# How to build a theater in 1,110,993 easy steps



## seattle_ice

I have already gotten partway through building a theater in my home, and I have decided to document it in the hopes that someone else might find it interesting or helpful, or at least not so boring they want to hurl themselves off a cliff.

This is the story of a man, his house, and a small (Ha!), low budget(Yeah, right), theater.

It all started innocuously enough. A couple years ago I built a new house for my wife and myself. It was a trifling 4700 square feet with the daylight basement, so the two of us could go weeks without actually having to communicate or even see each other - marital bliss!

I designed and built the entire house by myself, with the occasional laborer from craigslist (when they would actually show up). I also hired a foundation contractor, a HVAC contractor, and a roofing contractor, but the rest I did with my own two hands, with some help from my family. And seeing as how I am a Software Engineer, it all came quite naturally.  

The conceptual front drawing I came up with was this:











And the one the engineer gave back to me when he said mine wouldn't work - the changes should be hugely apparent. I guess he earns all that money by inserting roof textures?










And the house when we moved in looked like this:










And on the 366th day, I proclaimed the house finished, and we lived happily ever after, or at least until I thought of the next project approximately 3 minutes later.:whistling:


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## seattle_ice

When I was excavating the lot for the foundation, we had a small snafu. By small, I mean it only became a $20,000 cost overrun, and by snafu, I mean a huge problem that caused me to have to re-engineer the foundation and turn the front walls from 3' stub walls to 12' behemoths that would support rebuilding one of the twin towers, with enough steel to build a bridge between them. And it took 2 months of waiting to get them engineered and approved from the county so we could get moving again.

In the meantime, it snowed and half of the open pit mine I had going collapsed and had to be dug out again for the low, low, one time payment of $5,000.00.

Eventualy, I ended up with a foundation for my house, but with a big problem. The depth under the location for the garage floor was now 12' instead of 3'. That is a whole lot of expensive fill.

The guy in the red flannel is standing right at the area where the garage is going to be:










You can see my dilemma. Either I fill the whole area for the garage floor, or that is going to be one steep driveway!

So after talking to my engineer, I decided to suspend 3" of concrete floor on top of TJI joists @ 12" centers and 1-1/8" T&G plywood. That way I could just leave the 8' crawlspace under the garage. A lot of work, but cheaper and faster than filling and compacting 11' of fill.

So during construction the framed floor would look like this:










And underneath the floor looked like these two pics:

North (Right side is ~9 feet high, left side is ~6 feet):









South:









The reason the dirt was piled up so high at the front wall is because the engineer said that without a floor at the base of the wall, the extra weight was needed to help hold the walls in place. Hmmmm. I will take his word, but those walls are 12" thick with 3/4" rebar every 12" both directions.

And so we had a house with crawlspaces that even the monster alien rats could comfortably live in.


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## seattle_ice

Now, all this crawlspace did have its bonuses. I was able to make part of the space below the garage into the equipment room to house the furnace for the top floors, both water heaters, and all the high tech equipment. 

To access the equipment room, I had to traipse through the crawl space. After a few of these trips to wire my network and phones, a lightbulb went off - "I could haul a bunch of this dirt out, pour a concrete floor, and turn this crawlspace into something useful". 

After moving 14 yards of dirt down and out a hallway (with very beat up walls now) and pouring a new concrete floor through a vent, voila! A cold, unheated, concrete floored paradise for spiders. What to do, what to do..... 

Of COURSE that question was rhetorical. A THEATER!. Oops, did I say that loud enough for the wife to hear? 

I would have to add heating/cooling duties. A lucky end of year buyout at grainger netted me a 3 way, 2 ton (32,000 btu) mini split for 25% of its normal price ($1500) and it even came with free shipping to my garage!

The initial stab at a layout for the theater:










After some discussions in various forums, I decided:

*Subwoofer(s) - * Infinite Baffle with (4) Fi Audio IB3-18's 4ohm powered by an EP2500 and EQ'ed by a BFD. I had just enough room to build a false wall to house the screen, speakers and subwoofers, and if I left it open to the adjacent equipment room, It would handily accommodate the 10x Vas optimal for the IB. Plus what guy does not want 4 ginormous subs staring at them!

*LCR Speakers - * Many options were considered, but factoring in the narrowness of the room and the width of the screen desired left only one option for the type of speakers: In-wall behind an acoustically transparent screen. After some suggestions and lots of looking around, I decided to go with the NatalieP in-walls.

*Surround Speakers - * Some small 2-ways of my own devising. I am fairly happy with them but no telling what happens with these later.

*Screen - * DIY screen with Seymour AV screen material. This is some very, very good stuff that is comparable or better to most of the AT screens out there, some costing 10X the raw material prices.

*Amp(s) - * The LCR front speakers will be powered by my Earthquake CineNova Grande 3 channel, and the surrounds will be powered by my Onkyo 876 receiver.


So my conceptual floorplan for the room eventually looked like this:










And my concept for the screen wall:









So I was now ready to start throwing cash around willy-nilly to get all the toys. Merry christmas to me! I have to stop saying this stuff out loud. 8O


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## seattle_ice

After pouring the concrete floor, the first thing I noticed was size of the concrete column bases. They were gigantic, and were more intrusive than Raymonds mother. So I rented some temporary supports for the Glu-Lam, jackhammered the concrete down to the floor, and replaced them with full length 6" x 6"s. 

Much cleaner look. 

A few weeks later, after the framing was finished, I was working on the wiring when my know-it-all neighbor decided to drop by. He takes one look and proclaims "You got way too many circuit breakers for that one room. That will never pass code". Now I may not have the knowledge base of God (or even L & I), but I am pretty sure that there is nothing in the UBC that tells me the correct number of breakers to use for a specific room. So I continue to work while he tells me all about the theater he built for the Sheik of Abda Babba, and the 'Secret' wiring he did for Bill Gates' basement. BUT NOBODY HAS EVER ACTUALLY SEEN HIM WITH A TOOL IN HIS HANDS! He must be very, very clever to hide his activity like that.

