Three Types of Home Cinema Rooms

A bespoke Home Cinema is an exciting viewing experience for anyone who wants to enjoy the beauty of cinema within their own home. Far from being simple viewing studios home cinemas have now become part of the home, being used for sports viewing, gaming and all around entertainment. The art of creating the perfect home cinema design is best left to the experts but you can start the process by deciding what Type of cinema room you want.

 

A Traditional Home Cinema

A traditional home cinema room is a perfect replication of a true theatre, recreated in your home. It offers the ultimate home cinema experience in a purpose designed room solely for the use of home cinema viewing.

The key defining element of design for a traditional home cinema design is the seating and screen options chosen.

The Cinema Screen

A traditional home cinema will most often use a true cinema projection screen and high definition projector. This type of screen projector combo offers a high-level picture quality and true cinema experience.

The 'true cinema screen' is perforated to allow speakers to be installed behind it. That means that the sound from your movie actually comes at you through the screen offering an immersive cinema experience.

As these rooms are often solely used for the purposes of film watching there is no need for the projector to be descending but that is always there as an option. At our Home Cinema Show Space in Amersham, we use a high definition JVC projector paired with a true perforated cinema screen which offers an impressive picture quality and an immersive experience.

The Cinema Seating

When you see a picture of a traditional home cinema the key defining element of its design will be the tiered cinema seating.

Cinema seats with recliners, electric headrests & feet rests are perfect for getting the most out of the luxury home theatre experience. There is a wide range of designs available from these true cinema seats. At IQ Furniture we work with a range of cinema seats from luxury designers Cineak. They offer the pinnacle of luxury and comfort and are perfectly suited for private cinema designs.

If you opt for these true cinema seats you will need to consider a tiered seating configuration to ensure that you have the perfect view no matter where you sit. In some cases, especially for larger private cinema rooms, a faceted or curved seating configuration may be useful. 

You can find out more about cinema seating configurations and important design aspects like the Horizontal and Vertical Viewing Angle at our advice article here: The Optimum Home Cinema Design

 

A Modern Home Cinema

A modern home cinema design is very similar to a traditional layout in many ways; it is a dedicated room for home cinema viewing, you want to create an immersive cinema experience, the technology used is often top of the range.

However when creating a modern home cinema room the design and furniture choice is as important and the tech behind it all.

Modern home cinemas will use carefully curated media systems, comfy sofas rather than bucket cinema seats and added elements of furniture. The purpose of a modern private cinema design is that it creates a true cinema experience but the room can also double up as an entertainment space or second living room.

Additional entertainment elements like a pool table, home bar or old school arcade game can also help create a multipurpose room that can be used by the entire household.

The Cinema Sofas

The main visual difference between a true cinema and a modern cinema room will be the furniture and seating choices. Most modern cinema, designs will opt for a large comfortable sofa that is big enough to sit the entire family.

A large corner sofa or modular style sofa will offer you the best seating solution. The sofa can then be paired with laid-back armchairs or a chaise lounge for additional seating options and a full seating design.

The Media Storage

As a modern home cinema room will often be used with the lights in cinema mode and on it is important that the interior design of the room is carefully considered. That means ensuring that all furniture pieces work together as a whole concept as well as looking to minimise the impact of the technology on the room design.

A bespoke home media storage solution often works very well to hide all technology and wires away as well as creating a well-designed addition to the room scheme.

These wall storage solutions can be easily designed to work in conjunction with a true cinema screen, drop down projector or large TV screen as required.

 

A Living Space and Cinema Experience Combined

With internal living space at a premium, not many households have the space to dedicate an entire room to a pure cinema room. That is why we are seeing a growing rise in the design of living space/cinema room combos.

This is where you design a normal living room scheme that is able to be turned into an immersive home cinema experience at the touch of a button.

In regards to the furniture selection, you can select the furniture that you would if the space were to be a normal living room. However, you will want to carefully consider the seating options and seating location to ensure you have a good view of the screen. Also, avoid low hanging pendant lights that could impede cinema viewing. 

The Cinema Screen or TV

A living cinema room will most often choose a high specification TV screen as their cinema screen. High definition TV screens will give you excellent visual quality for cinema viewing and do not look out of place within a living room design. 

If you would like to still include a cinema screen as part of your living cinema design you could integrate both into the room design! The Kubic 505 home storage system includes a retractable projector screen within the media storage. This allows you to have a normal TV screen (either wall mounted or freestanding) which is then covered by the cinema screen when it drops down from up above.

The Home Media Storage

The beauty of a living cinema room is that no one can tell that there is an impressive amount of home technology behind the attractive façade. Although wireless technology systems are now widely available there are normally quite a few wires that need to be hidden as part of the home theatre design. Therefore any home media storage solution needs to be designed to allow you to hide wires and technology away.

 
A bespoke storage system will also allow you to combine it with bookshelf and cupboard combinations to suit your living space and storage needs exactly. 

Find out more about our Bespoke Home Storage Design Service Here.

The Lighting Design

The design of lighting schemes is an integral part of a modern home interior design and when it comes to a living home cinema it is even more important.

You want a lighting scheme that functions well for your space on a day to day basis but then can switch to create the optimum cinema experience.

 
Using an expert lighting designer is really useful in these complicated multi-use spaces. A lighting designer like LIGHTING BY PLUM will be able to advise on lighting placement, lighting control and lighting function.

You can find out more about lighting design and home cinemas here.

The 'Now You See It Now You Don't' Technology

'Now you see it now you don't' is a term used to describe the invisibility of the home cinema technology used in a living cinema room design.

At the touch of a button lighting, moods can change, the projector can descend, blinds can close and your living room is suddenly transformed into a perfect home cinema room. Then when your cinema room is no longer required, the cinema room can disappear and leave your beautiful living space undisturbed.

IQ Furniture offer a full design and installation package for home cinema designs, no matter their shape or space, so you don't have to worry about a thing including your needs and requirements. If you would like to find out more about the system and what we offer then please contact our team on 01494 722 880 or alternatively email hello@iqfurniture.co.uk and you can arrange a free of charge consultation.

Visit our immersive home cinema experience in Amersham to get an understanding of a home cinema design for yourself.