OTHER TECH

DRAWN TO THE ACTION Step 1 was to create a floorplan so he could assess the room. Two large doorways - an open one to the home office and a double sliding door to an outside deck - along with two closets and a couple of jogs made it obvious he couldn't place the gear along either of the long walls. But while the short walls are relatively clear, one has a closet to one side and a jog to the other. The other short wall has less interrupted space but is bracketed by a closet and the double door to the deck.

It wasn't until Drew used the diagram to position furniture that he realized the gear would have to go on the wall by the double door, since placing chairs and couches there would block foot traffic between the patio and the home office. The only alternative was to put the seating in the other, relatively enclosed area of the room.

But placing the TV on the other short wall meant daylight from the deck door and artificial light from the home office would wash out the screen. His solution was to get heavy, wine-colored curtains from Pottery Barn and hang them on rings from metal rods.

"The floorplan was invaluable," says Drew. "If I ever move, I'd start with a diagram again."

To avoid having the room itself be a distraction during game play and movie viewing, Drew painted the walls with Benjamin Moore's Whipple Blue. While not the flat gray favored by videophiles, the color has enough gray in it to create a similarly neutral effect when the lights are dimmed. But it's also bright enough to keep the space from looking drab the rest of the time. While the carpet is a light-colored beige, it also looks neutral in the darkened room.

One of the most difficult decisions concerned the furniture. After considering a number of chairs and couches, Drew decided to go with La-Z-Boy's Home Theater Motion-Modular line of recliners. Featuring deep cushions, cup holders, and storage drawers, the large black chairs ($1,399 each) help give the space the feel of an upscale movie theater. "If anything, the chairs are too comfortable," Drew says. "If I start watching a movie too late at night, I find myself falling asleep."

The relatively narrow room meant the chairs would have to go in two rows, blocking the view for anyone sitting in the back. Having read in "Working the Room" about the advantage of building a 12-inch-high riser for a second row of seats out of 2 x 10s with a .75-inch plywood top, Drew provided a local carpenter with a set of simple line drawings. One week and about $1,000 later, he had a platform that's rock steady no matter the heft of whoever's seated on it or the fierceness of an alien attack.

"It was important to me that the platform not creak. The only time I want to hear a sound like that is during something like Pirates of the Caribbean when they're on a rickety old ship. The riser is so solid that there are no annoying noises to distract from the movie or game." But it can also be easily disassembled if it has to be moved. Now that Drew has carpeted the riser to match the room, visitors think it was built into the floor.