11 Basement Theatre Ideas In 2023
Most homes come with a basement unless you live in a high-rise tower. Once considered a space in the typical American household to put up storage, it is now revamped and utilized effectively. This led to the concept of basement theatres.
All it takes is a little imagination and sufficient resources to set up a basement theatre. It’s a great idea for those who have small living rooms and want to add a room of leisure where they can relax after work.
Basements are dark and damp spaces found at the ground level of any building. Earlier, they were specifically used as storage spaces. However, with the changing times, people started using it more creatively.
It could be an ideal spot for a hangout, kid’s room, gym, home office, laundry room, walk-in closet, bar, etc but a basement theatre beats all!
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11 Fascinating Basement theatre ideas
There are many ways in which you can spice up your basement theatre. Today, I’m going to suggest some ideas that can help you utilize your basement to the max.
When building a basement theatre, you’re going to consider factors such as lighting, ventilation, screen space, air conditioning, wiring, seating, bar, etc.
Keep scrolling…….
1. Colour Schemes
A lot of thought goes into selecting the accurate color for your basement theatre. The color selection depends entirely on your taste and preference. It might seem like an easy task but it can be quite mind-boggling.
Dark hues are ideal for a theatre room including its walls and the ceiling. Colors such as black, grey, dark brown, and burgundy are phenomenal color schemes you can consider using. Dark colors are preferable because they cut down the light from the TV or projector bouncing around.
Light colors such as white, yellow, pink, and crème should be avoided because as I said before dark colors enhance your movie theatre setup by tenfold. It also depends on the décor and your budget too. It’s advisable you hire an interior designer to help you pick the color that will enhance the look of your seating and theatre bar.
Also Read: What Color Light Is Best For Home Theatre?
2. DVD Collector Wall
If you’re a movie lover, there’s no way on earth you won’t have a collection of movies and DVDs. You can make a shelved rack and stack your DVD collection on them like a DVD shelf. So, anytime you have guests over, they can browse through your collection and pick a movie of their choice.
It’s a great idea and much better than putting up a painting staring right at you. Hell, I wouldn’t want that. Just imagine, you’re done watching a scary movie and turn on the lights post the show, and damn, an image is looking at you. That’s creepy!
However, you don’t need to put up DVD shelves on every wall. You can select a side wall or back wall for this. It will be far more convenient to place it on either of the sides. So, you should decide as per your preference without anyone’s influence.
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3. LED Ceiling Lights
Let me tell you why LED lights will look super cool in your basement theatre. They are like a strip of glowing lights you’re going to put up either on the wall or flooring. They look great if you wish to highlight areas around the stage or give a border effect on the wall.
LEDs are generally used to line floorboards, walkways, or hallways. They are kept on even during the movie as they won’t really prick the eye. It’s a good idea to place them on the floorboard next to the sitting section as they mildly illuminate the stairway which helps while finding your way back to your chair.
Also Read: Home Theatre Lighting Setup
4. Bar/Snack Bar Area
Another thing you can add to your basement theatre is a Basement Bar, so, you can do up the space in such a way that you get a 2-in-1 kind of setup. Space them out in such a way that it should not look tacky.
If the basement space is small, you can build a mini bar that won’t occupy much space. You can make a small snack bar or a chai bar, too, so you can get the complete theatre to feel. Now, there won’t be intervals here because you’re watching a DVD but you can pause the movie halfway through so your guest can go and get some ready-to-eat snacks in between.
You can put up a couple of small stools at the bar so you and your friends can sit down for a drink or so. This is one place where you can get really creative.
For instance, you can make a theme-based bar. If you’re not that creative, you can sit down with the interior decorator and express your liking and they shall carry out the rest themselves.
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5. Starry Night Lights
You’re in a basement so don’t expect to see the stars in the sky, unless, you have a window. Although, you can create an illusion of a starry night by installing some fiber optic lighting or in layman’s language fairy lights.
