A home theater is one of the most rewarding upgrades you can make to your home. Done right, it becomes the room your family gravitates to every evening and the space that impresses every guest who walks in. Done poorly, it becomes an expensive TV room with echo problems.
After designing and installing over 150 home theaters across the Denver metro area, we have seen what makes the difference. Here are the five most important decisions to get right before you break ground.
1. Room Selection and Layout
Not every room is suited to be a theater. The ideal space is a dedicated room with minimal windows, a rectangular shape, and enough depth for proper viewing distance. Basements are the classic choice for good reason: they are naturally dark, isolated from household noise, and often have the square footage to work with.
If a basement is not an option, a spare bedroom or bonus room can work, but you will need to invest more in light control (motorized blackout shades) and sound isolation. The key measurement to nail is viewing distance. For a 120-inch screen, you want your primary seating 12 to 15 feet from the screen. Plan the room around this number, not the other way around.
Pro tip: Measure your room before you shop. A projector and 120-inch screen need at least 14 feet of depth and 10 feet of width to work comfortably.
2. Acoustic Treatment
This is the single most overlooked element in home theater design, and it is arguably the most important. You can spend $20,000 on speakers, but if your room is a reflective box of drywall and hard floors, the sound will be muddy, boomy, and fatiguing.
Proper acoustic treatment involves absorption panels at first-reflection points (the side walls and ceiling where sound bounces directly from the speakers to your ears), bass traps in the corners, and diffusion on the rear wall. The goal is not to deaden the room but to control the reflections so the sound you hear is what the speakers are actually producing.
- First-reflection absorption panels on side walls and ceiling
- Bass traps in all four room corners
- Rear-wall diffusion to maintain liveliness
- Thick carpet or area rug to tame floor reflections
- Acoustically transparent screen if using in-wall speakers
3. Display: Projector vs. Large-Format TV
For a true cinematic experience, a projector and screen is the way to go. Modern 4K laser projectors from Sony and Epson deliver stunning image quality with minimal maintenance (no lamp replacements). Paired with a 120-inch or larger acoustically transparent screen, the result is something a flat-panel TV simply cannot replicate at any size.
That said, if your room has ambient light you cannot fully control, or if the space is compact, a high-end 85-inch or 98-inch OLED or mini-LED TV might be the smarter play. The blacks will be deeper, the brightness higher, and you will not need to worry about ambient light washing out the image.
Pro tip: For dedicated dark rooms, go with a laser projector and 120"+ screen. For multipurpose or light-challenged rooms, a premium 85"+ TV will outperform.
4. Audio: Surround Sound Configuration
A Dolby Atmos system is the gold standard for home theater audio. At minimum, you want a 5.1.2 setup (five ear-level speakers, one subwoofer, two overhead/height channels). For larger rooms, a 7.2.4 configuration with four height channels and dual subwoofers creates a truly enveloping sound field.
Speaker placement matters more than speaker price. Properly positioned mid-range speakers will outperform poorly placed high-end ones. The center channel handles the vast majority of movie dialogue, so invest heavily there. For the overhead Atmos channels, in-ceiling speakers are ideal, but angled modules that sit on top of your front speakers can work in rooms where ceiling installation is not practical.
- 5.1.2 minimum for Dolby Atmos (budget-friendly entry point)
- 7.2.4 for full immersion in larger rooms
- Prioritize the center channel for dialogue clarity
- Dual subwoofers smooth out bass response across all seats
- In-ceiling speakers are best for overhead Atmos channels
5. Smart Integration and Control
A home theater should be effortless to use for everyone in the family, not just the person who set it up. This is where a smart control system like Control4 transforms the experience. One tap on a touchscreen or remote, and the lights dim, the shades close, the projector fires up, the receiver switches to the right input, and the screen descends. No juggling five remotes.
Integration goes beyond the theater itself. When someone rings the doorbell mid-movie, the system can pause playback and show the camera feed on screen. When you say goodnight, the theater powers down, the lights in the hallway gently rise, and the house transitions to its evening mode. This level of seamless automation is what separates a home theater from a home cinema experience.
Pro tip: If you are already investing in a quality theater, budget for a Control4 or similar automation system. It will make the space genuinely enjoyable to use every day.
Ready to Start Planning?
Building a home theater is a significant investment, and the decisions you make in the planning phase determine 80% of the outcome. If you are in the Denver metro area and thinking about a theater project, we would love to help you get it right from day one. We offer free consultations where we can walk through your space, discuss your goals, and map out a system that fits your home and budget.