[Toonaroond]

Hi,

Just started work on our spare room which will become a Home Cinema, Office and Spare bedroom (in that order for me, but probably not the girlfriend )

Basically we will be building an electric screen into the (new) ceiling, mounting a PJ on the back wall and adding an L shaped sofa/bed, some random seating. a desk, some shelves and equipment rack/cabinet. The room is a shell (now we've stripped it) and as well as the new ceiling (which we're insulating for sound and heat purposes) there'll also be new plumbing (not had a radiator in this room before), new flooring, skirting and a paint job all round.

We've got some of the equipment and other stuff - mainly bought second hand off these forums - but still need to get some of the rest of it....

Will try to work out how to host pictures and post a few to show progress so far.

[Toonaroond]

The first thing to do was to decide how to build the screen into the new ceiling without losing too much height....

You can see here that there were already some false beams that were basically boxed in RSJs from when some structural strengthening had been done in the past (this part of the house is from circa 17something by all accounts)

We decided that if we built the new ceiling to the level of this it would mean we'd lose too much head height so we decided to build the screen into another false beam... but then we'd plaster in all of the beams so that they were pretty uniform...

The black thing hidden in the box work is a Da Lite Cosmopolitan 92" electric screen bought off here for a bargain!!

[Toonaroond]

Some of the Celotex insulation fitted in place between the original false beams and new stud work.

[Toonaroond]

Some of the wiring

Before Insulation:

After Insulation:

This lot is the HDMI, component, S-Video cables for the PJ, plus power and some telephone wire which we're going to try to use to link the PJ and screen so that they start up in unison... not worked this out yet but Brother in law is an electrician and he seems confident he can make it work even though I don't think either the PJ or Screen has a normal 12v trigger system


The next pic is the same cables at the screen end of the room

You can also see some of the plasterboard is up in the foreground

[Toonaroond]

Apologies for the quality of these pics, so far all done on my phone. Will take with real camera next time

[MarkP80]

Interesting project, looks like you have a good job on the go. I like how you're hiding the screen in a false beam to match the rest. Keep the updates coming!

Cheers,
MarkP

[Toonaroond]

Cheers Mark, unfortunately I can't take credit for the screen in the false beam idea, the girlfriend came up with it....

[Toonaroond]

Some more pics...

This one is a bit of a before shot - note the beautiful carpet....

View down the room with the 3 "beams" and some skimming done

[Toonaroond]

This is the radiator that's going in - it's cast iron and it nearly killed us carrying this thing from the car and down the stairs

This is the place where the AV cables come out and will plug into the back of the kit in the corner near the screen

[Toonaroond]

Pretty much all skimmed now

Rear Speaker wire ready...

Flooring arrived

People look at us sideways when we tell we're having cork flooring... but it's a really great choice as far as we're concerned... warm, soft underfoot, hard wearing (this stuff is comes with a 10 year guarantee for commercial applications!) acoustically insulating, environmentally friendly-ish... and (in our opinion at least) it looks good (it's not the same as the cork tiles everyone had in the 70s!!)

[Toonaroond]

Question for you all.....

Looking for some blackout curtains (for obvious reasons ) - The other half has priced some up locally at around 500 quid (which is more than I paid for the amp, speakers and screen put together, far more than the PJ and even more than the flooring cost)

Anyway, does anyone know of a good source for good quality curtains? I live in the North West but travel a fair bit and guess that there's someone doing this online by mail order anyway.... Maybe we'd even need to supply the material and they'd make them up.... any (cheaper) alternatives considered!

Also a couple of questions about the black velvet material I've seen around here (Devore?). Was thinking about having a double curtain rail - one to cover the windows with the proper curtains and then another "hidden" behind these with this velvet stuff hung on it which "draws" the opposite way to cover the walls either side of the PJ screen.

Will it have any affect if I do this and is this stuff suitable to be hung on a rail like this??

Also is there a cheap-ish way of making the curtains electrically operated - may even have to be retro fitted down the line sometime as funds are starting to dry up

[Toonaroond]

Quick update


We've now finished the electrics and now only have the flooring, skirting, filling, painting and shelving to do.... I hate being this close but not being able to use the room


We've got rid of the carpet now, was a tough decision but it had to go!!

Other end of the room

Switch for...

..this

Retracted

Not entirely sure about the MDF boxing on this, might have to change plans if it looks bad once painted...

It's a tab tensioned screen, have to work out how to adjust it to get rid of those ripples...

[MarkP80]

It's starting to take shape!
Can't help with the blinds though, I'm afraid.

Cheers,
MarkP

[Toonaroond]

Cheers Mark, thanks for taking an interest - it's good to know I'm not talking to myself

Just seen your thread and you did something very similar to what I'm doing - hope mine looks somewhere near as good as yours does

The blinds and curtains will have to wait till after christmas I think - run out of cash for the minute

Filling and wall prep done, flooring almost all down and skirting should be done by the end of the weekend - painting during the week and then the first guests arrive next weekend.... I can see light at the end of the tunnel !!

[albriscoe]

I`m here

right then, the Devore, its very thin material infact that thin if you hold it up to the light its almost transparent

but when hung onto a flat wall is magically blacker than the blackest black you`ve ever seen.

As its prime use is for fashion it can obviously be sewn so I can see no reason for not hanging it like curtains tbh.

google motorised cutain rails, theres loads out there but finding an affordable one is a bit of a nightmare.

Anyway its coming on a treat Al

[Toonaroond]

Cheers Al. Will have to do without the Devore until after Christmas in any case, but I'm not 100% sure if the effect would be so much better than without it - will see how it looks first with blackout blind and then curtains and blackout blind (when we can afford them ).

Three set backs today, first the company supposedly delivering the skirting didn't and then I found woodworm holes in the door frame...not sure if they're alive or long gone but I zapped em with some woodworm killer aerosol spray........twice for good measure Then the paint we chose (after buying about 40 quids worth of different of tester pots ) was deemed to be "not quite right" today Back to square one on that one then.... great!

On the positive side, flooring complete and I'll be painting ceiling tonight....white!

[MarkP80]

815 views the forum says - so plenty of people are interested in your project, it's just most don't post! So keep the updates coming!

hope mine looks somewhere near as good as yours does

- I have no doubt it will. And you can't beat the satisfaction of looking back on a job and knowing you've done it yourself. (That's just when you've converted a room to a cinema, let alone when you've built a house as fantastic as Al's!)

The problem is you get the bug. This will just be the start, you'll see.......

Cheers,
MarkP

[Toonaroond]

No choice with that bug thing, we've got a whole house to renovate .

Already done the kids bedrooms and the garden, next year I'm doing our bedroom, hallway and back stairs.... year after it's sitting room and hallways then finally it's the kitchen.... I'm completely bugged up for the next 5 years or so

Anyway, back to right now and we're almost there with the room, 95% painted, need to fix the skirting, put the speakers up and finish the last electrical gubbins (brother in law's a sparky so he does all of that side of things).

We've got people staying over in it tomorrow night so at least need to have the basics finished by then...

Will post pics tomorrow

[Toonaroond]

Update - better late than never

We've done the basics now, got to get the PJ on the wall, some touching up, furniture buying and general tartification still needed but at least we've got a working room again...

[Toonaroond]

Not sure what's wrong with the pics, but I can assure you it's definitely not snowing in there!