The Media Room Is The New Family Room

When you think about the differences between a media room and a family room

, they are really pretty subtle. Actually a media room may just be where the family room meets technology. So if you are thinking about turning your family room into a media room, it may not be as big of a change as you think.

Design for your Media

Since you are designing the room around media, it is probably a good idea to first decide exactly what media you want to include in the room. You will also want to decide how open you want to leave your design so that you can add new media elements in the future. For example, if you will be upgrading your TV or adding a new speaker system, you want to consider that as you are designing your room.

When you are selecting furniture for your new media room, try to design it for the future as much as it makes sense to do so. For example if you are looking at a new TV stand, and you find one that will work for your existing TV, but it may not work for the new HD TV upgrade that you are planning to get next year, which stand makes more sense? In this case it is a better choice to design around your new TV than around your old one. Similarly, if you are adding a new computer system you will need to have a cabinet with adequate airflow, or if you are planning to add a Wii sports system you will need adequate space in the room to play the games without smashing into the furniture.

Activities Dictate the Layout

Make the design of your room functional, and then you can worry about eye appeal. For example, place TV screens for comfortable viewing. Place DVD and video equipment where you have easy access. Mount speakers where they will transmit the best sound. Allow easy access to comfortable seating.

If your media room will be doubling as an exercise space, make sure that you configure furniture to allow adequate room to move around, or simply put the furniture on casters.

Making Light of the Situation

One thing that you need to consider in a media room that you do not have to think about in a family room is light control. When viewing a movie on a large screen, glare can be really distracting. You can use track lighting to direct light so that you have adequate light to see without bouncing it off of the TV monitor.

You also need to think about light coming through your windows and bouncing off of your walls. For this you may want to consider installing some black out shades and painting the room in a darker flat finish neutral.

Reflecting on Sound

To get the best sound quality in your media room, you want surfaces to absorb noise rather than reflect it, so here are some helpful tips for keeping unwanted noise to a minimum.

1. Sound reflects off of any hard surface. To keep your room from being an echo chamber, add a foam pad and carpet the floor. Then carpet the walls as well; if this is not possible or desirable, a carpet wall hanging can help diffuse sound.

2. Cover the ceiling with sound insulating tiles to keep sound contained.

3. If noise from the street is a problem install triple pane windows and dress the windows with ceiling to floor heavy fabric curtains which will absorb both light and sound.

by: Aja Klena

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