Another couple weeks, and here we are:











The soffit on the upper left hides ductwork that feeds the upstairs. It was originally 24" flex duct that I ripped out and replaced with rectangular duct to make it fit much tighter in the corner. So I just made the soffit go all the way around for looks.

The header over the opening below the screen is just one of many leftovers from building the house. Oriented Strand beams are very stiff and have very low deflection.

There are a few problems with the room, such as big metal straps on the wall that are not going to sit very flat, some framing that will be a little in the way, and the one duct feeding into the furnace on the left, but this was originally designed to be plastic covered dirt so I will just have to make the best of it.


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## dradius

:unbelievable: Your house looks awesome. Very very cool that you built it yourself. Wow. And you're an I.T. guy at that :bigsmile:

I run 2 18"s off an EP2500 and am considering doubling that. I'm also looking at a subwall and possibly a DIY AT screen, so I'm really interested in your build. Any info (or build pics ) of the screen would be great. Good luck man, but it looks like it is going to turn out great.


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## seattle_ice

dradius said:


> :unbelievable: Your house looks awesome. Very very cool that you built it yourself. Wow. And you're an I.T. guy at that :bigsmile:
> 
> I run 2 18"s off an EP2500 and am considering doubling that. I'm also looking at a subwall and possibly a DIY AT screen, so I'm really interested in your build. Any info (or build pics ) of the screen would be great. Good luck man, but it looks like it is going to turn out great.


I will post the pics of building the screen when I get to that stage in the thread, I wont keep you waiting too long though.:foottap:

I would like to show a couple more details before moving on to the next stage.

1. I decided to do a double coffered ceiling and chandelier at the entrance to the theater. Lots of work to frame, and later for all the crown molding, but should be spectacular. The only problem is the height of the ceiling is only 9' so I have to find a shallow type of light. 










2. I put low voltage electrical boxes (the orange open back ones) everywhere I thought I might ever want to run a speaker for HT or music use. I then ran a speaker wire to each one from the equipment room area. 










3. I ran 2" pvc conduit to the projector mount from the area behind the screen. The projector mount I purchased actually has a threaded 2" hole for pipe in the top, so I used an adaptor and ran my conduit right to it. I nailed a 4" x 12" piece of beam in between my joists to screw the mount into later and drilled a hole to accommodate the conduit. That way I never have to worry about what cables are run because you can always run another.


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## seattle_ice

Deciding on the style was a tough decision. My house is trimmed in authentic craftsman reproduction style. Big, heavy moldings without too much fru-fru like a victorian - like this:










(Please ignore the flock of seagulls late 80's couch. It has since retired to search for the last remaining Rick Springfield fangirls.)

But I wanted the theater to be a little fancier and more ornate. So I finally decided to do it in what I like to call "Fluted [email protected] Arts and Craftsman". 5" crown molding and 8" baseboard. Big fluted columns with raised panels and chair rail.

Any one who has done some finish work knows how tedious and time consuming it is. Especially when you are making all your own fluted panels, raised panels, etc. as you go.

Here is the existing hallway to the Theater. It will eventually have "Now Playing" posters on the walls, and the floor will be a dark brown marble with tan insets:










The next decision I made was to incorporate the surround speakers right into the columns. This would make the columns a little trickier, and I would also need to build some false columns on the wall to match, but I thought it would be quite custom.

The basic columns just start as a box that I routed out fluted patterns on, then assembled in place:










Then I made matching ones for the wall. I had to make the angled speaker parts seperately for the big columns because they were wider and lumber does not come that wide.










I also built a raised platform to set the second row of seating, and a third row that will consist of a bar table with some stools:










I incorporated 4 low voltage lights in to the step that wrapped around the platform:










And I wrapped the step all the way around and across the entrance doorway for looks. A router took care of rounding off the front edge of all the steps:


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## Prof.

This looks like it's going to be an outstanding theatre..:T
Do you have a sketchup of the proposed design?


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## seattle_ice

Lighting always seems to be a bugaboo for me. I change my mind 20 times, I can't figure out what style, yadda, yadda. We finally settled on (4) wall sconces, a small chandelier where you come in, a rope light behind the crown molding, (6) recessed lights for general use, and the (4) low voltage lights in the platform. I am going to put the platform lights on a dusk sensor so that they will only come on when the other lights go out and it gets dark.

The crown molding over the main part of the room was held down from the ceiling so I could run an led rope light behind it. To support it correctly, I cut and glued in a bunch of small triangular pieces after the crown was up. 










I had also wired an outlet in a corner of the ceiling that went to one of the switches by the door.

To finish the columns off, I made 19 raised panels out of MDF. These would be glued on the surface of the lower half of the columns, between the base and the chair rail. The outside edge was done using a Roman Ogee bit, and the groove was done using the same 1/2" box bit I used for the upper flutes.

The chair rail was done in two parts. The top part was a piece I ripped down from 5/4" x 3" to be 2" wide.










Closeup view (you can see some evidence of nearly a quart of glue that was used in this room - my wife accuses me of having stock in Titebond)










If I had not had the dust collection on my router, they might still be trying to dig me out. Anyone who thinks I am exaggerating too much has not spent much time with a router and MDF. The dust gets into EVERYTHING. Even with the dust collection, you still find a list mist of it everywhere.


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## seattle_ice

My next bullet point in the construction was to make the equipment room as unnoticeable as possible. So I covered the wall with a sheet of MDF from the column to the corner, and cut a door into the closet from the MDF. 7 cabinet hinges and some molding later, you can hardly even see the door now that it is painted.