Since people love lying beneath a starry sky or watching movies on the big screen, you can mix them both. Starry lights have a charm of their own and a touch of sparkle to the room. These types of lights use flexible fiber made out of light or glass to transmit light from a light source. Starry lights are dim and create an illusion of stars. It should not create any inconvenience to the eye.
6. Reclining Seats
Okay, you don’t want to sit on dining chairs and watch your movie. It is because that’s just going to be uncomfortable. Even the sofa won’t be very comforting. You want to stretch your legs while you enjoy your movie. You can opt for a recliner chair.
The benefit of adding a recliner is that you can keep the lights on and convert it to a bed and sleep during the movie. It feels great sometimes i.e. If you can sleep with lights on.
There are so many options available for either of the two. There are recliner chairs with massagers too! You can select at your convenience.
7. Theatre Stairway
There’s going to be a stairway that shall lead you to the basement from the living room. You can revamp it and make it more lively. You can add some LED lights on the stairway or on the walls around it. You can put up movie posters, LED lights, arrow stickers, or the typical “enter”, or “exit”/signs.
You can even put up quotes from your favorite movies on the walls of the stairway passage. You can do the same on the bar wall. There are so many minds in the world and there are as many ideas.
Feel free to play around with your imagination as per your taste. To keep things simple, go for fairy lights, posters of stars, movie posters, wallpaper, red carpets, green carpets, and so on.
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8. Equipment size, placement, and soundproofing
Once you’re done setting up the basement theatre, next on your agenda should be the kind of equipment you’re going to need for your home theatre arrangement.
There are multiple home theatre setups available for you to select from. You can select between a big tv screen or a projector. It’s ideal to select a projector as the screen will be big and movie viewing will be fun.
Moving on, you need to pick the right sound system for your home theatre so the system can pick the bass and pitch of the movie audio.
If you’re building a theatre in your basement, you must soundproof the walls and the ceiling. You can put resilient channel drywall as a material to develop a sound barrier in walls and ceilings or you could put in extra fiberglass batt insulation.
Alternatively, you may opt for Green Glue, a simple way to dampen surround transfer between surfaces. Besides, walls and curtains help stop extra noise from infiltrating the walls of the basement.
9. Blackout Curtains
You want the room to be really dark to be able to truly live the ultimate movie-viewing experience. The benefit of using a blackout curtain is that it blocks light better than any other curtain. They improve energy efficiency by helping to insulate your room too.
Since they are thick they even help soundproof the room. The voice doesn’t go out of the room. Dark walls and black curtains will black out the room completely, so you can put different kinds of lights (dim, LED, fiber optic lights, etc.). You can even opt for colors other than black such as dark red, maroon, burgundy, brown, grey, etc.
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10. Lighting
You must invest in good lighting to match the concept of your basement theatre. You just can’t get away with just one kind of light. There are multiple kinds of lights you can invest in.
Don’t opt for very bright lights or very dim lights though. You must balance between the two. so, being optimal is the key. You can put up LED lights and Fibre optic lighting and you need a set of big, bright lights too, to use during cleaning.
There are recessed lights, hanging light fixtures, cove lights, bias lights, and lights you can choose from for your seating area too. Study the different lights and their purpose, so you will know which are the ones to go for.
11. Home Stage
You can opt for a home stage along with your home theatre. You may put up curtains in front of the screen to enhance the appeal of the stage. do not forget to invite your friends over and have your own comedy nights. You can hold events and your little ones can perform too. If you have the space and the budget, just go for it!
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End Note
It’s a no-brainer that your basement is an ideal location to set up a home theatre as the light is blocked out. I just gave you 11 ideas to set up your basement theatre. You can follow up on these by yourself and if you still have any confusion, feel free to take professional help.
If you have the space and the budget, a basement theatre will be a great spot for family and friend hangouts, a man cave for the men in the house, a party spot along the bar in the basement, open mics, and so much more. I hope this piece guides you to build the best basement theatre space which you can be proud of.
