How to Create a Great Home Theater Experience

If you’ve undertaken a project like creating your own private movie theater, naturally, you want it to be the best it can be. Home theater builds are one time where you should go all out. It’s a leisure room for entertainment – it should fun, comfy and convenient. So whether you already have a bonus room you converted to a movie theater, or you’re just starting your DIY home theater journey, don’t settle for standard; make sure you’ve got all the bells and whistles in there. 

When you want to get a better experience by watching a movie in a home theater, there are 5 components in your home theater setup that can make or break the room. If you plan these 5 facets thoughtfully, you’ll be able to get the best home theater experience when your project is done. Let’s take a look:

Choose Luxury, Artisan Home Theater Seating

To get the best experience of a home theater, custom multimedia seating is mandatory. Don’t stop at a simple entertainment room couch when you could opt for a sectional sofa with all the features of home theater furniture. Or go with a classic movie theater vibe and choose a layout with rows of home theater recliners. There are dozens of possibilities when brainstorming your movie room’s seating arrangement. 

Whatever seating setup you choose for your media room, make sure the home theater seating company you order from offers the modern features you’re looking for in multimedia furniture today. The best home theater seating would: 

• Be upholstered in full-grain Nappa leather, or high-quality non-leather seating options like vegan leather, microfiber or velour. 
• Be available in over a dozen leather colors with options for two-tone leather, contrast piping and custom embroidery.
• Be constructed in solid steel and wood, and specifically designed for ergonomics and longevity. 
• Use a reclining system unmatched in comfort and utility, like the Leggett-Platt mechanism.
• Come with luxury features like LED-lit cup holders, underfoot lighting, and options for bass shaker seats.
• Be available in a number of recliner, row and couch options for flexible seating layouts.

There’s a lot to look for when shopping home theater seat stores, but the elbow work is worth it in the end. On top of all these features, there are two important factors that you should take into account during your search:

Lumbar support

Every body is different, and not everyone prefers their seat in the same position while watching the film. So, lumbar support would provide you with the perfect position of your choice. Between lumbar support, high-density cushion construction, and that Leggett-Platt mechanism we talked about earlier, the right home theater furniture can relieve pressure points and keep you comfortable through even the longest movie. 

But we will say, lumbar support, while it’s a must for some people, isn’t necessarily a must for everybody, especially if the seating you chose for your movie room is already constructed with a focus on ergonomics and comfort.

Motorized headrest

Home theater seating with motorized reclining and headrests allow you to lean back your head, which provides you with the best view without straining your neck. Some people have an issue of getting neck problems by watching a movie for a long time, and headrests you can’t adjust don’t really let you rest your head. 

A motorized headrest would solve the issue of movie-induced neck strain by providing the flexibility of adjusting the head position. So, an adjustable headrest adds luxury and comfort to enjoying the films in your home theater. While it’s not a must, we’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love the powered headrests on their home theater recliners.

Picture-Perfect Projector Setups with 4K Features

You can get the best possible picture quality and the best home theater setup by using a 4K projector and a complementary screen. Projectors that offer 4K features provide the highest picture quality you can experience – it’s a step up from HD. 

But remember, you can ruin even the best picture quality with light intrusion. The good news is, in any home theater, it is pretty easy to eliminate all ambient light with the right blackout curtains and avoiding adding any reflective surfaces to the room. 

Surround Sound with Cordless Setups 

Part of your planning when it comes to your electrical setup is the sound system you choose for your movie room. There are a lot of great sound systems for home theaters on the market today, so that’s not going to be an issue in your search. But you do have to consider the physics and aesthetics of your media room to make the most out of that fancy surround sound setup.

• Consider speaker placement. Make sure seats on the ends of the back row of recliners aren’t so close to the speakers that they can’t hear all the sounds equally.
• Consider the strength and saturation of your sound system. If you overload a room with noise, even the nicest speakers will sound muddy.
• Make sure you’ve soundproofed your home theater room with acoustic panels, sound dampeners and heavy, velvet curtains. Avoid hard wood or tile floors, which bounce sound around the room.

Finally, think of the infrastructure behind your sound system. Nobody like seeing cords all over the walls like some invasive species of vine. Or worse, tripping over the cords that your multimedia furniture hooks up to. Before you start your home theater project, plan out the electrical to be sure you can hide cords in the walls and aren’t short on outlets.

And, to be honest, if your media room is small, you might not even need surround sound. Consider a sound bar – they’re sleek, can be mounted on a wall, and offer great sound quality.

Coordinate Colors & Textures between Your Seating & Décor 

The way your home theater looks might not be the most important factor in your design process, but don’t you want your media room to look sharp when the lights are on? Often, it’s smart to pare down your color palette and choose shades on the darker end of the spectrum. You want colors that aren’t going to interfere with the light from the projector. Wall paint should be flat, floors should be dark, low pile carpet, and curtains should be dark with a soft, non-reflective texture. 

Coordinate the seating you choose for your theater room with all these other facets of décor. Instead of a busy color palette, opt for mixing in as many different textures as possible between the leather seating, the velour curtains, the woven carpet, the flat paint – you can create dynamic design without using the whole rainbow.

Fun Touches, Accessories & Designer Details

Complete your experience with accessories for home theaters and extra design details that enhance the ambience of the room. Grab a retro popcorn machine to put in the back corner. Add a wine fridge to the room and opt for seating accessories like wine caddies. 

Add dimmers to your overhead lighting and plop a couple bean bag chairs and floor pillows in the space between the front row and the projector screen. These things make your media room seem warm and inviting while also adding to the designer look of the whole thing.

One accessory for home theaters we love is starlight ceilings. Who doesn’t love leaning back and looking up at the soft, twinkling lights of the night sky? The starlight effect of these installations adds a design detail to the ceiling; a space most people ignore when planning their private theaters.

The Best Experience in Home Theater Seating

When it comes to the furniture you choose for your media room layout, Valencia has all your bases covered. Dedicated to the comfort, luxury and design that every homeowner should have in their movie room seating, we offer customizations for seat model, size, type, layout, features, and more. With the right options, It’s easy to make a fantastic home theater seating setup for your space.Start your home theater seating adventure by brainstorming with our 3D virtual customizer and explore the possibilities. There are so many, you may have trouble choosing. Regardless, when your Valencia home theater seats show up at your door ready to assemble and install, you’ll realize that of all things, this is the key to a future full of great movie-watching experiences.