The Key to a Great Media Room Design

Learn How to Balance Functionality and Performance in Multipurpose Rooms

As fantastic as dedicated home theaters are, they’re not a perfect fit for every property in the Alpharetta, Georgia area. If space is limited or you’d prefer an area that’s useful for more than just watching movies, a better option would be to add a multipurpose media room.

Now, you may think that simply adding a TV and Blu-ray player is enough to transform your living room into a great movie-watching environment, but there are actually a lot of elements that go into media room design. Below, we go over some of the main tips and tricks for designing a stellar multipurpose space.

SEE ALSO: Top 5 Home Theater Trends for 2017

Tip 1: Hidden Technology is Your Friend.

The main advantage of a multipurpose room is that you can transform it to fit whatever activity you want to do at that moment—chat with friends, play a board game or round of pool, watch a movie, relax with a good book, etc. But if the audio/video technology dominates the space, it can limit your options. It’s also simply not that appealing from an interior design perspective.

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to hide technology without limiting their functionality. For example, a projector and screen setup could be hidden in the ceiling. When you want to watch a movie, all you have to do is press a button to lower the screen and projector to the perfect height. Then, when you’re done, they can ascend back into the ceiling, hidden from sight. Speakers, Blu-ray players, televisions, cables and cords…pretty much any technology can be made invisible in the room.

Tip 2: Acoustics Matter. Don’t Ignore Them.

Just because a room is multipurpose doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of surround sound (and believe us: it makes a huge difference when you’re watching movies). This is an area of media room design where you’ll probably want to consult with an AV expert. Each room’s acoustics are different, depending on factors like the placement of furniture or shape of the room. It’s important to install the speakers in a way that accommodates for how those items will affect how sound moves throughout the space. With the right setup, you can avoid dead zones, muffled areas, or overly loud spots.

Tip 3: Windows are Great (if You Have Motorized Shades).

In a dedicated theater, you typically won’t find any windows. That’s because the sunlight can wash out the images on the screen. It’s a challenge for multipurpose rooms since sunlight is beneficial for a lot of activities you’ll want to do in that space. So how do you accommodate both? Window treatments.

The best approach is to invest in blackout motorized shades. Instead of having to close each window shade manually whenever you want to watch a movie, motorized shades close automatically when you press play, blocking out that pesky sunlight.

 
With the right media room design, you can transform any room into the perfect spot for watching a movie. If you’d like to learn more about the process of adding the technologies mentioned above, please call us at 770.888.8848 or fill out this quick contact request.