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Posted by on Jul 11, 2015 in DIY, Featured, Home Theater, The House | 0 comments

Home Theater – Part 1

Well, our work on the home theater started a lot sooner than I expected.  David ordered a new AV receiver and things took off from there.  We started researching speaker and seat placement and used tape to mark those on the walls.

Theater Seating and Speaker Placement

The blue tape marks the recommended seating range for a 135″ screen.  The lines of green tape mark the range for the 2 rear speakers (this picture was taken after we ran the wires).

We decided to cut into the side wall and create a cabinet for the electronics built into the wall.  This also gave us access to the attic space so we could run the wires.

New Attic Access

Unfortunately, the duct work is mounted lower than we expected so we weren’t able to make the hole (or the cabinet) as tall as we planned.

Running Theater Wires

David cut the stud out in the middle, then reinforced the opening with 2x4s, kind of like a window.  We then started the fun task of running speaker and electrical wires.  We removed the nearby outlet so that it could be used in the back of the cabinet.

On the front wall, we taped off the screen size and estimated placement so we knew were to run the side speaker wires.

Wires Ran and Screen Placement Marked

I quickly realized I should probably start looking at paint colors, so I taped a bunch to the walls.  Took me a while, but I narrowed it down to these.

Narrowing Down Paint Colors

The opposite wall has my reject colors.  You can see the left rear speaker wires were ran here.  We ran them under the baseboard and the carpet along this side.  That was pretty much our only option unless we wanted to start tearing the walls apart.  Nothing is visible and you’d never know it was done after the house was built by looking at it.

Speaker Wires and Paint Options

The subwoofer will go near the bottom right of the screen.  We removed an unused phone jack and replaced it with the speaker wire.  You can see all the speaker wires running below the drywall.  They all go into a hole we made in the corner on the right and enter the attic space there.

Subwoofer Wire

Getting wires ran into the ceiling was a bit challenging, but it could have been a lot worse.  We ran 2 HDMI cables and tapped off another outlet to add a power outlet to the ceiling for the projector.  The pencil marks are stud locations.

Projector Wires

Projector Wires

We also ran a speaker wire and power cord under the carpet to the middle of the floor.  The speaker wire is for a future Buttkicker and the power cord is for the recliners and platform lighting.

All the wires and cables end here where a cabinet will be built.

Wiring Complete

Meanwhile, I had narrowed down the paint colors to one of the following.  I kept being pulled towards Behr Marquee Magnet MQ2-61  😉

Final Paint Choices

After going back thru my paint deck, I found a nearby color that I thought would make the perfect combination.  Below is Behr Marquee Magnet with Behr Marquee Silver City MQ2-59.  I have a speaker cover shown for reference.

Paint Selections - Behr Marquee Magnet MQ2-61 and Silver City MQ2-59

Silver City will be the trim color and here I have it next to our main trim color, Behr Ultra Silky White.  By itself, Silver City looks light, but as you can see, it’s not too light.

Behr Marquee Magnet MQ2-61 and Silver City MQ2-59 shown with Behr Ultra Silky White PPU7-12

Before we could paint, we needed to remove the trim around the front window since it will interfere with hanging the screen.  Fortunately, it came off fairly easily.  I am going staple blackout fabric over the window so it will block out the light yet look like a blind from the outside.

Window Trim Removed and Paint Swatch

You can also see where I painted a sample patch of the new wall color.  The old wall color makes it look purple although it’s not.

To be continued . . .

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