Home Theater Design: Planning and Decorating Media-savvy Interiors [Paperback]

This book was a huge disappointment for me. After reading a lot on the subject of home theaters and acoustics, I got this book to help me "plan my home theater interior". Unfortunately she doesn't understand what a true home theater is all about. On p.79 she discusses how to create a "bedroom home theater" and breaks the most important home theater rules. One, she puts the TV in front of the windows and doesn't have a single drape to stop the light from flooding in the room. Two, she says "white cabinetry that matches the bed in this room makes the room uniform and relaxing" - though it is common HT knowledge that white reflects light and is the #1 error in home theater design (this is a book about Home Theater Design right?)

Dozens of pictures show the center channel sitting on the FLOOR! No design tips on how to hide the speaker wires anywhere in this book.

In her section on dedicated home theaters, she spends 3/4 of it discussing "Themed rooms" and then says don't design a theme if you think you will tire of it. Yet in this entire section she never, ever discusses what drapes or acoustic fabrics to cover your walls, let alone how important it is not to have flat walls. She mentions on p. 111 to avoid a perfect square and then tells you to find a room that is 30% longer than wide, but neglects to tell you that many rectangles are horrible as well and can be just as bad as a square. There are Internet sites that let you put in your room dimensions and calculate problem areas, but she doesn't reference or write a single word about such things. She never mentions curved walls, columns, cathedral or vaulted ceilings and how any of these may make for a good or bad home theater room.

She says on p. 110, "regardless of the type of projector you choose, make sure it is capable delivering a 16:9 aspect ratio for watching widescreen movies". No Krissy, 16:9 is the standard for High Definition Television (HDTV) not movies - true widescreen movies are in the 2.35:1 ratio (and some even greater than that).

Not only did Krissy specify very little about the "design" of a HT, the book annoyed me because it is so full of errors. She has almost no knowledge of the subject, regardless of her years as editor of Stereophile Guide to A/V, she clearly wrote this book from the tidbits of information she heard during her years as editor, but doesn't have the conceptual knowledge on how to tie it all together. Last example: P. 24 she says "Don't put speakers in corners. The sound will bounce off the walls, ceiling, and floor." This is funny because speakers even several feet from the corner will still reflect sound off the walls, ceiling and floor, but she says nothing about how to properly place your speakers. Then, the funniest part, is the picture above shows the center speaker about three feet below the plasma TV, when you should always place a center channel above a plasma (or any other TV, and behind the screen [the best possible spot] for projectors).

In the very least I expected a list of home interior product manufacturers who make home theater equipment. Like Guilford of Maine (who make acoustically transparent fabric), Owens Corning who make Acoustic Blanket, and other companies that make home theater seating and so on. The book should have talked about not using glossy paint due to its reflective properties and touched on what type of carpeting is best suited to your home theater - a question I am still looking into. I would think most people would have loved tips for hiding speaker wire, a list of colors (other than flat black) and a discussion of what colors work well together if you decide on a two-tone room. Unfortunately none, I mean NONE of this was even referenced in this book.

Krissy just doesn't "get it" and you shouldn't get this book.

I bought this book to help me plan the space for a home theater I am planning to build myself. Big mistake. It contained nothing useful for me.

This is a book written by someone who only knows home theater from the perspective of rich or trendy clients who pay big bucks to have someone else do all the planning. It's also something of a advertising piece to show off very big and expensive (nothing under six figures) home theaters designed by two firms the author repeatedly gives credits to. At the very end she even has a brief interview with the head of one of those firms.

If you're really rolling in the dough and want to see lots of glossy pictures to see how to spend your money, this book is for you. Example: "John and Jane have a wonderful theater space with arched alcoves along the walls. They display their collection of antique vases in each alcove, and use accent lighting to enhance it. They install a crystal chandelier for ambient lighting..."

For everyone else it's a waste of time. It's so limited in text that it didn't take more than a couple hours to read through. Instead of giving you some real planning guides, the author limits herself to glosses of the obvious along with references to the type of professional you'll need to hire (so many - I've never heard of an acoustician before. He came somewhere after the cabinetmaker you'll need to design the housing for the projector).

This is a book that bows to wealth and trendiness. For those of us who want to tap our own creative ability as well as our more typical budget, we'll have to look elsewhere for inspiration and information.

This book should have been called "Beautiful Interior Designs that Happen to Include some Home Theater Gear", or "Home Theater Style". It's little more than a pretty picture book of impressive-looking rooms that integrate HT gear, and often in a laughable way. The text is fluffy, thowaway stuff that is irritating to read.

The photos are very well done, but often include speakers and other gear set up with no unsightly cables. Of course, without the unsightly cables, there'd be no audio or video, either. I guess that's the main thing that got to me -- if you're going to show a setup with nice speakers and other gear that are out in the room, at least be honest about how to treat cables and make them look as good as possible. Don't just leave them out altogether. It's insulting, and is foolish in a book that is supposedly about HT.