Home Cinema/Lounge in-wall Kef Ci-5160

Dancook

Distinguished Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2007
Messages
15,963
Reaction score
6,880
Points
4,173
Just started up a blog to record the progress, but I'll try to update this thread as I go too.
The Cook's Story

On Tuesday 2nd May 2017 a builder will start our house extension project.

The project will include
  • Two-storey rear extension (extended lounge and additional bedroom)
  • Front dormer window
  • Side dormer window
  • Added W/C with shower basin and toilet upstairs.
At the same time, my wife and I (but mostly my wife) are also making significant changes to the garden.

I look forward to revealing my home theatre plans in the next post!

rear.jpg


front.jpg
 
speaker_placement_4.jpg


The biggest excitement of this project for me will be the new lounge / home cinema. The room will more than double in size giving us 7.8m x 4.5m space to work with.

Since Louise (my wife) pretty much hates speakers on display, my final solution is to have in-wall (and in-ceiling) speakers for 7.1.4 atmos surround. I have a BK Electric Monolith DF 600+ sub-woofer, which I will be keeping for this setup. My initial issue with in-wall speakers is that they need about 4-inch wall space, and the internal walls of the house are solid brick, and only about 5 inches thick in total. My solution to this is to build a wall on top of the existing wall at the back of the lounge to mount the rear speakers. Fortunately the surround and front speakers are positioned to be in the new walls, which will be up to modern specifications and have sufficient depth to mount them.

3 x Kef Ci-5160RL-THX
4 x Kef Ci200QL
4 x Kef Ci200RR-THX

kef_ci5160_thx_900x900.jpg
900x900_ci200ql_2_1.jpg
kef_ci200_thx_1_900x900.jpg


These will be powered by a Anthem MRX1120 receiver, it was this or the Arcam AVR850, but the Arcam required additional amplification for the Atmos speakers and I didn’t want the additional equipment. I will set the AV equipment up in the corner by the PC, so the HDMI run to the projector is fairly short and I can make use of the new ‘false’ wall for ease of cabling.



The projection screen will be a 120inch wide, 2.35:1 tab tensioned electric screen, that will be installed flush with the ceiling. I will getting a JVC X9500 projector and a Lumagen Radiance Pro 4240.


I have my PS4 Pro and I will purchase a UHD player in due time.

The large area behind the sofa also has great purpose, this will be my virtual reality gaming area for use of the HTC Vive.
 
WOW!
That's an impressive list of equipment, congrats. Bet it will look and sound amazing.
Look forward to watching the build!
 
We will have eleven down-lighters, which will be Philips hue colour LED GU10s. I’ve also ordered 32 of the white ones for the rest of the house. I bought them all with 20% discount from a couple of online stores. Should be able to set up some presets, maybe a ‘cinema mode’ mode with low discreet lighting. Will have the option to separate out each half of the room and control the lights in groups. There’s also a ‘disco’ app so I can have the lights change to music!

100 metres of Van Damme speaker cable, Louise laughed at the name – is this how they really appeal to men?

l12807321.jpg


20 feet of HDMI cable for in-wall to the projector, and a fisual HDMI plate for behind the AV setup. Also some Cat 7 to leave inside the wall, just in case.

A Fisual 7.2 speaker plate which I had left over from my last setup, I also bought a 4.1 speaker plate to handle the connections for the Atmos ceiling speakers. Then there’s a good length of subwoofer cable to get to the other end of the room and a plate for the wall.

I plan for the third time to have my broadband entry point moved, it’s been in the dining room and in the front bedroom – and now I will have it installed into the lounge. I don’t intend to layout Cat cable all over the house.
 
Building work starts tomorrow, meanwhile - hopefully not too far off topic, the garden.

I think I will have Louise author the garden posts in future, and she can provide details on the various plants. But let’s take a look at what’s been done so far.

l1280741.jpg
l1280740.jpg
l1280743.jpg
l1280745.jpg
l1280736.jpg

When we first filled the pond with water, I thought how stark it was as you could see the pond liner floor. Louise then filled it with plants, soil and pebbles and it’s looking great now. She’s building up a flower bed around it which will also provide shelter for wildlife.

Since the extension encroaches into the garden beyond the existing patio, we’ve made the grass area smaller and Louise has been edging it with pebbles. I had seen earlier she’d added our initials, but she’s continued with some song lyrics – how lovely!

l1280735.jpg
l1280738.jpg
l1280739.jpg

We’ve been taking slabs from the patio for Louise to build her paths, this is where the lounge extension will come out (and a few more slabs across).

l1280734.jpg
l1280746.jpg

The purple shed will be taken down, a we will have a pergola which overlooks the lawn. We will also have three raised beds, one I recently made will be to the left of where the purple shed is, and we’ll have two more down the other end of the garden.
 
The first day the builder and three men turned up to make a start on preparing the area for the two-storey extension.

Day one was probably hindered a little by the skip not turning up, but they’ve dug up the spikey hedge and smashed up the patio area, and made a start on digging out the foundations.




