Escape hatch: a home theater outside Boston takes its owners anywhere they want to go

Custom Home, Sept-Oct, 2003

Mitchell Klein's suburban Boston clients envisioned their basement home theater as a place to escape from the humdrum of daily life. They placed so much importance on it, in fact, that they waited until the rest of their new home was completely finished before even thinking about the theater design. "The theater was going to be a very significant part of their lives," says Klein, president of Media Systems in Boston, the system's installer. "They wanted to be able to focus on it without having to deal with a lot of distractions."

Gorman Richardson Architects of Hopkinton, Mass., set aside space for the theater when it designed the house in 1999. After a break from all the decision-making that goes into a custom home, the clients were ready to start on their private getaway. As major film buffs, their top concern was creating an environment that would let them enjoy a movie's picture and sound as fully as possible.

Media Systems chose a three-chip DLP projector, placing it in a separate booth for both acoustic and aesthetic reasons. "This way we didn't have to have the projector in the middle of the ceiling," says Klein. "Having a separate projection room also removes the fan noise from the theater." A digital sound processor and triamplified studio monitors concealed behind cherry panels keep the sound system resonating crisply and clearly. Bass shakers under the seats add to the experience of watching action and adventure movies. A pair of built in mahogany cabinets contain all other electronic equipment; the owners can control the theater's picture, sound, and lighting from a wired touchscreen.

Stylistically, the intimately scaled, 300-square-foot theater represents a drastic departure from the rest of the house, a Georgian Colonial. The owners requested an Arabian Nights theme and worked with Gorman Richardson to find richly patterned textiles that would fit this concept. Gold tassels, leather trim, and an heirloom rug set the mood. Fiber-optic lights in the ceiling give the effect of a nighttime sky. In a nod to the theme as well as the owners' love of horses, the cherry speaker panels and the grille surrounding the screen are patterned with cutouts in the shape of horses' heads. The cutouts serve an additional purpose: They absorb sound, thereby improving acoustic quality. The plush fabrics used throughout the room, such as corduroy and velvet, perform a similar function. To ensure the room's vivid colors don't detract from the picture, electronic masking outlines the 130-inch perforated screen.

The exotic-looking retreat was completed in February 2002; it won Best Home Theater, Level IV, in CEDIA's 2002 Electronic Lifestyles Awards.