Turn a Living Room into a Home Cinema Environment

How to turn your living room into a Home Cinema

A bespoke home cinema is the latest 'must have' for modern luxury homes. But with space at a premium not many houses have an entire room available to dedicate to a cinema space. For those of you looking for a home cinema experience without losing an entire room of the house you can turn your existing living space into a home cinema experience at the push of a button! 

By utilising the latest technology and the best in cinema furniture you can create a flexible living space able to be both a cinema space and living room at the same time. 

The Cinema Screen

TV screens have come on a long way in the past few years and it is more than possible to gain a fantastic home cinema experience using a large screen TV rather than your traditional projector configuration. 

If you do want a projector these can be designed to retract up and away when the cinema room is not in use. This allows you to keep the TV for general use and then drop down the projector and screen when you turn your cinema experience on.

You can even opt for 3D screenings! You really will feel like you are there and the quality of your experience will be that much more special! The television screens are great for viewing as they fill your entire field of view with colours and action; it also means you can keep the TV for everyday use like playing video games, listening to music and presentations without having to move to another area or the TV having to being moved into storage!

The Sound System

To maximise your full cinema experience, the speakers you choose are crucial! Not only the quality is second to none, the surround sound speaker system would be the best option as you'd feel like you're in the centre of it all. It also means you benefit from the best sound quality. You should opt for at least a 5.1 surround sound system to get that home cinema experience. But more is not always best. Your home cinema designer will be able to tell you the best combination of speakers for the size of the room you have. 

When adding a home cinema experience into your existing living room design and seamless integration is key. We all know having exposed speakers sticking out of a wall is difficult to disguise. To make your room look more streamlined you can easily conceal your technology transforming your living room into a home theatre. An example of this is using Artcoustic technology from Musical Images. This is to hide your speakers behind a piece of art so you can have noise blaring out, without anyone knowing precisely where it is coming from. If you want to be more creative you can have your very own design printed onto the speaker grilles to make it look like they are part of your bespoke design.

The speaker for your cinema space can also connect with the wider home if you choose a wireless sound system such as Heos speakers. These enable you to listen to your music around your home using up to 32 speakers via Bluetooth. 

The Media Storage

Any type of home cinema design will include some type of technology and wires. The home media storage you pick should both contain all of this AND work well with your normal living room design. A mixture of open shelving and closed cupboards can be the perfect solution to hide unsightly home cinema tech away and allow areas of shelving to display books, ornaments and photos. 

You can buy these off the shelf or you could ask your home cinema designer to design a media storage solution for you! This will give you the best suitability for both the space, technology and design of the living space. 

Separate the Space 

Internal doors are perfect for separating and merging rooms together. Understandably, the home cinema will not always be in use so to make use of your space, you can have your half of your home cinema room closed off and used as a living space! This is achieved by dividing the indoor living space between the two rooms which gives the feeling that the room is bigger than it actually is.

An internal glass door like ADL can close off the cinema space from your open plan living area when the cinema is in use. The Piana ADL Door uses two pieces of glass so had better sound insulation than just one. With glass designs in a range of colours and types you can ensure these fit in with your interior design. 

The Furniture 

For a living and cinema space combined it is more likely you will choose a sofa over traditional home cinema seating. We know they give more of a homely feel than cinema chairs because you can lie across them, cosy up with your partner or friends... this is so you can all enjoy the experience together. Sofas offer practicality and comfort. Some sofas can be separated into modules so whether you want to put your feet up or lie down effectively turning it into a bed, this modern sofa can be arranged into any shape that suits your comfort and any living space be it small or large. Whereas cinema chairs are ideally suited for watching movies only.

Additional elements of seating such as armchairs or lazy chairs are great additions to the space. Don't forget the side tables and coffee tables too. 

Blinds and Lighting

We all know that the best cinema experience is in the dark. A good blind system to block out natural light is needed for a home cinema living space. A bespoke blind company like Grants offer you the option fit your window from top to bottom and on the sides so you can fill existing window openings fully with black out material. 

Even though the cinema will likely be viewed in the dark the lighting should not be overlooked. There are all kind of lights that can be used in a home cinema design such as; LED, Ambient, recessed and wall scones lighting. A traditional home cinema would use subtle lighting schemes recessed into the walls and ceilings. When you are going to be using the space for a living room as well you may want to opt for something a little more decorative. Designer wall lights can be integrated into the home cinema controls and won't hang down into the viewing of the screen. If you do choose a pendant light just make sure it doesn't hang down too low and obstruct the vision of the screen. 

"Now You See It, Now You Don't"

"These type of multi use cinema spaces are called 'Now you see it, now you don't" by the professionals," explains Abdul at IQ Furniture. "It means that you can press a button and the home cinema technology suddenly becomes visible. Either because it has been turned on or it has emerged from the ceiling or floor. They are by far the most popular home cinema design we get involved with on renovation or extension projects."

Here at IQ Furniture, we offer all of this and much more, not only do we offer a FANTASTIC package but our team of professional interior designers will go the era mile to ensure you are happy with your bespoke design and that it matches everything you are looking for. To find out more about the system please contact the team on 01494 722 880 or email hello@iqfurniture.co.uk