| DIY Home Theater September 2004
 Budgeting Your
Project
Last time, I gave an
overview of what "DIY Home Theater" is about and suggested that our first goal
would be to produce a budget for our home-theater project. Here, I’ll look at that
budget and the kind of work required to build a simple home theater, and discuss how to
turn a bland television room into a well-appointed home theater.
Renovating the current room
My current home theater (if it can be called that) is an
unused bedroom on the third floor of my house. It has some good things going for it:
It’s secluded from the rest of the house, so I won’t bother my wife or son if I
watch a movie late at night, even one that has a no-holds-barred soundtrack. The seclusion
also means that when my wife has friends over, we won’t disturb each other. The fact
that the room is a dedicated home theater means that I can decorate it as I see
fit; the speaker wires draped everywhere won’t bother anyone. And keeping the
television up on the third floor means that my wife and I are able to achieve something
important to both of us: TVs out of the main living areas of our home. Overall, it
isn’t a bad place to have a home theater.
This doesn’t mean that it can’t be improved. The
walls are a dull beige that does nothing to add to the theater-like ambiance I’d
prefer. Except for the surround speakers, the walls are bare, which adds to the dullness.
The speaker wires lying on the floor and draped around windows and doorways don’t
detract from movie watching, but give the space a dorm-room quality that should be done
away with. The components (a receiver, DVD player, VCR, SACD player, and various pieces
for review) are distributed on a television stand and a DIY equipment rack that, while
easy to make and convenient to use, also contribute to the dorm-room feel. The television
has a 27" screen -- not bad for the space, but not very sexy either. We do have a
comfortable futon, a zebra-skin footstool, and side tables that I like, so not everything
needs to be abandoned or reworked.
To reinvent the room as a home theater, I’ll need to
undertake four projects: painting, wiring, making a cabinet, and decorating. And if
I’m to complete this transformation, I need to do two things: think about what order
I should tackle these various jobs, and take a look at how much time and money each will
require. Because the wiring and cabinet will require breaking into the walls, that’s
where I should start.
First, I need to figure out just what size cabinet
I’ll be building, then work out how the wires will get from the cabinet to the
speakers and television. Once the cabinet is built and in place, I can work on the wires
(this should be straightforward and easy). Once the room is wired, I’ll be able to
start painting. Finally, we’ll decorate.
Let’s take a closer look at these steps and think
about how much it will all cost.
Four steps to a home theater
The first step in building this home theater will be to add
a cabinet for an in-wall equipment rack for all of the components. I’ll make this
cabinet 60" tall and 26" wide. (If you undertake such a project, remember that
your system requirements will be different, which means that the size of your cabinet will
be different as well.) Once the cabinet size is determined, I’ll need to cut through
one of the walls (luckily, it backs onto a storage closet). For this I’ll need a
drywall knife, reciprocating saw, hammer, common nails, some MDF for the shelves, lumber,
and molding to frame the cabinet. Except for the saw, none of these is very expensive; a
quick trip to my local home center suggested that it would cost about $85 for the
materials (I already had the tools). If you don’t have a saw, ask a neighbor --
someone will have one. A hammer, knife, and nails won’t cost you more than $30; if
you can’t find a neighbor, you can rent a reciprocating saw at a home center for the
day.
I’ll start by removing the drywall from the area on
both sides of the wall. I’ll then need to cut at least one of the wall studs to open
a space large enough for the rack. I’ll then have to re-frame this space. Once the
space is open, I’ll need to work on the shelves. This may be a bit tricky, but my
plan is to build a wooden frame for the back of the shelves, and use the re-framed wall as
front support for the shelves. You could make the shelves adjustable, but I’ll stick
to nonadjustable shelves because I think they’ll be easier to build. The back of the
shelves won’t be pretty, but that will be hidden in a closet, so I’m not
concerned. My home center said it would cut the MDF to size, so I’m saved having to
do that. If you can’t get them to do the cutting for you, remember to measure twice
and cut once. Once the frame is up and the shelves are in place, I’ll add a
decorative molding to the outside of the cabinet to give it a more professional finish. I
have limited carpentry skills, but all of these tasks are relatively simple; I’ve
budgeted 12 hours to get them done.
My biggest concern in this project was how to get the wires
around the room without calling in a professional. Luckily, not too long after I began
thinking about this, I came across WireTracks. This product is a plastic track that you
can place behind the trim on the bottom of your wall. It’s a pretty easy process.
