How to: Create a home theatre - part 1

There are certain rooms that add a bit more class to a home. Cellars, formal dining areas, personal libraries or lush studies all create a feeling of lavish sophistication. One of the rooms that adds this luxury feeling but is also useable on a daily basis is a home theatre. In this step-by-step guide we'll look at how you can renovate a room to create your own at home cinema experience.

Choosing your basic set up

There are a lot of  decisions to make when designing a personal theatre. It's essential that everything is planned out at the beginning, because you'll have to complete the steps in a specific order with a clear idea of what the end product will be.

Plan your space. Grab a laser level, string line and measuring tape and get planning. Will you be converting a room, or walling off a section of an existing living area? Once you've picked an area to construct your personal media heaven, you'll need to plan for the size of the room.

If it's a modestly proportioned area, you might want to stick with a reasonably sized HD TV and an appropriate 5.1 channel surround system. If you have more room to play, you could be opting for an overhead projector and a 7.1 or 9.1 channel surround system.

A 5.1 channel setup will have a centre speaker above or below the screen, two front corner speakers, two rear corner units and a subwoofer. A 7.1 channel speaker system adds two speakers on the sides of the room, while 9.1 involves fastening two more front speakers between the corner units and the centre speaker.

The more speakers you have, the more you will feel immersed in sound, but it's not entirely necessary if your room is too small to let you notice the difference. There are other electronic components to chose from, including a receiver with as many speaker channel outputs as you need.

Frame the room

If you are sectioning off part of a larger area, you will need to frame the room to add a back wall, or perhaps two walls. This is no different from the way you would normally frame a room, and your material choice won't make much of a difference.

It's best to choose the same framing as the rest of the house to ensure consistency. Hire a ladder to make sure you can reach the top of the frames easily. Once you've fixed your timber or steel framing, it's time to get insulating. Check back for part two in this series to find out more.