Modest Home Cinema/Living Room setup

[phunkey_monkeh]

Well, where do we start.

Having not long had the house I put up with the terrible decor until I could afford to 'make it my own'.
I've always been a huge cinema fan, and a bit of a technology geek. A home cinema setup of sorts has always been on the cards. And I’m now well underway to achieving my goal.

To start with, the shape of my living room has always been a problem. With the large chimney breast and the windows and doors on every wall, I was never able to actually position a TV directly in front of my sofa and ended up with the TV in the corner. This annoyed my tremendously.

Let me apologise beforehand if there are some gaps in the pictures...I kept forgetting to take pics.

EQUIPMENT LIST
Samsung 46" F86
Sky + (soon to be replaced with HD)
PS3
Xbox 360 (soon to be replaced with Elite)
Media PC
Octavia 5x1 HDMI splitter
Sanyo Z5
Harmony 1000
Sony HT-SS1100


You may at this point ask why I’ve gone with such a low spec surround sound system.
To be frank , I was running out of cash, I wanted small speakers to mount in wall, and I’ve never had a high spec system so hopefully I won’t know what I’m missing
They should be much better than the standard TV speakers anyway.
So let’s not hear anymore on the speakers :D

This first pic is a quick knock-up of the current shape of the room including door/window locations and the chimney breast.

The size of the room is approx 25ft x 15ft

As you can see it didn’t really leave much room to work with.

I decided to do away with the fire and create a stud wall to effectively box in one of the alcoves, and thus giving me a flat wall. I had also decided to create another stud wall on the other side so that the TV could be mounted in the wall.

Something like this..

I hope I’m making sense so far.

The first obstacle was to remove the old fire...an expensive job it seems.
The house was run by a back boiler...which meant that it I wanted to bin the fire i needed a new boiler.
So after a bit of research the old fire was removed, and a Worcester condensing combi installed upstairs.

I moved all my equipment down one end of the room so i could get to work on the stud walls .

This is the wall that will eventually contain the tv/speakers.

The stud wall was relatively easy to put up. I had to chisel out a hole in the chimney breast to accommodate one of the rear speakers (the hole is hidden by the plasterboard in the next picture)

With one wall almost complete....

This hole will eventually accommodate the Z5. Power points and cables have been run. I have also fixed the cables, as i don’t want to lose them in the cavity :o

The finished wall..(almost)

One rear speaker hole cut out

Speaker and HDMI cable (for Z5) run

Now onto the second wall.
Frame completed and board starting to go on.

[phunkey_monkeh]

Speaker holes cut out and plasterboard boxes made.

It was at this point we realised the centre speaker was off centre by about 1cm.

A bit of fiddling and it was moved.

Both rear speaker holes created and cables run.

Now, back to the horrible decor...patterned artex....it had to go.
I felt dizzy looking at my ceiling.

From the kitchen to the front of the room, please ignore the fridge..it will be gone this weekend.

From the opposite direction.

Ok, so we are nearly up-to-date.
The plasterers came today to make a start.
They have bonded and skimmed the ceiling and done some of the reveals. as well as putting the corner beading on.

No more artex...

You can still see some of the swirls from the artex if you look carefully. But they are not proud and should be gone when the skim dries.

So that is where i am at the moment. Still quite a bit left to do. I’m really not looking forward to painting and i haven’t really decided on a colour scheme. Although my sofa is brown leather. So I’m guessing neutrals.

The plasterers will be back on Monday/Tuesday to finish the walls.

I’ve still got the skirting/architrave/rads/doors/flooring/lighting and more left to do. I’m hoping to be finished in the next month and now that I’ve started this post ill be sure to keep it updated.

Anyways..sorry that was so long and if anyone bothers to read it...thanks

[HandsomeBWonderful]

Looking great so far PM. I will be keeping a watchful eye on your progress.

[MitsiTurbo]

Very interesting read mate, well done. One thing I would have considered personally, you seem to have lost a fair bit of space with the new stud wall, maybe some recesses for DVD storage etc would have been worth doing?