First, take off the existing trim, place the WireTracks against the wall, and mark along
the top of the WireTracks. Next comes the hard part -- removing the drywall from where the
WireTracks will be put in place. Once this is done, place the WireTracks in the new space
and connect it to the studs along your wall with nails or screws. Now you can place your
wires in the track (there are clips to keep them in place). You’ll still need to open
your walls where you need the wires to connect to parts of your system, but this is much
easier than trying to snake wires all the way through the walls.
At the equipment end, I can simply open a part of the wall
on the closet side to introduce the wires to the WireTracks. At the surround speakers I
can open the wall at the speaker positions and snake the wire down to the WireTracks. At
the fronts, center, and TV, I can create an opening slightly above the trim so that the
wires can reach their destinations. Once the cables are in the track, I cover them with
the WireTracks cover, replace the baseboard trim, and I’m done. WireTracks is very
useful, and it’s inexpensive: I paid $130 for 50’ of track. When you consider
what it would cost to put the wires in the wall any other way, this is a bargain. I’m
not sure how long it will take to install the wires, but I think it’s better to go
slow than to rush, so I’ve budgeted two days -- including both WireTracks and
connecting the wires to the speakers and TV.
I’ll also use this time to replace the speaker wires
I’ve been using (the new cabinet will make this necessary anyway; the components will
be farther away from the speakers) -- I’ll probably use Analysis Plus’s Theater
4 in-wall speaker wire. I’ve recently tried Analysis Plus’s Solo Crystal Oval
interconnects in my stereo system and have been very pleased. Given the lengths I’ll
need, this will run about $600. Luckily, my subwoofer cable is already the right length.
However, if I go with Analysis Plus’s component-video cable, that will cost a little
over $500. That’s more than $1000 worth of cables -- if you’re looking for a
place to cut the budget, here’s where to do it. Remember, though, that after
you’ve put the trim back on your walls and covered the WireTracks, you won’t
want to change cables any time soon; make sure you’ve made a decision that
you’ll be happy to live with for a long time.
Painting the room a dark color, such as a navy blue or deep
purple, is our next step. Some enthusiasts argue that black is the best color for a home
theater, but it’s hard to make a black-walled room look attractive; these dark colors
will be almost as good. I’ve painted lots of rooms in my house, so I’m on sure
footing about how to proceed here. For the size room I have, I’ll need two gallons of
primer and about two gallons of paint. It will take about six hours to paint the room, and
it will need to dry between coats, so the entire painting stage will take at least three
days: one day for the primer, one day for each coat of paint. The nice thing about
painting is that it’s inexpensive and makes an immediate difference. I already have
brushes, rollers, drop cloths, and other accessories; all I’ll need to buy is the
paint, which should run around $60. If you don’t have the necessary tools, budget
another $40.
The finishing touches will be the decorations. First, I
need a blackout curtain for the window so that it can be really dark, even during
early-morning movie watching. When I called a local fabric store, they told me that a
curtain of the size I’ll need would cost about $20. The last remaining item will be
four movie posters and frames. If you look at websites devoted to home-theater
accessories, you’ll see that you can spend a lot of money on the frames alone. I
found acceptable frames at a local department store for $20 each. I don’t need
collectible movie posters, so I checked for reproductions of posters for four of my
favorite films: Rashomon, The Third Man, North by Northwest, and Chungking
Express. Surfing the Web, I was able to find these for $20 apiece. This put my total
decorating expenses at $180. I could, of course, have gone overboard -- movie-themed throw
pillows, old-fashioned popcorn machines, rope lighting around the door, etc. -- but my
goal is to be tasteful, not tacky.
The work timetable for this project divides nicely into
weekend-size units, and the total cost comes to about $1600, assuming I go with the
expensive Analysis Plus cables. If you choose more affordable cables, the total cost could
go as low as $500. The overall price, of course, depends on what you already have on hand.
The total labor time, from start to finish, is about week -- or the work could be spread
over four or more weekends. In estimating the time required to complete each stage of the
project, I was generous -- this entire project should be fun, not only once the job is
finished, but during the construction process as well. If you want to work all day and
night, then it could even be shorter, but I prefer a more relaxed approach.
Conclusion
I hope I have provided you with some ideas about how to
transform a room from a mere television room into a modest, well-decorated home theater. A
nice thing about the different parts of this project is that they can be self-contained --
pick and choose what you think will work in your room. WireTracks may be the star of the
entire project -- it can give you a sense of a professional installation without the cost.
In the next installment of "DIY Home Theater"
I’ll discuss a much bigger project: building a basement home theater. I’ll
discuss the pros and cons of DIY over hiring a contractor, and develop a budget and
timetable. If you think I’ve missed something, or have a better or cheaper way of
doing any of the things I’ve discussed, please e-mail me.
...Eric Hetherington
erich@hometheatersound.com
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