The skip turned up on day two, but progression has been slow. The composition of the ground is tough for manual digging and they’re unable to get a digger down the side of our house. I will speak to the neighbours to see if they will allow us to bring it in from their side through the fence.



 
Last edited:
You can get mini diggers that fit through a standard doorway
 
You can get mini diggers that fit through a standard doorway

There is a choke point between the corner of house and the fencing down the side. Not sure if there are still options but their digger won't fit they tell me.
 
Not yet written a blog post for it, but foundations have been dug out and cement will be coming on wednesday

Fun Pano by dancook1982, on Flickr
 
Our very kind neighbours allowed us to bring a digger across their garden, they had to pot up some plants and move some stuff around – I hate inconveniencing other people, but it’s helped us progress significantly.

The foundations have been dug out, and also a square hole for a soakaway crate just beyond the JCB above. Today a building inspecting will check on the work and tomorrow will come the concrete.

Louise has been continuing her work in the garden, to the left we’ve leveled the ground and placed a raised bed. She’s also continued planting, and put some bark around to suppress weeds.

Louise has been just waiting to get inside the foundations since they were dug out, so I took a photo..

l1290442.jpg


The following this.....

So the cement has been poured and the floor dug out, ready for a block and beam floor come Monday. There is a pipe that runs along the back of the house which has been protected from the pressure of the cement.

I was getting a little nervous, but our mortgage finally came through on Friday; HSBC and their appointed solicitors took their sweet time for what should have been a very straight forward application.

I have the home theatre equipment ordered and now we can start properly shopping for flooring, tiles and bathroom suite, exciting!

foundations.jpg

l1290465.jpg

l1290467.jpg

l1290468.jpg
 
So the first of the blocks have been laid, it’s good to see it taking a bit of shape.



 
It was not so long ago we had our house double glazed and so our existing patio doors are relatively new. We had planned to reuse our existing patio doors for the extension, however!

I can’t ignore that it might be nicer to have bi-fold doors, however they aren’t exactly cheap and having to waste our current patio doors is a hard pill to swallow.

Here is the proposed difference.


2.5m Bi-Fold Doors

1.6m French Doors
It would let in more light, you can get them with integrated blinds – and during the summer we can open them up to merge lounge with garden for large barbecue parties!

So by the end of this post, I am more convinced to go for it!
 
Fortunately with the internet as a resource, trying to envisage how a room will look with a combination of colours is easier than ever, yet somehow it’s still stressful and difficult..

We were set on a fairly dark deep blue throughout, it would have been a bold move to paint a large room so dark – and I might have been blinded by how great it would be for improving the projector image quality.

I know at least I don’t want walls too light, but we did come to consider the wall colour – and it just happened to be Dulux ‘Colour of the year 2017’ Denim Drift.


c38a1fa12e7902a9b66dafd36835777a.jpg
denim-drift3.jpg






We quickly chose a flooring we like, her are slight variations from different supplier but it’s commonly called “Espresso Oak”

5052931063666_01i.jpg
img_0149.jpg

primegradeoakflooringgraphitefinish2.jpg
w56398n-main-1.jpg
 
An exciting milestone, it’s great to have walls and see it taking shape.


 
It’s times like this when you sure hope you did your calculations right. The left and right speaker may just have to be a little closer to the wall than first anticipated.

The whole unit is about 130 inches long, but the screen is 120 inches. However I didn’t consider the full width of the screen might be wider than 120 inches with black borders.


 
Last edited:
The whole unit is about 130 inches long, but the screen is 120 inches. However I didn’t consider the full width of the screen might be wider than 120 inches with black borders.

I got the same surprise when I got my screen, the extra width of the screen and the casing meant that it just fit in the room with 1" to spare...

John
 
I got the same surprise when I got my screen, the extra width of the screen and the casing meant that it just fit in the room with 1" to spare...

John

The left / right speakers are 9 inches wide, width of the room is 179 inches.

If the screen is ~125inch wide, and I put the speakers in line with the edge of it - I will have 18inches either side of the speaker - not so bad!
 
What I haven’t photographed in any of this is the drainage, the large hole for a soak-away that was dug and filled in today, with crates in place. As well as that, the walls have been prepared for connection of extension to the house.



In other news we’ve spotted at least six tadpoles in our pond, and they are looking chunky! It was a concern that they’d all been eaten.

l1300026.jpg
 
Further progress to behold.





Also it came to attention the joists would be running perpendicular to the screen, so maybe we end up boxing it in at the end of the room, as above.
 
Did you consider using an Acoustic Screen and hide the speakers behind them? Im designing my theater now and want to install my speakers behind the screen. Thoughts?
 
Did you consider using an Acoustic Screen and hide the speakers behind them? Im designing my theater now and want to install my speakers behind the screen. Thoughts?

There is no 'hiding' the speakers behind screen, as it will be retracted when not in use, however grills will be painted same as walls.

I did consider AT screen but it become very expensive to get AT electric tensioned screen.

And maybe non At screen will have an edge on sound/image quality, I suppose it's minor though :)
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom