CURATED: HOME CINEMA ROOMS
EDITION 02
Image: Soho House Group
A HOME cinema room had long been on my husband Andy’s wish-list when I met him in 2004.
Such was his obsession with all-things movie related, the first thing he ever bought me in the early days of our relationship was a DVD player from Tesco –oh the romance – because I had readily given mine up in a divorce settlement a few years earlier and he simply could not believe I didn’t own one.
It’s fair to say audio-visual equipment has never been a big passion of mine. My priority when we first moved in together was to sell his extensive collection of speakers-on-stands on eBay and to dispose of a veneered Hi-Fi cabinet at the tip. He did manage to hold onto a pair of absurdly large subwoofer speakers that I insisted had to sit on the floor, tucked behind the sofa, where the sound was muffled (allegedly). 😊
Fast-forward 20 years to our current home, which we bought in 2018 primarily because it had a basement flat offering potential to expand the main house’s living space down into the lower floor and maximise our investment. My husband’s cinema room dream was about to be realised, but it was not without its trade-offs.
Firstly, I insisted, we could not spend more on a cinema room than on the KITCHEN. And Joey & Chandler-style leather recliners were an absolute deal breaker.
The budget for the kitchen was quietly upped by my husband (I mean!!!!) and our respective cinema room roles were agreed, with all things tech under his jurasdiction and the overall design aesthetic in my hands.
If you’ve seen one, you’ll know, that there is nowhere sexier than a Soho House screening room, with its plush 1920s glamour, luxe velvet sofas and individual brass side tables for drinks & nibbles. A few years previously, we had been given a voucher for the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill (part of the Soho House Group) Truth be told I couldn’t tell you what we watched as I spent the entire time basking in the glow of the period décor and the cocktails. I even had a little nap.
It was an experience just BEING at this cinema, and this was the feeling I really wanted to capture in creating our own.
Image: The Electric Cinema Notting Hill
Not everyone has the space for a dedicated home cinema, or wants to go the whole hog with specialist AV kit, but even a family room or snug with a large SMART TV can ‘give’ Soho House screening room vibes, with a little planning.
So, what do you need to know?
Giving Soho House vibes - our home cinema room
SELECT:
KNOW BEFORE YOU START
Room Size
Everything comes back to this. The size & location of the screen, how many seats, where to position them…. online recommendations suggest minimum room dimensions of 6m long by 4.5m wide for a cinema room, but ours is 4.6m x 3.6m and it works just fine.
Even a 3m² square room can work if you have the right size of TV, because it’s all about…
Viewing Distance
All men think size matters and the bigger (the TV) the better, but the important thing to focus on is achieving the optimum balance between screen size and viewing distance. Obviously the larger the screen, the more immersive the experience, but you don’t want to feel the screen is too close to watch it comfortably or that it’s overpowering.
A screen with a 4K or 8K resolution has a greater pixel density than a standard TV meaning the image will be more vivid and detailed so it’s important to determine what screen you have, or intend to buy, when planning the space, as a lot depends on that.
TVs are helpfully bracketed by size between 32” – 85” (although you can get larger) and projector screens are usually larger still.
You may not already know, and it’s not at all obvious unless someone tells you, that screen size is measured diagonally from a bottom corner to a top corner and does not include the frame or bezel. You’re welcome.
Once you know the size of your screen, you can calculate the optimum viewing angle to determine where to put your seating.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers recommends sitting at a distance where the screen fills up a minimum of 30° of your field of vision for a good experience, i.e field of vision being what your eyes can actually take in when you're positioned in front of the screen.
For recommended viewing distances based on screen size, see the table below – note ‘mixed usage distance’ just means for a more generic living room, for which they suggest a 30° viewing angle, compared to a dedicated cinema room recommendation of a 40° viewing angle, or you can just split the difference at 36°
Image: The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers recomended viewing distances
In our cinema room the 100” projector screen is 2.5m away from the centre of the first row of seating
ORGANISE:
HOW TO STAGE THE ROOM
As you may have picked up, AV equipment is not my specialist subject and speaker systems remain a topic that I generally veer away from but it’s true that a well-placed surround sound system can make or break your cinema room experience.
Broadly speaking, you need a central speaker(s) above or below your screen (or behind if it is acoustically transparent) as well as speakers to the left and right of your seating position and ideally further speakers behind you.
Speakers should ideally be at head height, angled towards the viewing seats. The more you have, the more immersive the experience, so if you can’t hide them in the walls, you can just put them onto stands around the room…...arrgh there I’ve said it. I really am dreadfully sorry. A strategically placed trailing plant can work wonders.
The good news is that speakers have evolved significantly since the 80s. Not only can wireless options can be set up so, if you can’t chase into walls, you can avoid ghastly wires across the floor, some of them even look pretty good.
Bang and Olufsen’s ‘Atelier Bespoke’ speaker service offers a choice of aluminium core, wood finish and outer cover fabric - these are at a high-end price point, but hopefully will become the pioneers of future audio design which functions as room decor as well as tech equipment.
Beosound 2 3rd Gen speaker in gold finish, £2,850 Bang & Olufsen at Selfridges
At a recent interior design showcase at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, interior designer Alex Dauley demonstrated a genius idea for integrating speakers, clever concealing them behind bespoke art installations in her media room.
