rustoleum Soft Black Iron so they would match everything else.

They look pretty neat because they shine on the floor just like lights in a real theater.  I put 3 at the back of the room near the staircase and bathroom.  We plan to put rope lights around the seating platform which will help with walking around the front of the room in the dark.

Meanwhile, we went ahead and replaced all the recessed lights with LED bulbs (as we have done in most of the house).  That really improved the color and brightness in the bonus room.  Only downside was that there are 18 of them.  We also added dimmer switches to all the lights so we can adjust the brightness if needed.

Another unfinished area was the electronics cabinet we had built into the wall.  It still needed trimmed out and some sort of cover.

I used some plain 1/4″ x 1″ trim to finish off the hole in the wall.  I caulked the gaps, then painted it to match the wall color.  (Paint still needs to be touched up everywhere, but I am waiting until we are done moving stuff around.)

For the cover, I picked up a sheet of decorative aluminum from Lowes.

Reusing the trim from the window that is now hidden by the screen, I made a frame and stapled the aluminum sheet to the back.  I finally decided to paint the frame with the Soft Black Iron spray paint.  I thought the wall color would be too bland and the trim color would stand out too much.

The big question was how to hang the cover???  Hinges weren’t going to work because of the design.  My first idea was to use cabinet magnets so it would just snap on.  The cover proved to be too heavy, so that didn’t work.  (You can still see them attached at the top of the hole).  I went back to the store to look for other ideas and came home with keyhole fasteners.

I bought 4, but we are currently only using two.  Now the cover just slips onto 2 screws sticking out of the wall on either side of the cabinet hole.

You can still see through the metal some, but it looks a lot better than having it open or with plain glass.  We wanted something that would allow the heat built up from the electronics to escape.  And, yes, the remotes do work thru the metal!

Our new projector is 3D, but only came with 2 pairs of glasses.  Since we plan to have 6 seats, we were going to need more, but not for $130 a pair!  Some quick searching online turned up the info that Sony Playstation glasses will work with Sony Projectors.  I found a deal on Amazon for 4 pairs for $44.  Much better for something that will not be used a whole lot.  At least now we do have enough pairs for everyone when needed.

Before you get overwhelmed by the awesomeness of our theater progress, I’ll give you a glimpse of the reality in the rest of the room. . .

Yep, mismatched chairs and junk everywhere.  There is still a lot of work to do.  Next, we need to clean all the extra stuff out of there.  Most of it is boxes from our storage unit.  We can then start building the seating platform.  That will be a big project and most of the construction will have to take place in the bonus room since we won’t be able to carry it up the stairs.  We are getting closer!  At least for now, we can watch movies and use the room even if it isn’t 100% complete.

To Be Continued . . .