Some in-progress pics of my home theater (1 Viewer)

[MarcusDiddle]

I'm having way too much fun with this I'm nowhere near done, but it'll be beautiful when I am! I just wanted to share some pics here, since I've spent a lot of time here on the forum learning stuff. Anyway, let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions!

This is where the tv and the a/v equipment will reside. Backs right up to the storage area under the stairs, perfect for running all my cables through.



TV is in place (off the wall a bit for the time being, but it's going back against the wall). Receiver, cablebox, and dvd are in place. Xbox is in the lower portion of the tower, behind a door. Cablebox and dvd are all wired up.



I completely forget what I had hooked up where, so I'm gonna have to start from scratch and just test components as I go. Speakers aren't hooked up yet.



This is the back of the audio pier. That black tube has about 15 different cables in it at the moment (really confused the WOW cable guy today). The rest of the cables will be wrapped as well.



I came up with all this on my own, and I think it's pretty kickass. The black plug is the surge protector, which I ran behind the wall with everything else. That black tube houses all the power cables from all the components. Another black tube is gonna feed all the speaker and audio/video cables. Two of those black tubes will be the only things coming out of the wall when I'm done.



This'll all get cleaned up in the end; kinda rough for now, but that's the surge protector mounted to the wall, and the black tube feeding all the power cables, as well as the cableTV coax.



Speakerwire is all held in place by velcro strips, allowing me to adjust/add/remove cables and wiring as needed.

 

[Jimi C]

Very nice.. I have a spiderweb of cables behind my equipment rack. Im sure most of the guys here would have heart attacks if they saw it. Ive tried a few times to make some sense of it but i just cant do it. You did a really nice job.

 

[Michael.Hoffman]

I hadn't thought of using velcro like that for cable management, good idea. I also like your walls, it looks really cool in the first two pictures. Is that some kind of faux finish? Keep up the good work.

Mike

 

[MarcusDiddle]

The velcro makes it extremely easy to manage your cables, while having everything right in front of you and labeled. Also very easy to add/remove cables.

Yes, the walls are a faux paint finish (took forever but looks beautiful). My home theater is pretty much finished now, with the exception of finding wall-mounts for my Athena AS-B1's. I'm currently working on running speakerwire to another room (pooltable room) so I can pipe the audio in there as well.

 

[Elijah]

Marcus, thins are looking great, do you have some finished pics? It looks like you might have a similar room to mine (with the back of the room being open to the stairwell). What are the chances that the opposing wall has a fireplace?

I notice that even though you have the area under the stairs free you are going to mount your equipment on a rack in the room rather than recessing it into the wall. I am going to attempt the latter myself, I am just wondering why you chose not to do this.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Is that coiled-up speaker wire for a future rear surround?

 

[MarcusDiddle]

The beauty of designing your own room, from framing to finish, is the ability to plan for changes in the future

 

[SteveSs]

I love the finish on your walls. Could you tell me what you used?

 

[MarcusDiddle]

Thanks! It's a 2 or 3 step process. You'll need:
Base coat of paint
Top coat of paint
glaze mixture
plastic dropcloths

The lighter of the two colors is the base coat, painted on and dried. Once dry, you apply the top coat, which is a mixture of whatever color you want, and a glazing mixture. Once the top coat is painted on, you have to spread a sheet of plastic (like a dropcloth) over the entire wall, brushing it into the paint before it dries. Once the plastic sheet is applied, you let it sit for 1-2 minutes, and then simply peel it off. It pulls the majority of the wet paint off the wall, leaving behind the pattern you see above. The "veins" are simply wrinkles in the plastic. Want the walls darker, don't leave the plastic on so long (and vice-versa, longer you leave the plastic on, the more paint it pulls off). It's a pain cause it has to be done so quickly, but the effect is incredible.

 

[SteveLeach]

Very cool, I also like the crown molding.