Feel my pain!! ...with photos.

[Canyonlands]

Redecorating the upstairs living areas were cake compared to even being able to figure out where I want the HT system set up. This has delayed my purchase of the new RPTV CRT that's replacing my old 27" Sony Wega (trouble free, lucky me). Once the delivery guys drop the new set in place I don't want to change my mind on where it needs to be. My wife is petite and won't be able to help me move it!

We bought this place from the original owners since 1969. The carpet throughout is original too! However, location is stellar and they had done a nice update on the kitchen.

Back to my HT woes. Here's some photo links.

Entry from above or garage (http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/pain1.jpg)
Misc. junk sitting here & there as this is the storage place while we sort out the upstairs. This was taken at the bottom of the steps with the garage entry to my back. Hey, the carpet is about the only thing I *do* like about the space. :)

Looking back at the open stairs (http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/pain2.jpg)
One option is to put the set there but this option gives less width for the HT system.

Closet and low ceiling (http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/pain3.jpg)
There's a 1 ft. drop in the ceiling that goes back 4 ft into this part of the room. It's the run of ducting and such. Then we have the open back and 5.5 ft closet in the mix. The bikes will be making their way to the garage.



Darn the fireplace (http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/pain4.jpg)
So I'm thinking since an ideal surround arrangement is probably out that I may put the whole setup on an angle facing the open stairs with the set almost in the corner (see the second photo). Then with the space between the fireplace and left rear speaker, maybe a high bistro table and swivel stools. Over in the current bike area from where this photo was taken, maybe a wet bar to keep the brews handy.

So, anyone like to share what they think they'd do if stuck with this setting. Nothing really involved like removing the fireplace though. Should I keep the carpet and snag some funky furniture? :D

Anyway, to finish on a positive note check out these last four before & after shots of what I've done with the upstairs *so far*.

Dining area as it was less than a month ago (http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/drbefore.jpg)
As of yesterday (http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/currentdrfp.jpg)

Living area as it was less than a month ago (http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/lrbefore.jpg)
As of yesterday (http://members.roadfly.com/canyonlands/currentdrfplr.jpg)

Well, thanks for listening and I'm open to insight from all of you experienced HT folks.

Cheers

[Lensman]

Redecorating the upstairs living areas were cake compared to even being able to figure out where I want the HT system set up. This has delayed my purchase of the new RPTV CRT that's replacing my old 27" Sony Wega (trouble free, lucky me).

So, anyone like to share what they think they'd do if stuck with this setting. Nothing really involved like removing the fireplace though. Should I keep the carpet and snag some funky furniture? :D

Nice work redecorating the upstairs. Some questions first:

Can you provide some dimensions for this room (perhaps on a rough sketch)?
How high is the ceiling in the main area?
It looks like you have a 5.1 system. Is this correct?
Have you chosen a particular TV?
Though removing the fireplace is out, do you have any desire to use it? If so, how frequently?

As for the carpet, if you like it, it'd certainly be cheaper to keep it. Red is actually a good color for home theaters. With the appropriate selection of paint and furniture, it could look quite nice.

[hershon]

First off the photos are terrible as I just shot them with my cel phone and the colors are totally unrepresentative of the actual color & you'll have to click on links below. How do you get photos to actually show up in the body of your post, as I've seen several people do this? Anyway, assuming I somehow have uploaded the photos right, the first photo shows my Mitsubishi in my comfortable living room with the sub to the left and my DVD/Receiver, HD DVR & my VCR next to my 3 Orb Mod 1 front speakers on top of the TV which faces my leather sofa. The speakers are several feet above my ears when I sit on the sofa. Again the colors are not close to being this red. The speakers are black. The second photo, which looks alot better shows my leather sofa centrally facing the HD TV 10' away with the 2 rear speakers both to the left and right of the sofa on the end tables ontop of 2 small cube type objects so they're facing above the couch. All the speaker wire is hidden as we ran them on the various wall edges and over and around the door which leads to my apartment (which opens into the living room).



Nice work redecorating the upstairs. Some questions first:

Can you provide some dimensions for this room (perhaps on a rough sketch)?
How high is the ceiling in the main area?
It looks like you have a 5.1 system. Is this correct?
Have you chosen a particular TV?
Though removing the fireplace is out, do you have any desire to use it? If so, how frequently?

As for the carpet, if you like it, it'd certainly be cheaper to keep it. Red is actually a good color for home theaters. With the appropriate selection of paint and furniture, it could look quite nice.

[Canyonlands]

Thanks for the kind words on the redecorating. I'm not nearly finished but it's coming along.

I do have 5.1 utilizing two large towers behind. They sound great for music and I like them for movies as well though as more money frees up I might need to downsize in this setting. I'll probably go with 6.1 eventually as well but for right now I'd just be happy if I could clear my head and figure anything out that would work!

As for the TV, I think I'll either end up with the 48" Mitsu WS48515 or possibly the 51" Toshiba 51H84

The fireplace is like a second furnace (gas log) and we haven't been through a winter here yet to see if we'll need it. I'm thinking not but it seems the only way to make a fireplace like this look OK is to throw a couple of chairs in front of it like I did upstairs.

I don't have my drafting board and so on unpacked but I sketched out a quick plan for you. Let me see if I can get the photo to work.
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio/2/241804baseplan2.jpg
Yep, I took a slight artistic approach to taking this pic.

Thanks Lensman. I'm looking forward to your ideas.





Nice work redecorating the upstairs. Some questions first:

Can you provide some dimensions for this room (perhaps on a rough sketch)?
How high is the ceiling in the main area?
It looks like you have a 5.1 system. Is this correct?
Have you chosen a particular TV?
Though removing the fireplace is out, do you have any desire to use it? If so, how frequently?

As for the carpet, if you like it, it'd certainly be cheaper to keep it. Red is actually a good color for home theaters. With the appropriate selection of paint and furniture, it could look quite nice.

[Canyonlands]

Thanks for the photos Hershon. Nice living room.

I uploaded my photo to this site's gallery and then pasted the link into the box that pops up after clicking on the "insert image" icon. It popped the image down below the quoted text and I dragged it up to where I wanted it. I'm not sure how you got your images to do what they did.

I needed a large photo so the numbers would be legible but posting a large image here instead of a link is kinda distracting. I like linking to them better.



First off the photos are terrible as I just shot them with my cel phone and the colors are totally unrepresentative of the actual color & you'll have to click on links below. How do you get photos to actually show up in the body of your post, as I've seen several people do this? SNIP

[Lensman]

Thanks Lensman. I'm looking forward to your ideas.

That's a very well-done drawing and the artistry of the shot isn't lost on me. So what do you do for a living?

Here's my thoughts: You need to eliminate as many reflection problems as possible by getting the room somewhat symmetrical. I'd start by separating the back area with the bikes from the front part of the room. You could, of course, install a wall and door. But this might get into the major surgery you wanted to avoid. Since there's a low ceiling at this point, the easiest solution might be to just place some bookcases here (which would also provide handy media storage). Three standard 30" wide bookcases would leave you an opening about 4" in width to get to the back room. A drape could go across the opening if you wanted to continue to use the back for storage. There would also be a 6" gap between the bookcases and the ceiling, but this could easily be dealt with. :) Alternatley, you could have something custom-built for a nicer look.

I've attached three drawings showing possible layouts. I've thrown in a 30" table with a couple of chairs, like you mentioned. The TV is sized to the 51" unit (but based on your room available seating distances, I'd be more inclined to go with the 48"). I've also placed a box representing your equipment rack. The bookcases are the gray boxes.

In figure A, you could keep your setup about where it is. I've thrown in a six foot sofa, though it might actually be a little wide for access. You cou replace it with La-Z-Boy seating (shown in B and C) or a loveseat. The advantage of this layout is ability to place the seating the correct distance from the TV. The problem, of course, would be using the fireplace, since your right front speaker is too close.

I played around with the angling you mentioned, but there's simply not enough room to get the seating far enough back. Nor is there a way to get the surrounds properly located. You could reverse A as shown in figure B. This would get the table in front of the fireplace like you mentioned, and would get the speakers away from the fireplace. But access would still be an issue and the rear ports of your speakers would be constrained. It'd also be best close off the stairway. Though you could probably achieve this by attaching one or two layers of sheet rock to your stair rails (shown), it may be more involved than you desire.

Figure C is what I feel to be easiest and most aesthetically pleasing solution. It also gives the best access. If you placed your TV and mains to the right of the fireplace, you'd actually have them in the center of the room. With the bookcases closing off the back, you could place seating and the surrounds along the opposite wall. The bar table could go next to the stairs, and you'd have room for a loveseat (5' shown) against the back wall for extra seating.

Hope this helps.

[PAT.P]

Another find job again.You must have lots of time on your hand.Your really into this! Pat.P

[Lensman]

Another find job again.You must have lots of time on your hand.Your really into this! Pat.P
Thank you Pat. I wouldn't say I have lots of time. But I am fortunate to be pretty handy with illustration software and I feel it's a lot easier to consider problems like Canyonlands' when you can see them visually. Hopefully I and others can help ease his pain. :)

[Canyonlands]

Hey Lensman,

Thanks a bunch for the plans and your ideas. I believe I'd thought of just about everything in the last 3 weeks (including the building of walls and removal of the fp) but with what I have going on it sure is nice to see some things on paper.

I was having a pretty hard time figuring out which RPTV I really wanted. Usually when I have such a time it means my subconscious is waiting for me to catch up. Enter front projection! For about the same money I was looking to spend on a RPTV I can get a good projector that will open up some other options and save some floor space in the process. Additionally with the long cables used for such a setup, I look forward to moving it around to see what feels best. Not something I'd enjoy with a 200 pound TV! :eek:

I knew nothing about home theater projection prior to the last couple of days. Since I've been trying to do my best to act like a sponge and soak it all in. I think I'm about ready to start getting back to floor plans with the added dimension of trying to decide what size screen I'll be using and how far back the projector will need to be. And so it goes!

The plans you generated will go on helping me with this long after the thread has died a horrible death. I replicated of yours with no furniture onto one page and continue to throw ideas around when something pops into my head during the day. Much handier than the 1/4" scale such as the one I drafted.

As it stands I feel we'll be going with a derivative of what you show in plan B with the seating further "forward". It'll take me the better part of a year to get this done to my taste but I hope to have the system up and running by Dec 15. I'm not finished throwing money at the upstairs yet, to include a couple of bedrooms. I'll come looking for you with photos when I get it the HT to stage one. I think something to sit on is in stage one. I hope I hope!! :p

Oh, and you asked what I do. I'm happy to say that in less than two years I'll be retiring from something of a DoD position after 20 years of sacrifice. :rolleyes:
I still haven't decided what to do when I grow up though. It just so happens that back in the early eighties I was in college and my major was architecture until I changed it to photo journalism. So...what do you do for a living?

Cheers




That's a very well-done drawing and the artistry of the shot isn't lost on me. So what do you do for a living?

Here's my thoughts: You need to eliminate as many reflection problems as possible by getting the room somewhat symmetrical. I'd start by separating the back area with the bikes from the front part of the room. You could, of course, install a wall and door. But this might get into the major surgery you wanted to avoid. Since there's a low ceiling at this point, the easiest solution might be to just place some bookcases here (which would also provide handy media storage). Three standard 30" wide bookcases would leave you an opening about 4" in width to get to the back room. A drape could go across the opening if you wanted to continue to use the back for storage. There would also be a 6" gap between the bookcases and the ceiling, but this could easily be dealt with. :) Alternatley, you could have something custom-built for a nicer look.
<<<SNIP>>>
Hope this helps.

[Lensman]

Hey Lensman,

Thanks a bunch for the plans and your ideas...

You're quite welcome. It definitely sounds like you have something more extensive in mind when you remodel. Since you mention playing around with the layout I drew, I've attached a larger one with the furniture placed outside the room. It's not anti-aliased, so you can scale it up as much as you want and only the table will look crappy (as it's the only thing that's not at right angles).

So you're a photographer/architect working DoD? That explains the display of artistry and technical precision. Congratulations on your impending retirement! What of me? I'm a computer programmer/EE working as an advertising Creative Director. Now you know why I asked. ;)

I appreciate you looking me up with the photos. I'd definitely like to see how you progress. Just as an FYI, I've seen a number or home theater layouts with red carpet. Common wall colors for these are black, gold and purple.

As for projectors, there are people here who know much more about them than I do. But I'll pass on what I know:

Controlling the light in the room is absolutely critical when it comes to getting a good image from a projector. As you have a large window along one wall, you'll need to make sure you have a way to significantly restrict the light coming through it.

Projector bulbs shift in color over time and need to be replaced every couple of thousand hours. As these tend to cost in the neighborhood of $350 to $500 each, you may not want to use your projector for casual viewing.

You have the right idea putting the screen as far from the fireplace as possible as heat can discolor the screen material. Though you may be able to save money on the screen or have more flexibility in placement by painting one on the wall. A number of people mix silver, gray and white paint to achieve the look of a screen without the expense.

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has a viewing distance standard (EG-18-1994) that recommends a minimum viewing angle of 30 degrees for movie theaters. This is typically taken as the standard for front projection home theaters as well. With seating at 10 feet from the screen, the screen should be 64" wide. At 15 feet, it's 96.5" wide.

THX also publishes standards for movie theaters to adhere to for THX certification. They recommend a 36 degree viewing angle. So 10 feet is 78" wide and 15 feet is 117".

Regards