OTHER TECH

Ten years ago, when home theater was just becoming the hot trend in new-home construction, I came up with an inexpensive, ready-to-assemble theater design for a large corporation in the housing-supplies business. Our target was the builder of homes for the average American family. We thought that a theater in the house not only would make the buyer feel like an instant trendsetter, it would also allow the builder to differentiate himself from the competition. Smart, right? Sure, until the results started coming in.

What we found out to our dismay - and only after untold amounts of money spent on marketing - was that not too many families were ready to sacrifice that extra bedroom to turn it into a home theater, no matter how inexpensive the price tag. Real estate is at a premium, and those who can afford it and can indulge in the luxury of a room dedicated exclusively to watching movies are lucky.

That brings me to the common denominator between the two submissions I'm reviewing this month. Each of these readers has a dedicated home theater room in his house - not a multipurpose media room or a family room dressed up to look like a theater. Sounds like a home run, doesn't it? Not necessarily, because a dedicated room is only as good as what you do with it.

I'm in the finishing stages of my theater and would love some advice on how to spruce up the final product. I have all the gear in place, and I just want the room to pop. I've gone to my design limit without the room turning out corny.

BRAD HOUSEWORTH / PORTLAND, OR

If you did the room on your own without professional design advice, then you've done pretty well. Your home theater might not overflow with design flair, but there's nothing wrong with that. To be honest, it's better to play it safe than run the risk of falling flat on the face of design pretensions. Just open any home theater magazine, and you'll find it loaded with rooms that copy someone else's second-hand concepts. There's very little discipline in theater design today; rooms appear to mimic the language of the traditional theater architecture, but in reality they distort and trivialize it. Excess rules.

That's why I have no problem with your room. It's clean, uses color discreetly, and isn't trying to be something it's not. The only changes I'd make would be to adjust the lighting so it focuses more on the wall art and less on the seating, and to see if you can hide the front speakers and the gear behind fabric-covered panels. These changes might be difficult at this stage, but they'd clean up the area around the screen and make the important focal point of the room - the screen - more attractive.