Will be keeping an eye on this one

[phunkey_monkeh]

hi,

im am losing a bit of room with one of the alcoves. But its not as much as it may seem.
Im losing a space of approx 1ftx9ft. But im gaining so much more 'wall space'
The alcove was always wasted space before, for me at least.

I dont plan on selling anytime soon, and with it being a stud wall it'll come down easy enough if need be.

Also directly behind the TV wall is my cupboard under the stairs...all my equipment will be in there, out of the way .

[Gaz B]

Good stuff, should be nice and smart when it's done. I like to see ones using limited space

[ANGUZ]

Great work mate

[elootos]

Originally Posted by phunkey_monkeh

Anyways..sorry that was so long and if anyone bothers to read it...thanks

That what this forum is here for!

Glad to see someone else is venturing down the path to achieving their home cinema nirvana, good luck!

[phunkey_monkeh]

Plastering is finished.

Will post some updated pics tonight

[dj_woodster]

looking very good, keep us updated

[phunkey_monkeh]

As previously stated the plasterers have been and done their thing.
Its starting to take shape now, and hopefully even more so when the paint is on.

A couple of pics of the screen location with speakers in for effect. :D
The edges may look a little wonky..
It may be my camera, or it may be because the plaster is still wet and the different patches make it look uneven...but i reality the lines are perfect.

A shot of the back wall. The sofa fits perfectly inbetween the two rear speakers (well about 10cm either side) and ofcourse the cubby for the Sanyo Z5 at the top.

A close up of the projector cubby.
You may have noticed from other pics that the right hand side of the cubby is not closed. This is because i want the PJ to have a bit of air to breath. So its got the whole cavity for that

And lastly a longer shot of the 'tv wall'

I suspect it may be a few days before anything else happens as im back in work on Wednesday. I've also yet to decide on the colour

[Festerfly]

Very smart setup.. nice to see what you can do with a bit of room!

I also am a gadget freak (sadly the budget doesnt always live up to my expectations!) but with some recent trading and acquisitions im almost there on all the bits i was after and shouldent be long until i do my wireup and such.. sadly no building work as we rent out property but will do what i can where i can etc!

[timtastic_bhoy]

looks like your on your way..I wanted ot convert the basement to my cinema room but the trouble n strife said the £25k need to convert the structure was too much and the money could be better spent elsewhere.....shoes knowing her

[phunkey_monkeh]

A little update.

I've been ill for the past week so ive not really done as much as i had hoped.
But i felt a bit better today so had a quick tidy, started laying the fibreboard and took some pics.

A quick shot of the 'tv wall' All painting has now been finished (sort of)
The colour wasnt exactly how i wanted, but its such a dark room.
I live in a terraced property and the buildinds either side have large extensions out the back which block out alot of light. With that in mind i wanted a light colour. So its 'Soft coffee' or creamy beige for us common folk

Another shot of the back wall, for some reason the back wall looks a different colour to the one on the side..it doesnt in reality...camera trick i guess.

A closer shot of the tv wall.
And yes i do intend to paint in the speaker holes...i just forgot about them

Ive hung my old drh screen for the moment until the new one arrives...i wish i hadnt because the roller mechanism has gone and its a nightmare to roll back up. lol
This is a 78" screen. My new one should be here in a few days and its a 98" electric remote controlled one.

And lastly...my new lights. I love the effect they create on the ceiling.
They are not very bright if im honest...10 x 10w bulbs. But there are two, and its bright enough. Especially when i add a lamp of some sort.

Thats it for now.

I've got a mate coming around with his core drill tomorrow to cut out a hole in the tv wall for the scarts to the tv. The bracket will be going up along with the tv.

Keep checking back.

Thanks

[phunkey_monkeh]

A futher little update today.

With the tv bracket being quite low profile i was concerned about clearance for the scarts and hdmi cables.
So a mate offered to lend me his core drill...what a fantastic bit of kit. Perfect hole right through into the cupboard under my stairs.

The removed cylindrical peice of concrete.

Also got around to putting up the bracket.

I decided not to mount the tv quite yet.
The wall needs a clean and a bit of touch up paint as a result of todays work. I also need to add in my apollo LED kit.
Might do all this a bit later.

Im back in work tomorrow, so hopefully ill have some more updates over the weekend.

Thanks