Captain’s Quarters Theater

Captain’s Quarters: A Newton Home Theater

An unused space in our client’s Newton basement provides big time fun when transformed into a fabulous media room. The family uses the beautiful home theater for movies and gaming together and individually. All this flowing from the initial spark of interest from a simple column detail viewed in our showroom.

The client wanted the media room to look great and be easy to operate. To set the mood for every type of activity, the theaters was outfitted with Control4’s sleek SR250 remote for hand held control of the lighting, DVD player, TV streaming, projector and games. The room was set-up with five “media scenes” based on source selection that included easy one-button operation from a six-button keypad located at the theater’s entrance.

Simply selecting DVD as you enter lowers the lights, activates the audio-video system, selects play and after a short delay, the lights fade out to a pre-determined “movie viewing” lighting scene and the movie begins. Recently an iPad was added to the area for additional control. Touch any setting such as Cable (TV streaming), DVD or Game on the keypad and the room springs to life automatically, activating all of the pre-set programming. The equipment can be used without the mood settings as well.

The clients also wanted the room to have the sophisticated ambiance of a home theater. Our design staff transformed the client’s vision into a beautiful, functioning space they love and use all the time. There is a high level of millwork detail throughout. Millwork is featured prominently on the columns, soffits, project shroud, custom door (that resembles an old fashioned movie theater entrance), and raised bar at the rear of the room that provides additional seating. We also designed the arrangement of the acoustical panels that were manufactured by Acoustic Innovations and then installed by our staff. The speakers and acoustical panels work well with the design of the space and appear to be part of the décor. The front proscenium houses the screen, speakers and local source equipment such as a Bluray player, PS3 and Wii game consoles.

The area in the rear can also be used for entertaining. Near the entrance outside of the theater is decorations with film reels, movie posters and a beautiful, authentic brass and burgundy rope that pull the home theater feeling together.

“The new room has changed the way we think about entertainment at home and has taken on an importance in our everyday activities that would have been hard to predict at the outset of the project.”