And with the door open:










The first type of hinge I tried wouldn't work, so I had to go get a second kind that opened with better clearance. I also added a small chain as a limiter to people wouldn't slam the door into the wall.


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## Anthony

Love the house and the trimwork detail. Sort of a Tudor / Bungalow hybrid -- both styles the wife and I like. 

As an amateur handyman/woodworker I always like finish carpentry and cabinet building. Those panel details and fluting are excellent! They will look awesome when painted.


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## dradius

(still) looking really great. The columns look spectacular. The only thing I disagree with is getting rid of the seagull couches 
no problem about the screen build pics... don't want to mess up your flow


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## Bruce Fisher

nice stuff - great to read about other people's work


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## seattle_ice

The next one was a source of some small disagreements between the wife and myself. She even mentioned that she thought the paint color was more important than this - one of the most fundamentally important questions facing me during this build was: What the was I going to use for a subwoofer?

I have built and read about so many varieties that at times I thought I might never decide. But after some input from various forum members, and reading a bunch of stuff over at the Cult of the Infiinitely Baffled, I decided upon an IB. 

Not just any IB would do, though, as it must me powerful and monstrous, and most importantly, look totally kick-a#@. So a wall of four 18" Fi Audio IB3 subs powered by 2500 watts of pro goodness in the EP2500 was going to do the LFE duties.

How to mount them? I got the idea to do kind of a raised stage look, and this is what I ended up building to house the subs:










The front baffles are 1-1/2" thick mdf, and yes I routed the outside edges of all four panels to match the column panels. Eventually, the baffle will get braced to the concrete wall behind it at each joint to keep these bad boy subs from shaking it apart.


Moving on to the next issue facing me, we have a furnace/hi tech panel room that needs a door. But the door is 32" wide and only 77" tall (instead of 80"). After getting a couple estimates from the door suppliers and lumberyards that were north of $300, I decided to buy one of the cheap ($100) metal six-panel exterior doors from Lowes and cut it down myself. It was not as hard as I feared it would be. I pried the weatherstrip from the bottom, taped it off, cut both sides using a jigsaw with a fine toothed metal cutting blade, then reglued the old strip back to the bottom of the door.

The paint color and scheme we chose for the woodwork is supposed to look kind of like old, worn leather. It involves painting a light brown basecoat, then coating over it with a very dark one, and while the dark one is still wet, wiping off some corners and places. Then a black aging patina is applied and wiped off.

Here is the door after being cut and painted:










The only reason the step goes as far to the left as it does is due to some metal straps that stuck out. I couldn't cut them off, and they were ugly. I also had to chisel some reliefs in the back of the baseboard in places to hide some more of the same.

Also, it always amazes me how long dust can hang around in the air. For days sometimes. I finally came up with a solution - a large box fan with a furnace filter on the intake side. It works quite well at removing dust from the air.


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## seattle_ice

One thing I haven't really talked about is soundproofing the room. Or, rather, soundproofing the rest of the house FROM this room. There is a fairly good reason for this. Since it is being built below my garage, it is 85% encased is concrete, wood, and insulation.

The ceiling is 3" of concrete on top of 1-1/8" Tongue and Groove plywood covered in a vinyl waterproofing. This all sits on the big TJI floor joists at 12" on center, and the whole thing is stuffed with r-33 fiberglass and covered with a double layer of 5/8" sheetrock to resist cracking while cars drive on the top.

All the walls except one are 2"x4" studs insulated with r-13, and spaced out 1" from 12" thick concrete foundation walls. No, that is not a misprint. The concrete walls really are 12" thick because they are also 12' tall. They are also buried competely underground.

The only remaining wall to the house also has a hallway on the other side, is sheeted with 1/2" OSB on both sides, and has a double layer of 5/8" sheetrock on the inside and a single layer on the outside.

So really, the only problem area I am going to have is where the IB area leaks out a combustion vent in the furnace room (See red vents in picture). I have no idea what I am going to do about that, or if I will even need to do anything.


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## seattle_ice

After a few days, and approximately 3,000 paint samples later, we had come up with our color scheme. All the paint was Behr, and they have a new line that features a built in primer for all the hard to cover colors, like deep wine reds and dark browns.

1. Main color - 'Divine Wine' in Behr Ultra Eggshell. All the walls and ceilings except for the ceilings in the crown molding areas. Very light amount of sheen.

2. Ceiling color - 'Formal Maroon' in Behr Ultra Flat. A slightly lighter color, but still pretty dark. A lighter color makes the ceiling appear higher. No sheen at all.

3. Woodwork and wainscoting areas - 

Primer tinted to Behr 'Crantini'
A 50/50 mix of Behr Ultra 'Polished Leather' Satin and Behr Ultra 'Sweet Molasses' in Satin. Looks almost like a Hershey bar. Kind of a warm toned very dark brown. Light sheen, just enough to make it look like woodwork. Immediately after painting a surface, I would wipe random corners and areas to take small amounts of it back off. If I had really wanted to, I could have beat the woodwork up first with hammers and chains and it would have had a nice, distressed look.

Chair Rail after paint/before black glaze:










Column after paint/before black glaze:










Black wash made from ebony stain and oil based glaze. This was painted on then allowed to just start getting tacky. I then wiped off all the raised surfaces.

The right stage column finished:










The base of a wall column finished:


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## seattle_ice

I was very happy with the way the equipment room door came out. You can't even see it from more than about 5 feet.

Where's Waldos Door?










And close up straight on:










Close up open:










I know that it is not the most ideal equipment room, as there is no easy access to the direct back of the equipment. I will just have to deal with it. 

I also need to come up with methods to control the heat generated by all the equipment in the room.

This is pretty much how it looked after the painting was finished. It is very hard to get a really good, accurate picture of a minimally lighted room.


