Turning an Unfinished Third Floor into a TV Room: An Introduction

Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine a room that is 12ft x 10ft. You might be thinking to yourself that this room would make a nice guest bedroom. I’m sure that’s what the builder thought when he designed the house. Now I want you to fill that room with a love seat, an oversized chair, a coffee table and an entertainment center that houses a 40” LCD TV, PS3, Wii, Surround receiver, a sub woofer and of course, my home theater PC (HTPC)–my rear speakers are actually hanging from nails. Nails. But there is hope.

Ever since we moved into the house I have been waiting for that magical confluence of money and spare time that would free me from this claustrophobic impostor of a TV room. Well, that time has finally arrived and I am in the process of building out an unfinished third floor for this purpose.

My goal is to be done in time for playoff baseball in October. I thought this project would be of some interest to the readers of Missing Remote, at least the home theater components of the project. I don’t have an unlimited budget for this new TV room but, at a minimum my surround speakers will not be hanging from nails.

In my next post I’ll include a sketch of the space and go into detail about my plans. Subsequent posts will chronicle my purchases and the installation of wiring, mounts, etc. This is my first project of this magnitude so I’m sure everything will not go to plan. Hopefully my blog posts can serve as both inspiration and reference for your own projects.