Most of us would love to have a dedicated home theater room. A place to call our own when we want to hunker down for the night with a bowl of popcorn, a nice plush leather seat and this week’s latest blockbuster. However, for some of us that’s just not possible – we have to use our home theater space for other purposes when we’re not in movie-mode.
If you’ve found that your house is short on space, or you just want to convert your home theater/family room into a more versatile area, read on. Being economical with your space doesn’t mean that you have to give up any of that great audio or video you’d expect from a dedicated home theater, nor does it mean that you have to give up the stylish elements like a custom frame from HD Envy. It just means you’re going to have to get a little creative.
The most common alter-ego of a home theater is a games room. This usage is pretty consistent with the ethos of a home theater. It requires some additional equipment and media, but most of the hardware, like your flat screen TV and your surround sound system, are left intact – but you can get a flat screen TV for the gamer if you want to upgrade. For a games room, you will need a gaming console, some games, and any of those little extras like special controllers needed to play the game. That’s the basics. From there, you can add a great lounge chair for leaning back and enjoying a few hours of immersing yourself in an interactive world, and you can set up your audio and video to perform better based on the requirements of the game.
So what about something not as simple? Some people use their home theater as a business presentation location. Especially for small business owners, this room is great because it has the multi-media aspect, but it also has the professionalism that one would expect from such a meeting. For this purpose, you might need a large conference table and some additional seating. You can buy stackable chairs and a folding table, if this is just going to be an occasional event. You can also set up your computer, such as your Mac Mini, to connect to your home theater devices and play your Power Point presentations with the click of a mouse.
Other, less common conversions of home theaters include adding a stage for children’s plays, adding some tables and chairs to throw a CD release party, or screening a photo slideshow. The sky’s the limit if you want to convert your home theater for other uses, especially those that use audio/video.
Tags: audio/video, Design, Home Theater
