Picture House #3
Phase 3 : Decoration and fittings
Picture house number 2 was decorated
in blue. Dark blue painted walls and ceiling plus dark blue
carpet and curtains. I liked that colour scheme and I see
no reason to change it for number 3. Plus I have 2 blue home
cinema seats so that kind of decides it for me.
Early March, the electrics
are finished. The fuse box is wired up... |
|
...and the power sockets
fitted. The Lutron lighting control
box, alarm keypad and the 6 spotlights above the seating
were installed (see below).
Alarm
box, control unit, keypad, door and wall sensor |
£140 |
Lutron
Grafik Eye lighting control |
(see
local dealer) |
6
Spotlights |
£40 |
All
electrical cables, sockets, fuse box and labour
(note that the electrician
is a friend of the family and undercharged on the
work) |
£500 |
|
|
March 25th and 26th
I sealed the plaster on the walls and ceiling. A mixture
of 1 part PVA glue and 5 parts water seals the plaster
and provides a base for the paint. A bucket full did
the trick.
PVA
glue |
£6 |
Brushes
and rollers |
£10 |
|
|
April 3rd the painting
starts. One tip. If you want a nice and smooth finish,
don't let toddlers help you.
Paint
5 litres (this is the total - we needed another
2 litres later on for the fittings) |
£60 |
|
|
The paint is the darkest
blue from B&Q's own range and is mixed in-store.
It dries darker than when it's applied and this helps
when applying a second coat.
I've decided to paint the
power sockets and the skirtinboard the same colour. |
|
Early May Dad puts the
wall lights up. They were about 25 quid each from www.thelightingsuperstore.co.uk
and made from paintable ceramic. I painted them with
the same colour I have used on the walls so they blend
in. They look really nice.
Total
bill for the lights was about |
£200 |
|
|
The only element of completing
this project done by myself is the painting and it takes six
weeks.
May 22 the curtains
go up. They were made to order and installed by a local
curtain maker I found in Yellow Pages Jenny's Curtains.
There are 3 curtain rails - the main one seen here over
the window. The curtain material is blackout, of course. |
|
The other two curtain
rails are on the side walls along the front 7 feet.
The intention here is that they will serve two purposes
when closed:
- Create an uneven surface to absorb and disperse
the sound and reduce reverberation and
- Cover movie posters which would otherwise reflect
light and sound.
Curtains along the walls
definitely add a cinematic feel.
Making
and fitting the curtains |
£500 |
|
|
Early June the concrete floor
was sealed by the builder as the last part of his duties.
I was somewhat surprised to see that it was using PVA glue
the same as I had used to seal the walls.
15th June the carpet
and underlay go in.
From a local carpet company,
I went for a slightly more expensive, thicker carpet
for two reasons. Firstly the anti-stain coating would
be pretty essential with two youngs kids. And secondly
I like to walk around in bear feet and I like to feel
a nice thick carpet under them.
Naturally the carpet is
in dark blue.
A good idea from the carpet
salesman was to have a foot-wiping bit of thicker carpet
inside of the door for people to wipe their feet on.
This was neatly installed with a metal strip round it.
Supplying
and fitting the carpet |
£520 |
|
|
The process of putting the carpet
in scratched a good deal of paint off the skirtingboard so
I had to spend some time very carefully repainting it.
29th June my Dad revisited
and wired up the infa-red receiver for the screen which
arrived earlier this week. We had expected it to be
an in-wall job, but it wasn't and the only neat and
quick way we could get it in was to put it inside a
larger box which you can see here to the left of the
lighting control. The guys from Owl say there might
be an in-wall version coming soon and I will put this
in as and when it arrives.
Also this week I took delivery
of the new stand for my gear. It's the Chunky Extended
Sound Tower Cabinet (in Mahogany with grey tinted sides
and doors) from Stands
Unique and it's quite simply a work of beauty. The
Denon AVC-A1SE fits in there with room to spare. |
|
My Dad also wired in
the central spot light which will shine down onto the
coffee table built round the projector. You can see
it at the very top of the photo here.
Hey this is starting to
look like a cinema, isn't it ?! |
|
July 1st 2004 was a big day!
The picture side of the Picture House was completed!!!
It started with the
arrival of the builders Phil and Vin who quickly installed
the window boxes to block out the light spilling in
above and below the curtains... |
|
...and the DVD shelving.
I'm going to paint the window boxes and the shelving.
After which Phil will come back to put the vertical
shelving rails in so I can then insert and adjust the
height of the shelves.
The shelving reaches to
the ceiling so I can store the maxumim number of DVDs
there.
Mid-way along the left
wall is the only place to put the shelving and unfortunatley
it is right next to the wall light - which spoils the
effect a bit - and I bet it will be too close to the
left surround speaker, too. |
|
Proceed to the next page to read
about the installation of the home cinema hardware.
« Phase 2 : Construction
| Phase 4 : Installation of the
kit » |