Lights! Camera! Action! How to Build a Killer Media Room

Concerns about health and safety have had an interesting effect on the entertainment habits of families. Rather than going out to eat, to movies or sporting events, residents in communities like ARTAVIA™, just north of Houston, are staying at home. They are bingeing on streaming TV series, watching movies and playing video games together. Next to the kitchen, the media room has become the most used room in the house and there are several ways to make this space even more entertaining.

Start with the Basics

As with any design project, a “clean-slate” is always easier to work with when incorporating a media room in a home. Plans for a newly built home can easily include a media room and the builders of ARTAVIA™ have tons of ideas. Even in an existing home, these tips can help turn a former bedroom, living room or den into a great home entertainment space.

The Dolly website offers two simple steps for setting up a home entertainment center.

#1 Choose the right room

“You’ll want to assess certain features of the room, like its shape and the amount of natural light it receives. For example, square rooms cause harmonic distortions, and windows admit light. These can both distract from the overall effect of your media room. If you have a rectangular room available in your home, it’s probably the best space for the media room. You’ll have fewer issues with sound projection, and it’ll give you a nice, clear area to place your display screen and primary speakers.”

#2 Make it Media-Friendly

Assess the lighting. Windows can be covered with heavy curtains, shades and blackout style treatment. By covering any reflective surfaces, this will help manage the light in the room. The best kind of wall is drywall. For the floor, carpeting with pads will reduce the ambient noise from the home and the best carpet colors are neutral browns, olives and tans to avoid reflection.

Choosing the Right Technology

Big screen televisions have become the norm for most families and they are a critical part of a functional entertainment area. There are many electronics’ retail stores that can offer expert advice on the brand or model of big screens that work for a given home. Here are a few tips from the DIY Network on placement of these screens in a media room:

• Mounting your TV on the wall is one of the most prevalent media room practices these days. Families benefit from the security of having the heavy television off a tabletop, making it less apt to fall on curious kids, and at the same time it allows them to make better use of their living space.
• If you’re shopping around for products with which to mount your TV, remember that you can choose swiveling and articulating or a flush mount for your screen. It all depends on how high your screen is mounted, or if it needs to tilt to be visible from different areas in your room.
• You can avoid dangling power cords by running them through the wall, downwards to an accessible outlet. This is safe and makes for a cleaner overall presentation.
• Many media room storage configurations use several hidden “HIDEit Mounts” (PS3, Roku, and Wii), but if the television screen is flush mounted very close to the wall, they must integrate these storage tools into the floating cabinet beneath the TV. The cabinet primarily serves to disguise the electrical cords that pop through the drywall and plug into an outlet, but also houses games and cords and other related accessories.
• For a big screen movie experience, investing in a projector and wall or ceiling mounted screen is a great idea.

Never underestimate the importance of a quality audio system to add drama to any video presentation. Plus, many televisions have speakers projecting to the back causing the audio to bounce off the wall. Here are some tips from the DIY Network on getting great sound.

• For a single TV, a sound bar speaker system is an easy solution. These long, narrow speaker systems can sit above or beneath your TV.
• Bluetooth is enabled on many newer TV models, which makes hooking up wireless surround sound systems easier.
• When it comes to choosing surround systems, these products are designed to sit on shelves, attach to the wall, or higher end systems that are installed into the drywall. Consulting experts in electronics stores can help with this decision.

Bring the Entertainment Home

Homeowners in ARTAVIA™ have discovered how much fun it is to stay home and let the entertainment come to them! Whether it’s taking a walk on one of the colorful hiking trails, chilling with a cold drink in the backyard or settling in for a movie marathon in the media room, Dorothy was right. There’s no place like home.

If you are interested in living outside the traffic and noise of Houston, drive north to Conroe and see why families are coming home to ARTAVIA™. For more information, click here.