Watching Movies at Home

As a home designer, I’m always interested in how people use their home for entertainment. How do you host a gathering? How do you spend family time? How do you watch your TV?

My poor living room has a split-personality problem. That’s where we watch movies and where we play video games. Furniture arrangement for movie watching is not always optimal for game-play, especially Wii games like “Just Dance.” Very active games require lots of clear floor space.

When we designed our home, we figured that our Wii play would be conducted in the game room, where our sons’ computer resides. We were wrong. The Wii streams Netflix videos, so it lives in the same room with our movie system. Thus, when we play Wii, we have to shift some furniture.

My family is serious about movies. Really serious. We don’t have a regular television; we have an HD projector and an 84” wide screen. I really like it, because it’s retractable. When we aren’t watching movies or TV, it disappears.

The projector is a wonderful way to watch videos. You can see every little detail, and in many ways, it’s better than the theatre. Nobody kicks the back of your seat. Nobody hogs the armrests. You can stretch your legs out. You can watch in pajamas if you want.

The only real drawback is that if someone stands up in front of the projected image, you can lose a portion of your picture in the shadow. I have boys, too—they enjoy making rabbit ears and shadow puppets during previews. They don’t consider the shadows as a negative.

Facing our huge screen—the optimal 12’ to 14’ away—is our sofa. It sets square and centered with the screen. We have a love seat down one side of the room and two armchairs down the other. Anyone watching from the love seat can stretch out for movie watching. We have some ottomans that folks in the chairs can use.

We are all about comfort.

How do you watch movies at home? Is your TV on a stand? On the wall? Over the fireplace mantle? If you could have any set-up in the world, what would you have? I want to know!

That’s a wrap for this Toast to Cinema! Thanks for reading!

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