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## seattle_ice

Now that everything was painted, I could do the finish electrical. There are a lot of outlets in this one room, but there is going to be a lot of power running from them. I have two seperate 20 amp circuits feeding the closet, a 20 amp circuit behind the screen area, and two more circuits for the lighting and general outlets.

I am not real up on remotes controls and fancy doo dads. I got a 4 way IR repeater to mount in the box beside the equipment closet, and that was a far as I thought it through. I am not sure if I can trigger my receiver from my projector, or vice versa, or what. Suggestions?

I was a little worried that the recessed can trims I picked out would be too visible on the ceiling. They are the ones that are black on the inside, but have a very narrow white trim ring that sits on the ceiliing. To my surprise, they were hardly even noticeable.

I bought an inexpensive rope light and installed it behind the upper crown molding. I turned it on and was very, very dissapointed. Way too dim and blotchy looking. I think I am going to have to spend a little dough for some pricier led rope lights if I have any hope of appearing on 'Cribs'.

The outlets and switches gave me some issues. White or almond were out of the question on the dark wine and brown walls. I bought a couple of black ones, and they just didn't look right. I finally settled on the dark brown outlets and switches, but the brown switch plates were all shiny and fake looking. I finally found some nice unfinished wooden ones, and I painted them with the same color as the lower walls. They look great. I also bought some blank ones, then drilled holes and installed speaker binding posts on them for the speaker hookups on the wall. These also looked quite good.

We still had not picked out a chandelier or the sconces at this point.

Also, in the middle of a lot of this mess, I had decided to build some more speakers, as much to learn more about them as to accomplish something. I built the M8a MTM version that Jon has on the HTGuide forum. I got fairly fancy with them, using a mix of cherry veneer and maple edging to get a distinct look. 

These monsters are big and heavy. I sat them on a plinth, and the top portion of the baffle is a full 2-1/4" thick. The other advantage is that they use the same drivers as the Arvo, so if I want to try my hand later at some Dipoles, I could sell these cabinets or use them for something else and try the Arvos out. Maybe with the passive MTM/Active LF version.










And a closeup of the baffle - beautiful graining in the maple on this one:










Another thing about these - in an effort to save some dough, I made all the large caps from a buttload of 5mf ge caps. That was a total pita and I will be seriously tempted in the future just to spend the extra bucks.










You can see the rest of that build here 

These will be strictly for music and stand in the side of the room away from the screen. They will probably also serve double duty as monitors for when I am jamming with my bro and friends.


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## seattle_ice

The screen. Another one of those phrases that engendered a shudder down my spine as I knew very little about them. But, as with many other things theater, a bunch of forums users gave me their .02 to help me decide.

Since the room really wasn't wide enough at the screen to have floor standing speakers, and mounting the speakers behind an acoustically transparent screen is really the best auditory approach, I decided to build a set of 3 NatalieP's with the in/on wall crossovers and mount them in the wall behind a DIY screen made with the fabric from Seymour AV.

Since I am somewhat OCD about my construction, and I also like to do things in a way that saves as much time as possible, I made the front baffle for all 3 speakers on one full sheet of 3/4" MDF. I then glued and screwed it to the wall, and added a strip at the top to come to my final dimension (96" x 54") for a 110" diagonal 16:9 screen.

Closeup of one set of speaker cutouts:










After mounting the giant baffle on the wall:










I will try to describe what I did for the frame around the outside and why it is there. I needed it first of all to mount the screen frame to. I also thought (rightly or wrongly I still don't know) that the speakers would move some air, so I wanted the space between the speakers and the screen fabric to be vented. So I ran a piece of 1" x 3" first to bring it out. I then cut a whole bunch of 6" pieces, and ran them through the table saw to vary the thickness from ~5/8" to ~7/8". I did this so I could compensate for any variations in the wall flatness.

I mounted the four corner pieces using 8 of my 6" pieces, and used the level to get them fairly plumb. I then ran string from corner to corner on the faces. That way, I could try different thicknesses until each spot was perfect. The dowels are there for a reason and will get explained when I show the actual screen build. 










I made three speaker boxes of the appropriate size and mounted them from behind with glue and screws. I left the tops off of them for now, to mount the crossovers later.


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## seattle_ice

Now I need a screen. My screen material cost around $225 from Seymour AV. They shipped it to me on a roll, and I bought 10' of the 98" wide material so I could build the screen with the material at a 15 degree angle. This is to reduce moire I guess or something.

Seymour AV has a couple of examples on their website about building your screen. I read through them, and took some of the info to use, but decided to build my screen seperately from the black velvet border that will go on top as the finished step - maybe come up with a simple low tech masking system later. So my screen material will be installed on the front of the frame, to be hidden by a second frame later.

I scrounged through my big piles of leftover wood from building the house and found some 1" x 4" oak ([email protected]' and [email protected]') that I ripped down to 2-1/2" wide. I then cut a dado on the front that exactly matched some aluminum screen channel that I bought at Lowes. I think it was about 3/4" wide x 9/32" deep or so. I actually made it about 1/32" deeper so there would be no chance of the channel protruding above the surface of the wood. I brushed a very light coat of Gorilla Glue on the back of the aluminum and clamped it in the wood to dry.










The I basically made a picture frame from the pieces. I cut it to fit exactly around the screen area that I already had up on the wall, and I tacked it in place temporarily while I glued the ends together so it would fit exactly.

I also took the opportunity to drill a bunch of 1/4" holes through the frame and into the supports behind them. That is where I installed the 1/4" dowels, so that the frame will always be positively located, and not get bent inwards from the tension of the fabric over time (or immediately as I found out). I also drilled and countersunk places where the frame could be screwed down tight.



