Image: Courtesy of Alex Dauley
Note the speaker (just visible) concealed behind translucent fabric forming a bespoke art installation on the wall.
Acoustics
While in an ideal world your cinema room would be sound-proofed (our isn’t, although it does have acoustic plasterboard) if your budget and patience doesn’t stretch to cladding the walls in acoustic panels, which can be provided by an AV company, there are steps you can take to improve the sound quality in your home cinema room without them.
Carpet is a must. While admittedly Andy and I came to blows about this to start off with because I had hoped for the same wooden flooring throughout the basement level, I can’t tell you how happy the carpet in the cinema room makes me now. It’s warm and cocooning and, more significantly, it absorbs sound and reduces echo.
Soft plush seating and thick drapes hanging either around the walls and/ or at the windows will also contribute to the audio experience. The more cushions, the better. And that’s official.
Lighting
When watching a movie you want the room to be in complete darkness, so those drapes or blinds must be black-out. Window-less rooms are generally recommended online, but, in my view, windows are a god-send in the summer in an otherwise airless room rammed with people and all that heat-generating tech.
Any lighting or lamps that reflect in the screen will ruin the cinematic experience. Ideally sync your lighting to a smart phone app so you can control lighting from your seat as people get up for a comfort break or more wine. It’s all too easy to trip over a sleeping dog in the dark, and I speak from experience.
If you really want to go the extra mile, avoid any reflective surfaces that can bounce sound, or light around the room and that includes glass photo frames.
On the AV side, of course you only really need a SMART TV, but if you want to invest in something more sophisticated it’s worth speaking to a cinema room company to discuss your specific needs and budget. We used & can recommend ATI UK https://atiuk.net/home-automation/home-cinema (not an ad).
Our tiered seating.
Tiered Rows
Consider tiered seating. Admittedly probably not an option in small family snug, but if you’re creating a cinema room from scratch it’s worth elevating a row of seats. Not only does this help hugely from a viewing perspective - no heads obstructing the view or kids booster cushions needed - it also helps create that authentic cinema vibe.
Some timber joists and plywood are all that’s needed to create tiered flooring. Our second tier is 28cm up from the original floor, with a step at the 14cm mid-point.
PRESENT:
LOOK & FEEL
Every single Soho House screening room shares one common design element and that is - velvet seating.
Whether in a toning or contrasting shade, nothing beats velvet for comfort and luxury and nowadays velvets are widely available in an easy clean finish, which proves helpful for wine spills and those damn chocolate buttons you always end up sitting on.
Our sofa’s are in Loaf’s Liquorice Blue Clever Velvet, closely colour-matched to the Farrow & Ball archive colour Black Blue (no. 95) on the walls & ceiling, to create a calm continuity to the space.
I went with a toning dark blue palette as a twist on the ubiquitous cinema red, but, if I had my time again I’d love to do a really dark red, like Farrow & Ball Preference Red (no. 297) paired with a matching velvet (Loaf Drenched Damsons) or Farrow & Ball Studio Green (no. 93) paired with Loaf Christmas Tree Clever Velvet. Just gorgeous.
I took the wall colour over the ceilings to create a cocooning, colour-drenched effect, while introducing some light relief through the carpet colour, which is a very pale grey to contrast with the inky walls. Our carpet is the Cavendish in Cardwell, a textural wool/polypropylene mix from Woven & Woods in Twickenham.
Adding individual brass & glass side tables is signature Soho House – I found a great dupe for their Cinema Side Table (theirs is from Soho Home £395) mine are the Tria, £95 from Loaf, sadly no longer available but I’ve found an alternative vintage-style side table for £120 from Rockett St George (see below).
Art Deco style wall lights will help create a 1920s feel to the space, a nod to that post-WW1 era when cinemas emerged as opulent entertainment palaces that offered people a luxury entertainment experience. Our 20s inspired wall lights are the Roddy, £145 from Pooky.com, see below.
Vintage Gold & brass side table, £120 Rockett St George
Roddy wall light, £145 Pooky.com
If using a projector, you could paint one wall white instead of installing a screen. If using a SMART TV, ensure the bezel is black (rather than silver or grey-coloured) as this will ensure it blends seamlessly into the dark walls behind it.
The height of your TV is critical, whether you’re aiming for a cinema room vibe or whether we’re simply talking about your lounge at home. So many people get this wrong and it’s one of my biggest interior bugbears because it spoils the entire viewing experience. Regardless of the size of your TV, its centre point should be 106-110cm from the floor. Any higher is too high, and that definitely discounts over the mantel.
Ideally you want your TV wall-mounted and hard-wired to the Internet, with any cables and other tech discreetly hidden behind cabinetry or even inside a separate AV cupboard away from the heat of the projector or screen.
And on this point, despite any AV kit upgrades you might decide to invest in, you’d be wise to hang onto that ancient DVD or Blu-Ray player.
Yes, Love Actually et al might be widely available on all the film channels, but there is nothing more annoying than paying £5.99 to watch a movie you’ve owned on DVD since 2004.
Which is why, incidentally, that Tesco DVD player is still going strong. Perhaps a very thoughtful gift after all. 😊