Home theater seating has come a long way in the past few decades. You can enhance your home media experience with everything from commercial-style theater seating, plush reclining seats, or multimedia sectionals and sofas. Some even come loaded with built-in accessories like powered recline, powered headrests, lighted cup holders, and armrest storage, all designed for comfort and convenience. We’ve highlighted some important points to consider when thinking about buying theater seating for a media room or home theater.
Media Room or Home Theater?
If you’re wondering which one is right for your lifestyle, it’s important to keep in mind that a home theater is a room dedicated exclusively to movie and TV viewing. A media room is more of a family room with a visual and/or audio media focus. A big-screen TV is often the centerpiece, usually accompanied by a nice sound system as well. You and your guests will spend much of your time in front of the screen, so it’s important to choose the proper theater seating for your room’s size and layout. You’ll also want these items to be as comfortable as possible. That’s a given.
Media Room
If space you’ve chosen doubles as a living room, or if it might include areas for board or video games, billiards, a pinball machine, and maybe a small bar, then you’ll obviously want to go this route. Your decor can be more tied-in with the rest of your house since this room won’t necessarily need to adhere to a traditional theater-style. You might want to outfit the space with light-blocking curtains or blinds and muted wall paint to help enhance the movie-watching experience when it happens.
Multimedia sectionals are perfect for media rooms since they more closely resemble furniture found in most family rooms, and their modular design can be altered to fit your lifestyle. The Seatcraft Heavenly modular sofa features a host of possible configurations, allowing you to move all pieces to either side for any space or occasion.
A host of recliners, theater seats, and media lounge sofas are perfect for media rooms because of the many options and styles. It makes matching your decor a snap as well. For instance, the Cavallo Media Lounge Sofas bridge the gap between extended media viewing and living room relaxation. These comfy chaise lounges, ottomans, and loveseats provide you with plenty of choices to complete your ideal media room experience.
Home Theater
A home theater that strives to recreate a true theater experience usually requires a bit more specialized focus on design, furnishings, and the ability to have complete lighting control. This is especially true if your home theater is in a separate area, like a bonus room, spare bedroom, or fully finished basement. Theater seating — whether commercial-style seats, recliners in one row or tiered in multiple rows — usually remain fixed in one place. However, there are plenty of options to fit just about any space you have.
Besides recliners — this is true for both home theaters and media rooms — you may choose to include media lounge sofas, loveseats, or sectionals. Adding items such as acoustical panels, columns and wall accents, stages and curtains, or fiber-optic star panels all act to round out the home theater experience. All of these accessories should work in just about any size room.
Comfort Is Key
The common necessity that all home theaters and media rooms share is comfort. In addition to cozy recliners, you might want to include plush furnishings, throw pillows, blankets, and soft lighting. If you have windows, be sure to cover them with light-blocking blinds or curtains.
Theater seat recliners in recent years have come a long way — they’re a breed apart from the easy chairs of your dad and granddad’s era. The Seatcraft Apex, for example, has a powered headrest, lumbar support, and recline. Standard features include SoundShakers, USB charging stations, LED armrest accents, storage, and more.
Whether you choose to create a home theater or media room, 4Seating.com has all you need to create your own place for movie and TV watching with family and friends. Selecting just the right combination of seating and accessories can be an exciting experience all its own. With so many options available, it’s easy to put your unique mark on your entertainment space!