I then removed the frame from the wall and set it aside to install the fabric later. First I wanted to get the wall painted flat black so there would be no artifacts showing through the screen:










I then installed some brackets at the corners of the screen just to reinforce it:










I put some diagonal braces on the frame to help hold it as I thought (quite correctly) that tensioning the material onto it would want to squeeze the sides together. I should have added a couple braces straight up and down in the middle because it did get squeezed and I had to undo it and redo it to get it to fit on the wall:










Installing the fabric was a tedious task, and definitely a 2 or 3 person job. I installed it just like you would door screen - using .125 rubber spline and a spline tool that you can get at any hardware store. The main issue I faced was that the relationships and dimensions changed as you pushed the material down into the channel. I found that the best way for me was to do the whole thing just trying to get it close, then going back, undoing a side and having my buddy keep the material taught while I reinserted the spline. Too little tension = ripples, too much tension = impossible to get the spline down in the groove.

Finally got it looking good:










And my screen is now ready to install!


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## seattle_ice

Now I get to build speakers. Like I mentioned before, I am building the NatalieP in wall version.

Here is my speaker workshop - at least right now:










Here are the crossovers assembled and ready to install:










And the crossovers and drivers all installed and wired:










I hooked up my cheap bedroom stereo just to verify they all work and they did beautifully. These will be driven by a Earthquake Cinenova Grande 3 channel amp. These amps are monsters that will drive almost anything you could possibly throw at them.


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## seattle_ice

A little bit of LF goodness in the EP2500:










And the Fi Audio IB3 18's installed:










Back:










I still have to add the bracing between the subs and from the baffle back to the wall. I also plan on insulating the entire room behind the screen at the last minute so I don't have to itch while working.


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## rickp

Super job! very impressive!


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## seattle_ice

I decided to handle the issue of cooling the closet where the audio/video equipment is going to be by building intake and exhaust fans that will mount in the wall between the closet and the area behind the subs. The area behind the subs and the furnace room are connected and they will be climate controlled by 1 of my 3 mini split ductless units.

With the help of some aluminum 1/8" x 1" angle from Ace, 8 120mm case fans, and some 1/8" rivets, I built the two fan units. The came out quite nice:










Here you can see how the flange will let me mount it to the wall after cutting a square hole:










I will mount the intake at the bottom of the wall, and the exhaust at the top. They will be powered by a variable voltage transformer that will be controlled by a cooling thermostat. That way, I can set them to only circulate air when needed, and set the voltage to the right amount to keep them from being too noisy. These fans are capable of 80 cfm at 25db, but they are a little more audible than I would like at that speed.

I also plan on putting some kind of filter media over the intake, to filter out dust in the air.


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## robbo266317

What a great build.
Possum lodge would be disappointed that there is no duct tape involved.


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## steverc

Well hey there Darryn:

I've been watching your thread for a couple of weeks and just noticed we're neighbors. I'm just down nine east of Woodinville. Being a Software engineer odds are about even that you drive right past my home on your way to work.
Very nice job on the theater! I love the behind the screen speakers, I don't have enough length to pull that off but I would have if I could have. DIY is so much fun. I also have an IB sub, it's way beyond anything else I've ever heard. Luckily my nearest neighbor is a few hundred feet through the woods so I don't think they can hear anything even when I play it loud. At least they have never complained.

Steve
http://www.kn7f.com/Theater/Finished/


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## seattle_ice

I just finished running the main braces for my subs. I will add a little cross (X) bracing later, maybe after I insulate this whole room.

First I ran some upright braces between each driver:










Then I ran some 2" x 10"s from the back of the brace to the outside wall along the floor. These are nailed and glued with PL400 heavy duty construction adhesive.

I then drilled a 1/2" hole 24" off the floor in 4 locations on the outside wall. After inserting anchor bolts, I used a coupler to attach some lengths of 1/2" Allthread.










The other end I used some angle pieces I had to fab up some connectors. I lagged those to the LVL beam that holds the wall over the subwoofers and connects to the top of the subwoofer baffle with (2) 3/8" x 2" lag screws each. The other end of the Allthread was then bolted to them and tensioned with a lot of force.










When that step was finished, it looked a little like this:


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## seattle_ice

steverc said:


> Well hey there Darryn:
> 
> I've been watching your thread for a couple of weeks and just noticed we're neighbors. I'm just down nine east of Woodinville. Being a Software engineer odds are about even that you drive right past my home on your way to work.
> Very nice job on the theater! I love the behind the screen speakers, I don't have enough length to pull that off but I would have if I could have. DIY is so much fun. I also have an IB sub, it's way beyond anything else I've ever heard. Luckily my nearest neighbor is a few hundred feet through the woods so I don't think they can hear anything even when I play it loud. At least they have never complained.
> 
> Steve
> http://www.kn7f.com/Theater/Finished/


Hey;

I actually work at home, so I don't drive out much. We did go right by you when we drove home the back way from the Foreigner concert at Marymoor a couple weeks ago. Nice to hear from someone in the neighborhood.

What speakers and subs are you using for your setup?


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## steverc

seattle_ice said:


> What speakers and subs are you using for your setup?


For the mains and surrounds I use MG IIIa from Magnepan and the sub is four MJ-18s from mach5audio.com in about 900 cubic feet of attic. I drive the subs with my old Denon 2808 receiver.


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## rickp

Nice install on the IB. May I make a suggestion? Although the all thread is installed perfectly, the top portion of your enclosure is where you will have the most force from the speakers. The all thread will flex and viberate under the load, if you replace the all thread with a 2x6 I think you you will be ahead money and time.

Regard, Rick.


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## seattle_ice

rickp said:


> Nice install on the IB. May I make a suggestion? Although the all thread is installed perfectly, the top portion of your enclosure is where you will have the most force from the speakers. The all thread will flex and vibrate under the load, if you replace the all thread with a 2x6 I think you you will be ahead money and time.
> 
> Regard, Rick.


Interesting you should say something... They might flex some, but will offer much less compression and extension than wood would. I think I would be most worried about vibration. And I cant be ahead in money that is already spent now, can I?:dunno: 

This is actually one step along with my experiments. I am going to try a few different things and check the results. The beam that the allthread and the top of the speaker baffle is attached to is 2-1/2" X 14" x 8' and weighs almost 200 pounds, so it has a fair mount of mass to begin with. Plus the speaker baffle top and bottom are almost 14" deep at the center, so there is some resistance to lateral deflection there also.

The Allthread is currently tensioned with the nuts at 200 ft/lbs. When I get a chance, I will run the stereo with an accelerometer attached to one of the pieces of allthread, then attached to the beam above the subs. Then I will start adding diagonal braces from the middle of the Allthread to the bottom brace, then add other braces and see what happens. Building and testing things is FUN STUFF!


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## rickp

Most people assume push rods in an engine don't flex because the pushing is done on axis but with the advances in technology we can actually watch a push rod in super slow motion, very interesting they look more like pole vault poles then push rods. A 2x6 has substantially more mass than the rod. The reason I suggested you would be ahead money is by the time you are finished bracing everything you will have spent to much more time and money that is if you are compelled to make every thing PERFECT, as I am. Boy that causes me alot of stress! Anyhow please post the results of your accelerometer test, I was planning on using a load cell to test mine but since we have to move I am finishing it just the way it is.


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## seattle_ice

rickp said:


> Most people assume push rods in an engine don't flex because the pushing is done on axis but with the advances in technology we can actually watch a push rod in super slow motion, very interesting they look more like pole vault poles then push rods. A 2x6 has substantially more mass than the rod. The reason I suggested you would be ahead money is by the time you are finished bracing everything you will have spent to much more time and money that is if you are compelled to make every thing PERFECT, as I am. Boy that causes me alot of stress! Anyhow please post the results of your accelerometer test, I was planning on using a load cell to test mine but since we have to move I am finishing it just the way it is.


The forces acting on a pushrods are many orders of magnitudes higher than four subfwoofers.Pistons are changing directions 200 or more times per second traveling 600 inches (50 feet) per second when an engine is doing 6000 rpm with a 3" stroke. 

I also went and weighed the pieces. When wet, then 2" x 6" weighed almost 5 times the allthread. BUT - a really dry 2" x 6" only weighed slightly more than twice the 1/2" Allthread. That is not a ton more mass. 

Now the 2" x 6" would be much more resistant to deflection from a lateral direction and from vibration (like a violin string) than the allthread.


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## seattle_ice

Ok, I did some quick testing and dont even really need to get serious to see one effect we were discussing. At certain frequencies, the allthread visibly vibrates. Not huge amounts, but enough to see.

I loosened up one piece of Allthread, and cut and temporarily inserted a 4" x 6" alongside the allthread from the beam to the wall, then clamped the nuts back down, effectively squeezing the 4" x 6" very tightly in. This made everything completely damped. No vibrating of the allthread no matter how loud or what music I played. Plus the wall seems extremely solid, as it is pulled very tight against the 4" x 6" by the allthread.

I think I will add 4" x 6"s next to all the Allthread pieces, and clamp the Allthread to the side of each one. That way, everything is squeezed very tight with nowhere to move (at least on the scales that matter)


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## BrianAbington

looks great so far. Any plans for accoustical treatments in the room to deal with reflections from all the wood work?


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## seattle_ice

SQCherokee said:


> looks great so far. Any plans for accoustical treatments in the room to deal with reflections from all the wood work?


No definite plans. I figured once the room was carpeted and furnished, I would start taking measurements and using REW and the BFD for my subs, and the Audyssey EQ in my receiver to establish my baseline. Then determine what will be necessary.


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## rickp

> I think I will add 4" x 6"s next to all the Allthread pieces, and clamp the Allthread to the side of each one. That way, everything is squeezed very tight with nowhere to move (at least on the scales that matter)


Excellent solution, good thinking.

Looking forward to seeing more progress, keep up the good work!


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## seattle_ice

Ok, loosened the allthread, put in the 4" x 6"'s next to the allthread with nails and glue, then tightened the crud out of the it. Nothing is moving at all now.










I also got the fans installed in the walls, and I insulated everything. I still haven't decided what to do with the outside of the speaker boxes, but that will have to wait until I am done testing them anyways. The fans are the dark square - they are dark because I put some filter media over them.










To run the fans, I ordered a couple of cheap 12VDC power supplies, then I found a thermostatic outlet bar. It turns on at 78 degrees and then off at 70. So I plugged that into the wall and the two power supplies into it.










Works like a charm. The fans only run when it gets over 78 degrees and then they stay on as long as it takes to bring the temps back down.


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## Gregavi

Looks good. I'm in the process of converting my 2 car garage into a home theater and came across your thread. I have been reading through this and it has become like an HBO series. I can't wait until you post more. The only criticism I have, other than your over the top attention to detail, is that you spend so much time writing and posting photos. When do you sleep? You must be retired because us working stiffs have a hard time finding time to build something like this, much less, write about it too. Lucky for us. 
PS
Does that “1,110,993 easy steps” keep changing like the “McDonalds Served” count?


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## seattle_ice

Gregavi said:


> Looks good. I'm in the process of converting my 2 car garage into a home theater and came across your thread. I have been reading through this and it has become like an HBO series. I can't wait until you post more. The only criticism I have, other than your over the top attention to detail, is that you spend so much time writing and posting photos. When do you sleep? You must be retired because us working stiffs have a hard time finding time to build something like this, much less, write about it too. Lucky for us.
> PS
> Does that “1,110,993 easy steps” keep changing like the “McDonalds Served” count?



I wish I was retired. I am cursed with way too many interests. I was blessed with parents that did not believe in the word "NO". We were taught early on to try everything, and not to limit ourselves.

