Cool Ideas for Your Home Theater

So you have your home theater equipment and you're ready to set up your new room, but you want to make sure you make it, well, as cool as possible. It's already pretty special that you get to set up this room for your family. Why not add a few special touches that will make it excellent. Here are some ideas making your home theater really cool.

1. Go vintage

Use history's theaters as a model for yours. Think of those decadent 1920s theaters with the big gold double doors. Even if you don't get the doors, you can still model your room off of those elegant red carpets and red plush seats. Consider covering the walls with wood paneling and vintage sconces that give the room a rich feeling when they're on. If you want to really drive the idea home, get those chairs monogrammed. This Parisian opera house feel is great for classic movie buffs and people who love all things vintage.

2. Go man cave

If your theater is mostly going to serve as a man cave for sports game viewing, choose decor that imitates a sports bar feel. Choose wood molding and simple recessed lighting. Use neutral paint to emphasize the manly feel of the room. Use leather seating to increase the feeling of relaxing and enjoying the games. Granite bars going in front of the seating will be a great place to serve beer and snacks. Or, if that's too elaborate, you can get the seats that have a cup holder attached to them and use trays to serve food.

3. Go simple

If your home theater is more prominent in your house, you may not want a novelty room front and center. If you want to incorporate your home theater into the rest of you house's decor, match the paint and lighting to reflect that. Choose light walls. Since you may not be able to set up stadium style seating, you can just build one level above the ground level. This way, people can sit on the floor and on the couch above without feeling crammed.

4. Go modern

If you like clean lines and want to emphasize the techie feel of the home theater choose a concrete bar for the back of the room and concrete walls. Choose square chairs that emphasize strong lines and make the lighting just as angular. The result will be Star Trek meets Pottery Barn, and it will be beautiful.

5. Go kid friendly

If the home theater is mostly going to be for the kids, consider letting them weigh in. Of course, you might not be able to model the theater after a princess castle or spider man, but you can get some ideas that can be translated into a more civilized space. Consider hanging pictures of the kids' favorite cartoon characters or getting colorful sconces that make the space fun for kids but still tasteful enough for adults.

Once you've decided on your video equipment and you've started to set up the technology, you'll want to start considering the design of the room. It's great that you'll have a new fun room for the family, but it can be that much more fun if you make the room really cool -- whatever cool means to you and your family.

Grace Lord writes for home design blogs and recommends checking out www.theaterseatstore.com when looking to purchase theater seating.