# new rental small bedroom convert need lots of help



## rmclain73 (Oct 22, 2010)

My wife and are moving into a new rental condo for at least 3-5 years and she has given me the green light to turn either one of the two spare bedrooms into a small dedicated theater with screen and projector. Thats the good news. The bad news is that neither of the two rooms are ideal. Is this even possible with the layout of the rooms, or I am just going to be stuck with a plasma mounted on the wall. I want to go as large as I can.

Here is a link to the floor plan of the place:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/189/floorplano.jpg/

One of the rooms is 11' x 9'-6", the other room is 11'-1"x12'-2". Besides the small size to the rooms there are other issues to deal with. Lets start with the 11'x9'-6" room first. If you look at the floor plan in the link above you will see that one corner of the room is angled. A closet sits in that corner. This makes for a bad audio setup. Also, kind of really cuts down on width of the back wall for seating. I think you would need to really bring the seats away from the wall to fit something in that space. That is really is going to bring the viewer close to the screen, which is going to have to be really small. There is one window in the room that can be easily blocked when needed The 11'-1"x12'-2" room has it share of problems as well. The room is actually more like 9'-4"x12'-2" as there is a closet that pretty much runs the length of one side of the walls. This room however seems to offer a little bit more potential I think. One because it is more of rectangle shape, and two it is just a longer room offering more length for seating and larger screen size. It does have more to work around though I would say. This room has two closets, both of which are placed in bad spots for what I want to do. One of the closets pretty much runs the length of one of the walls, and the other is in the corner of the wall that would be good for screen placement. I would need to do a pull-down screen if I wanted the screen centered in the middle of the wall, and it would need to be able to clear the door from the closet behind it. The back wall that would be where the seating would go has two windows. Those could be covered when needed. The room does not get much light in it past 10am so the windows are not really that much of a problem. Some sort of shelf would need to be built to house the projector in the middle of the two windows near the ceiling, or if I got a projector with lens shift I could put it on a table or rack of sorts in the corner opposite the rooms entrance. I then have to worry about how to setup audio in this room. I think the closet on the wall that I want to project on is a real problem for me.

Is this even workable in either of the two rooms?? 

I am open to all ideas about seats that give me the best possible setup.

I already have an audio system. A energy take 5 classic with Pioneer 1020 receiver. I need the screen and projector. I would be using this 90% of the time for movies so I would love a 2:35.1 ratio screen. I could also do a 16:9 screen if a projector out there will give me black enough levels where masking will not be needed. My budget for screen and projector is $2500. If it would be worth it to spend more I would consider it. What projector and screen would you recommend? How big can I go?

Looking for any help, ideas, or input anyone has for me.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Either room can be made to work. As you said, not ideal but doable.

In the larger of the 2 rooms, I would sit so that the windows are on your right when facing the screen. Seating position at approx 2/3 of the room still gives a walkway though surround placement might be an issues.

In the other room, the angle would be at your rear left. 2/3 placement will put you close to the screen and in this room you'd likely be honestly better off with a large LED/LCD/Plasma rather than a screen - though you can get the same 'immersion factor' and not have the light control problems.

The biggest thing in making a smaller room work is to not try to go too big and over power the room in terms of screen size or audio system.

Bryan


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## rmclain73 (Oct 22, 2010)

bpape said:


> Either room can be made to work. As you said, not ideal but doable.
> 
> In the larger of the 2 rooms, I would sit so that the windows are on your right when facing the screen. Seating position at approx 2/3 of the room still gives a walkway though surround placement might be an issues.
> 
> ...


I had thought of this a well, but that would put that long closet the that almost runs the length of the wall behind you. By the time you made clearance for speakers and walkway you would only be seated like 7' away from the screen. That long closet does have shelves that would work to store the equipment, but I need to check on the temps and venting issues. 

I think I assume I am reading what you said correctly.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Seating position is goal 1. We put it where it needs to be (around 2/3 room length) and leave it. Speakers would go up higher on the rear - possible hanging from the ceiling on brackets so that doesn't impact the walkway. 

If you changed the doors to something that was somewhat porous, you could use additional bass absorption in the closet and effectively change the room length to include the closet depth in terms of bass modes.

Bryan


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