When I was building the house, I was like a zombie for months. Get up at 5 am. Write some software for 90 minutes. Drink super gigantic coffee on my way to jobsite. Work on house for 8-10 hours (12-20 near the end). Come home, try to eat fast enough not to taste it. Take care of home projects (Honey-do's, lawn mowing, etc..). Work on software from 9pm-1 am or so while drinking large quantities of coffee and coke. Rinse and repeat, sometimes 7 days a week.

I write most of these at night, after my wife has gone to sleep. I sleep about 6 hours a night. I work on my software mostly from 7am-2pm and 10pm-1am. So the theater and speakers and cars and furniture and music gets worked on during the middle of the day and weekends. 

I also workout with freeweights and an elliptical for an hour every day at 5 pm, 3 days on, 1 off.


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## seattle_ice

I went down to the Home Depot, and after dodging the 112 guys looking for work like I was Barry Sanders (only much slower, older and fatter and no one was actually trying to tackle me - although one guy did kind of have that look...), I found some great shelving with huge load capacities. It is the track kind, where you mount the track on the walls, then you can install brackets wherever you want, every two inches or so.

The shelving is ~18" deep, and rated at 600 pounds per pair of brackets. I used some large 3" screws to mount the tracks to the studs in the wall, then mounted some shelves. I really wanted to use the wire shelving for airflow through my equipment.

After sliding in some of my equipment, it looked like this:










A day after that picture, my blu-ray player showed up. It doubles (secretly so the wife doesn't hear) as a Playstation3 slim. Just gotta love the media streaming capabilities also. Although I did have a huge debacle trying to purchase the PSP3 from Sears via PayPal. Lets just say they still do not have the kinks worked out of that payment option.

I have the Earthquake Cinenova powering the L/C/R speakers, and the Onkyo 876 powering the surrounds. The Earthquake was measured at ~.006 THD + Noise @ 113 db @ 600 wpc into 4 ohms with all channels driven. ;x( 

I made a bunch of interconnects with some nice 12ga wire and the excellent banana plugs from PE with the double set screws. I use some military heat shrink on the joints and they are completely air tight and very strong.


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## Gregavi

After reading how hectic your life is, I hope you take the time to relax when you are finished and actually enjoy the fruits of your labor.
I have the 5 Channel version of the Earthquake Cinenova. Love it! The best piece of audio equipment I have ever owned. 
It looks like you are using speaker wire that is not “in-wall rated” (CL-2 or -3). Any reason for that? I’m considering doing the same thing since I have hundreds of feet of good quality 12 ga. wire. Comments?


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## seattle_ice

Gregavi said:


> After reading how hectic your life is, I hope you take the time to relax when you are finished and actually enjoy the fruits of your labor.
> I have the 5 Channel version of the Earthquake Cinenova. Love it! The best piece of audio equipment I have ever owned.
> It looks like you are using speaker wire that is not “in-wall rated” (CL-2 or -3). Any reason for that? I’m considering doing the same thing since I have hundreds of feet of good quality 12 ga. wire. Comments?


I certainly plan on enjoying this when it is done!

There might be some very, very remote outside chance that if you push way too much current through the speaker wires that they migh overheat if they are not in-wall rated. :yikes:

I am not worried. Pushing 100 watts through 12 gauge wire is like taking a drink from a fire hose. There is no chance the wire will be overloaded and get hot. Now, stranded wire is not exactly the same as solid, but 12 ga. romex is rated to way over 20 amps of current * 110 volts = 2200 watts. You can run 80% of capacity forever and it will not even get warm to the touch.


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## Gregavi

seattle_ice said:


> There might be some very, very remote outside chance that if you push way too much current through the speaker wires that they migh overheat if they are not in-wall rated.
> 
> I am not worried. Pushing 100 watts through 12 gauge wire is like taking a drink from a fire hose. There is no chance the wire will be overloaded and get hot. Now, stranded wire is not exactly the same as solid, but 12 ga. romex is rated to way over 20 amps of current * 110 volts = 2200 watts. You can run 80% of capacity forever and it will not even get warm to the touch.


Actually, I'm not worried at all about potential fire. What I am a tiny bit worried about is, if there ever were a fire, the insurance company could, and probably would, use that against you/me in a claim. It’s something I read on this or another forum and got me thinking about it. That's my only concern. I will probably take my chances though.

I'm also looking at your rack idea. It may be what I go with because of the open wire shelf advantage for keeping the air flowing. The Earthquake Amp will have to go on something other than a 60 lb. capacity wire shelf though, as will yours. I'll probably just place it on the bottom shelf that could be 3/4" finish plywood platform. They are beasts, aren't they?
I'm building my equipment into a closet on an exterior wall and will have a door on the outside to access the back of the rack. The only downside is, if I have to make a cable/wire change while it is raining, I will be out in the rain making changes. It doesn't rain enough where I live to worry about it though.

Questions: What are you doing to exhaust the heat from inside your equipment room and what about air flow throughout the theater room? I’m thinking a vent toward the bottom of my closet and a fan toward the top to blow the hot/warm air out. I’m not sure what to do about air flow through the room though. Any ideas? Anybody?
Thanks.


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## seattle_ice

Gregavi said:


> Actually, I'm not worried at all about potential fire. What I am a tiny bit worried about is, if there ever were a fire, the insurance company could, and probably would, use that against you/me in a claim. It’s something I read on this or another forum and got me thinking about it. That's my only concern. I will probably take my chances though.
> 
> Questions: What are you doing to exhaust the heat from inside your equipment room and what about air flow throughout the theater room? I’m thinking a vent toward the bottom of my closet and a fan toward the top to blow the hot/warm air out. I’m not sure what to do about air flow through the room though. Any ideas? Anybody?
> Thanks.


