How To Choose The Right Home Theater Seating
Have you just bought a wonderful surround-sound home entertainment system but no decent home theater seating to sit on to watch the latest rented DVD? Do you always have to squeeze next to the cat and your daughter who likes to hog the old sofa like it was her bed whenever she watches anything on the screen?
Do you have to constantly pause the DVD to get your tomato juice from the kitchen benchtop because there is no place to put your drink without fear of spilling it on your white carpet? And does your back suffer terribly even only after 30 minutes of watching your favorite sitcom?
Home theater systems and home theater seating - the suburban preoccupation of the decade
If you’ve answered yes to any of the questions above, then despair no more. In the past five years or so, home theater seats have surpassed the comfort and support provided by the traditional movie theater seat.
Home theater seating can range from actual movie theater seats with beverage holders to more plush reclining club chairs and home theater loungers with footrests and built in wireless bass audio.
But how do you choose a good home theater seating? Below are some tips on how to choose a home theater seating that is just right for you.
Tips on how to choose the right home theater seating
1. The first thing to ask yourself is how many will you normally seat?
- If you prefer your home viewing to be strictly limited to yourself and your only daughter, then you will only need a seating for a small group of three.
- If you are planning to invite the whole neighborhood, then you may need to create one or more rows of grouped seating just like in a real theater. You can choose to have single seats carefully placed in your home entertainment or rumpus room or build a group of 2, 3 or 4 chairs.
2. The second and equally important question is will your current home entertainment or rumpus room have space enough for your home theater seating plan? It would be wise to allocate a room or part of a room that is spacious enough for your home entertainment area. Or if you have the budget and the inclination - you may want to add a special room for this specific purpose.
3. A very important priority in any home theater seating is comfort as you may need to be seated for an average of 90 to 120 minutes for a full length feature movie. Answering the following questions may help you to judge whether the home theater seating you are choosing will give you the level of comfort that you need.
- Does the footrest extend before the backrest reclines? This is important so that your body remains supported and your movie viewing and line of sight is kept intact.
- Are the armrests wide enough to rest your arms and provide the right balance?
- Does the seat and back offer both firmness and flexibility? Does the seat provide high density foam cushions to provide both comfort and back support?
- Does it provide full support from head to toe?
4. What style of home theater seating will fit your decor? After all, theater seats should be part of the home theater and should enhance its overall decor. Do you want an upholstered home theater seating or do you want to see some of the timber’s natural woodgrain enlivened by an oil finish?
Do you want supple, luxurious leather or the warm caress of velvet? What colors complement your decor - the girly-cute pink of custard; the regal low-maintenance ruby of pomegranate or the uptown classy brown of biscuit?
5. Was the home theater seating constucted using techniques that have been proven to result in stronger and more durable loungers and seats that can withstand everyday use, such as using kiln-dried hardwood base frames and cushions made of high density 2-lb foam.
6. Last but not least, how much do you want to spend for your home theater seating? Whatever your budget, there seems to be a home theater seating for everyone’s fancy:
- whether its the $4,700 three-seater Rodeo Leather Lounge with built in wireless bass shaker, recliner, footrest and wide armrest rolls for the ultimate in home theater experience,
- a vintage movie theater seat which had its previous home from a local movie house and which you’ve just bid successfully on ebay for $99,
- or somewhere in between.
Flor Buenaventura is a writer who has a great interest in furnishings for the home and garden. To see a fantastic collection of resources related to home theater seating, please visit her Home Theater Seating and Home Theater Furniture
Identifying Your Home Theater Needs
If you are in the market for a home theater system, chances are that you have a pretty good idea of the individual components you will need in order to make your system complete. Most people find questions when it comes to specific information about the individual pieces and parts of the system. However, in an effort to educate all about home theater systems, this will be a brief break down of components that one might expect to purchase during the course of building a premium home theater system. Keep in mind that everyone will have their own specific needs and preferences and you may have some perfectly acceptable components already. This of course, will save you money on the overall purchase if you choose to keep the pieces you currently own.
Identifying your Home Theater Needs
First of all, there are all kinds of ‘home theater in a box’ kits on the market today. These kits are already put together in order to help you get the home theater you desire in one fell swoop. While you can get perfectly good home theater systems in this manner, I honestly believe you will get better value for your money by building your own system one component at a time. If you are impatient in a hurry or simply do not wish to spend the time researching your options then the home theater systems that are sold on the market may be a good idea for you.
Now that we’ve gotten past that, you should notice that some people consider the actual television to be a part of the home theater system. You can go many routes when selecting a television that will work with your home theater needs. It is entirely up to you what kind of television you select. I do however recommend that you seriously consider the lighting in any given room before choosing your television. Projection televisions do not do well in rooms with a great deal of light. Otherwise, go with what works within your budget and the overall look you prefer for your home theater viewing.
Home Theater
Sound is another important component of most home theater systems. The amount you spend on your sound system should depend entirely on how much sound impacts your enjoyment of movies. You can spend a lot of money on a good set of speakers and sound system or you can seriously cut costs by spending less on this particular component. Everything when it comes to building a home theater depends entirely upon your personal preferences and the overall system you wish to build.
In order to get the greatest benefit from your speakers you will need a receiver in order to process the sounds and present them in the best possible light. The receiver basically receives information from all manner of devices and sends the signal where you tell it to go. Your receiver is one place that most people tend to spend a good portion of their budget and with good reason. This is by far one of the most important components and one that many people do not already own. More on Home Theater Info.
Best Home Theater System
I am sure that at one time or another you have gone to the movies to watch a great movie. By the time that you are halfway through the movie you begin to think that it would have been great if you could have watched this movie in the comfort of your own home. Well now this option is open to you. All that you really need to make this dream a reality is to choose the best home theater systems that you can.
At this point you are probably thinking that your home theater will cost more than a year’s worth of movie trips. Well if you go about selecting the best home theater systems based on money alone then yes you will find that your home theater is going to be expensive.
Now what you really need to get the experience in your homes are a few simple items. You will need a television that can let you see a movie in a big way. Speakers that will give you excellent quality sound. A high quality DVD player and a way of experiencing the sound and excitement of surround sound.
So let’s start at the beginning of your home theater needs. As I said you will need a television with a screen that is large enough to see the whole picture. Now you might be thinking that you need a cinema size TV screen to get that best home theater systems look and feel. This is not necessarily true, however if you have such a TV screen then you just need to fine tune your television so that you can get sharp and clear pictures.
On the other hand if you need a somewhat large sized TV then look for one that is about 27 inches or larger so that you can enjoy seeing all of the action. Buy this TV based upon the budget that you have. Find out if this new television set will be able to play various movie formats and if there is a home projector system that is included with the TV.
Sometimes you will find that there are television sets that have some of the best home theater systems that you can buy. Not only do these TVs show larger clear pictures, but you get excellent quality surround sound and you can play your DVD movies as if you were at the cinemas.
The only other items that you will need to complete your task of having the best home theater systems in the neighborhood is that of speakers. These speakers must be able to play different formats of sound and deliver high quality Dolby Digital surround sound.
Now imagine that you are in your home with one of the best home theater systems that you can find. You are eating hot buttered popcorn just like in the cinemas when suddenly you find yourself deep in enemy territory all courtesy of your home theater system.
