bd251's Basement Movie Room

bd251

Premium Supporter
Mar 24, 2011
1,282
Ohio, USA
This is my "movie room" I have set up in my basement. Overall dimensions are approximately 11ft x 25ft (as finished by previous owners). My original plan was to have the screen on the far wall and two rows of seating. The current setup was supposed to be temporary, but I think it will become permanent. It leaves the option for other uses (temporary of course) of the room.

Overview (phone panorama)
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Screen wall
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On the screen wall, the screen is 110 inches, painted on the wall with a velvet-wrapped 1x3 frame. There is also my 20 minute scrap wood speaker stand.

Seating Wall
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On the seating wall is a reclining sofa, my movies, and equipment. The shelf is actually the same IKEA shelves that I had in my apartment but I built them into the space where there was previously a closet.

Equipment list: BenQ W1070 projector, Onkyo TX-NR609 receiver with a 5.1 setup, Sony BDP-S6200 Blu-ray player, Pioneer CLD-1090 Laserdisc player, Logitech Harmony Elite Remote.

I have the Harmony paired up with my Smartthings hub to dim the lights when I start a Harmony activity. I also have an Amazon Echo Dot in the kitchen upstairs, so I can say "Alexa, turn on Netflix" and its all ready to go when I get downstairs.

Future plans:
- Replace all the baseboard and door frames in the same style trim as the built-in.
- Run speaker wires and cables so they are not visible in the room, use wallplates, mount speakers
- Masking for screen
- Better (more elegant) blackout solution for the window
- Replace carpet with a darker color (eventually)
- Paint ceiling (maybe)


Hey everyone! I've made some decent progress on my basement recently, so I thought I'd start a thread and share my progress snapshots.

My wife and I bought our first house last spring and after the main floor remodel/refurb I was finally able to go to work on the basement . For a few months, we just had the image projected right on the beige wall and LCR set up to each side of the couch. This was a pretty decent temporary setup since I could mess around with different screen sizes. One weekend I finally got around to painting. Here's what the entire room looks like:

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Overall dimensions: Aprox. 11ft x 25ft (as finished by previous owners)
My original plan was to have the screen on the far wall and two rows of seating. With all the other work that came with becoming a homeowner, I just wasn't going to have time for that. The projector would have to be mounted from the ceiling, riser built, screen built (vs painted on the wall).

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Then I was in the "My screen is painted now I need to decide how to frame it" stage. Cliffhanger Squeeze LD from @Bruckle.

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Screen framed and speakers placed. I decided to go with butt jointed 1x3 MDF wrapped in velvet after I realized my much more elaborate version was going to be extremely difficult. The screen is 110" diagonal. Can you tell I was excited to get this picture taken? I hadn't even put away the excess velvet yet. lol. And there's my 20 minute scrap wood center speaker stand:)

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I got a Harmony Elite for Christmas. This is a great remote!

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Finished my built in shelves. They are the same shelves as the first picture only they are now built in to the closet on the seating wall. This saves a ton of space in the room! Soon I will be moving my gear to the unfinished side of the basement (behind seating wall), hiding the speaker wire and mounting the speakers.

Sorry for all the cell phone pics. I'll take some real pics once its done:)
 
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Would you mind sharing the colour of the walls please? I went with black and I don't really like it.

The color is Needlepoint Navy by Sherwin Williams (SW0032). I had Lowes color match it to Valspar Signature eggshell paint. I think it ended up being a good color despite the fact that I didn't actually pick it for the basement. I had most of a can left from another project, so I just went with it. I'm really glad I did. It's dark enough that it you don't notice the color with the lights off, but it also looks nice when the lights are on.

Also, thanks for bumping my thread. I realized I haven't uploaded the better pictures I took a few months ago. Maybe I'll get around to it soon...
 
Finally got around to putting my BTTF stuff up on the wall. Eventually, I am going to have my Japanese gold BTTF LD and BTTF2 USA Today newspaper framed on either side of the shelves. Hopefully, it won't take a year and a half for THAT to happen.

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I'm also going to try to re-post the images in this thread since they were on Photobucket
 
Hey guys! I just basically rewrote the OP and used new pictures (hosted on HDN this time, not Photobucket) and more relevant information to the current setup. If you want to see a demo of the automation features, let me know and maybe I can do a video.
 
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Well, its a new year and I have already made progress on one of my future plans.

- Move equipment to the unfinished side of the basement (behind seating wall) in the "closet" opening behind the movie shelf

I will be building a nice shelf eventually, but for now, at least it's out of sight. The Blu-ray player is still accessible from this side of the basement on a shelf below the movies above the drawers. Part of this move included a reconfiguration of the power and a passthrough for the HDMI to the projector

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I also got a Google Home Mini, so I can now ask Google Assistant on my phone to start a Harmony activity. Hopefully I will get around to mounting the speakers this weekend.
 
Finally got to clean up a little after moving stuff to the other side of the basement. Here is a new view of the seating wall without the ugly cords hanging from the projector and a picture of what I am now calling the "movie corner" without the random little shelf unit on the floor. My Blu-ray player is now located on the shelf above the three drawers so it is still accessible from this side.
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Nice. I have a very similar set-up but have an epson projector. I find with it's position above my head, the fan is quite loud, especially during quiet scenes or 3D movies. I built a hush box to combat this (which is pretty big) but has enough insulation to block what i'd say was about 70% of the sound out.
 
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Thanks guys. It's nice to see a little activity here.

@davhyl I am pretty used to the sound of my projector at this point and it doesn't bother me that much. Originally I wanted to put in on the other side of the wall with a window but the I-beam is right behind and the projector doesn't have enough vertical lens shift in order to mount it lower. I had this projector before I moved into this house. When I eventually upgrade I will definitely take this into consideration.
 
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