If you go back to the first page in this thread you will see the fans I am using to ventilate the equipment room. As far as the theater itself, I bought a 2 ton mini split ductless AC/Heat system with three indoor units. One 18,ooo btu heating/cooling unit will go in the theater, one 9,000 btu unit will go in the furnace/IB area where the hot air is exhausted from the equipment closet, and the third 9,000 btu unit will go in my garage.


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## seattle_ice

The time between the last post and now has been occupied, partially by a trip to Montana to see the inlaws.

For my birthday, I got my first piece of Theater art in the form of a poster:










View from the In-laws place in Polson. Looking out at Flathead Lake:










Glacier Park @ 7000 ft (Peak is almost 10,000 ft.):


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## seattle_ice

The next task was to finish my screen and get it all mounted.

I finished the actual display surface earlier in the thread. I used dowels to locate it so you can take it down if you want to get to the speakers, or fix it.

The green tape is just to hold the loose edges from flapping around. You can see the holes where the dowels go, and the holes for the mounting screws. I like using the dowels as the slight friction fit ensures that the screen goes in exactly the place it is supposed to, and doesn't shrink over time from the tension.










So after putting the screen up, I needed to make a dark frame for it. I decided to use a common 3-1/4" mdf baseboard molding for the frame.

After messing with the projector for a couple hours, until I was completely satisfied with the exact location on the screen, I miter cut a frame from the molding that was just slightly (1/16") smaller than the picture in both directions. This was so there would be no white screen showing at all.

Then, while holding the frame pieces in place, I drilled 1/4" holes through the frame and into the screen frame for wood dowels. I used about 8 each on the top and bottom, and 5 or so on the sides. I then glued the dowels in place on the frame, flush with the molding face and sticking out the back, and let them dry.










The screen material is the AT Screen from SeymourAV and the velvet was the velvet they recommend in the DIY section on their website.

I used spray contact adhesive to apply the velvet to the trim. 

1. Spray the front of the trim, wait a minute.
2. Apply one end of the velvet, stretch and apply other end, then smooth the whole face.
3. Flip it over, and spray adhesive to the back of trim and the rest of velvet.
4. Pull velvet tight, press into cement, trim ends and edges.

It came out very, very well. Here are the top and bottom, ready to assemble:


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## seattle_ice

I got the screen frame assembled in my piano room, with the dowels glued in place, and small corner brackets attached. I only used the small corner brackets to control the depth of the pieces, so that the corners remain in the same plane, since the dowels would control the placement.










And the velvet close up - it is much darker when the flash is not lighting it up:










When you stand back and look from a distance, the edge almost just disappears it is so dark.










Perfect. I remeasured, and every measurement on the screen and the frame is within 1/16" of an inch or less.


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## rickp

Nice job so far! and Red Green would be proud. I wonder what ever happened to that show I liked it, especially the one where he demonstrated how to change a headlight with a sledge hammer!


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## seattle_ice

My carpet showed up at the store today, so now I just got to pick it up, get the pad, and get it installed.

That will be right after I finish the current project - the Candy Counter!

I am making a small built in cabinet in the corner that will house a fridge, a microwave, some shelves and the lighted candy display.

I got the rough cabinet built and set near where it is going to be installed. There is still a lot of molding that has to go on it, the back door for the candy area has to be installed, and then it has to be finished. If you look closely, you can see the bar at the top of the candy area that will hide the light when it is installed.










Close up of the top (I used veneered lumber so I can stain it and some thick Spar varnish)










And a shot of the backside, where there are some shelves:










The whole thing will get painted the dark brown like the rest of the woodwork. Then I will install some glass, and some shelves, and some empty (model) candy boxes.


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## tjambro

You are making excellent progress! I will be following your candy counter build closely. Please make it nice because I may want to copy parts of it. :whistling:


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## seattle_ice

The carpet got installed and looks great. It is a dark chocolate with just a hint of wine color.

The glass for my candy counter showed up today. So I went and got it, and put it in. I still have to get a couple shelves for inside to hold the candy, but no hurry.

The candy counter looks like this:



















With the inside light on:



















I did most of it in cherry and cherry veneer, and some mdf with a faux finish.


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## tjambro

Beautiful!


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## seattle_ice

Here are some pics as I add more accessories and work on getting the final touches in the theater.

Corner display case with some collectibles - a first edition Star Trek plate, a 1969 Seattle Worlds Fair Jim Beam bottle and a first run Mickey Mouse pez dispenser are some of the highlights.










A picture showing the column with my surround speaker built in, the display case, my M8Ta speakers and the corner of the candy counter. This is the view from up on the platform looking dead right from the back seating area.










How the screen looks from the middle seating area:










And a closeup look at the ceiling being lit up by the hidden rope lights behind the crown molding:


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## moh

That has to be one of the most awesome things I have ever seen. Good job!


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## gjohnson

This is phenomenal. I was wondering if you mind sharing the dimensions of your candy cabinet. I'd like to recreate something like that. You really did an outstanding job all around.


Greg


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## gjohnson

What are the dimensions of your candy cabinet. Do you mind sharing your dimensions. I'd love to replicate something on this order.


Greg


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## seattle_ice

gjohnson said:


> What are the dimensions of your candy cabinet. Do you mind sharing your dimensions. I'd love to replicate something on this order.
> 
> 
> Greg


I will measure it up tonight and post the dimensions. It is somewhat irregular due to the way I fit it in the room.


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## friggy

Wow, what a great theatre room, how long did it take to make this Masterpiece ?


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## seattle_ice

friggy said:


> Wow, what a great theatre room, how long did it take to make this Masterpiece ?


This was done in about a year.

I finally got around to installing some wall sconces and the ceiling light. I ended up making the wall sconces, as the ones I found and liked were very costly. The wall by the candy counter now looks like this:










You can read about the making of the sconces here.


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