Why home cinema design comes first
Home cinema design decides everything the equipment cannot fix later: where the seats go, how big the screen can honestly be, where the speakers sit and how the room handles sound and light. We design every cinema room before we build it, and we produce 3D visuals so you can see the finished space before you commit.
Our founder, Adam Wolfe, leads the design on every cinema we build. The first design consultation is free, and it can take place at your home or in the demonstration cinema at our Walton-on-Thames showroom.
What a good cinema room design decides
- Screen size from real viewing distances. The most comfortable viewing angle sits between 33 and 40 degrees, so we work out where you sit first and size the screen from there. In a room of 12 to 16 square metres that usually means a screen about two metres wide.
- Seating and riser heights. How many rows, how far back the last one sits, and whether the second row needs a riser to see over the first.
- Speaker positions for the room you actually have. Not a textbook rectangle. Behind an acoustically transparent screen, the front speakers sit exactly where the film's sound mixers expect them to be.
- Acoustic treatment that suits the interior. In most rooms that means fabric-covered panels rather than foam, plus bass traps in the corners. Treatment and soundproofing are different jobs, and our guide to acoustic treatment and soundproofing explains which you need.
- Lighting and light control. Scenes for film, for sport and for everyday use, and blackout blinds where there are windows.
- Where every box of electronics hides. Nothing on show that does not need to be.
Designing around a difficult room
Very few rooms are easy, which is why design matters more than the kit list.
- In Oxshott, a sloped ceiling limited where the projector and speakers could go. We laid the room out around the ceiling line, put the front speakers behind a 120 inch acoustically transparent screen and programmed separate Control4 modes for films and football.
- In Esher, the cinema had to share an open-plan room with a bar and a pool table. A projector drops from a concealed ceiling lift and a 120 inch motorised screen comes down in front of the everyday 85 inch TV, then both disappear again.
- In Epsom, the room was narrow, so we positioned the seating to give every seat a good view of a recessed 85 inch TV and added acoustic panelling to fix poor sound clarity.
- At Roehampton Gate, a 7 by 8 metre basement seats a family of seven. Four subwoofers were positioned and tuned with room-analysis software so the bass is even in the front row and the back.
How the design process works
- Conversation and survey. At your home or in our Walton-on-Thames demonstration cinema, where you can hear what the choices sound like.
- Design. Room layout, a full equipment specification and 3D visuals of the finished room.
- Approval. You approve the design before installation is scheduled, so there are no surprises on site.
- Installation and support. A typical small room takes two to three weeks on site once the equipment arrives. Afterwards our own maintenance team looks after it.
Budgets are honest from the start. A professionally designed small cinema room typically costs £15,000 to £25,000 fully installed, and our small cinema room cost guide breaks that down line by line.
Cinema room design and interiors
A cinema room has to look right as well as sound right. We hide speakers, cabling and acoustic treatment behind fabric wall systems and ceiling panels, as we did with a bespoke fabric-panel system at Roehampton Gate and a black fabric ceiling detail in our Walton-on-Thames media room. We work happily alongside your interior designer: Fiona Brass Interiors designed the rooms in our Walton-on-Thames and Fetcham projects.
For the planning rules behind seating, sightlines and room shape, read our home cinema room layout guide.
Design for architects and interior designers
If you are specifying a cinema for a client, involve us at drawing stage. Cable routes, riser dimensions and acoustic allowances are cheap on paper and expensive after plastering. We also run CPD sessions accredited by RIBA and BIID, including one on the design and specification of cinema rooms, at our showroom, at your premises or online.
