Potted plant or other ideas for reflection treatment? (1 Viewer)

[Greg Robinson]

Hi gang. I'm in the final stages of creating my new basement theater and I'm starting to consider treating the first reflection points. (I've attached a photo where I've pencil-circled the areas in question.)

Here's the thing. WAF is very important to me and my wife loves the room so far. You can't really see it in this photo - because it's not done yet - but we're going to have wainscoting on the bottom half of the wall with a chair rail/cap. The wainscoting will die/end at the corner posts you see flanking the screen. Due to the 1 inch (or more) difference between the outer edge of the chair rail and the blue drywall above it, a panel is going to look silly because it won't hang flush to the wall. Not to mention my wife really doesn't like the idea of hanging acoustical panels at these locations. And I agree - I think they'll take away from the aesthetic appeal of the room. So I'm thinking of other options to treat these areas. One thing I'm considering is a dense, possibly artificial (no windows!) potted plant. Something column-like that wouldn't overflow into the room.

Any other ideas? Non-traditional suggestions for treating that first reflection point? Thanks!!

 

[Kevin Stewart]

Have you thought about using acoustic material covered in fabric below the chair rail instead of wainscoting?

 

[Rancho5]

Not knowing specifically what wainscoting is (wall divided with chair rail for two tone effect?) I would suggest doing what i am doing and that's using a chair rail to divide the wall, painting/texturing the top portion and using sisal for the bottom portion. It absorbs sound, is easy to install and buffers foot bumps along the walls so walls remain clean. Ours will be charcoal top walls, chair rail then black sisal.

 

[Kevin Stewart]

Wainscoting is basically a decorative paneling.

Sisal won't do anything for the sound (well, no more than carpet or just about any other material). You need to get linacoustic (or similar) covered in fabric if you want to acoustically treat your room properly.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Put in some wall-to-wall carpet. You'll probably find that between that and your furniture that no further treatment is needed for reflections. Personally I've never heard a carpeted room that I felt needed more treatment.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt