Originally posted by: Cuda1447
My wife and I are in the process of purchasing a house (if the banks ever get their ass moving) and being that this will be our first house, we are very excited. My wife has been constantly looking at sites online and watching HGTV for decorating ideas. She's got it all figured out, bedroom, kitchen, living room. They are all hers. That's alright though, as I negotiated a mancave for myself. I get the garage... all of it.
Now I'm trying to figure out exactly what I want to put in there. Some ideas I have so far.
1. Floor painted with a giant Dallas Cowboys star!!!!
2. I think I want a really big wall mounted HD projector. I've seen others do this, but not sure how expensive or how hard it is to do. Anyone know?
3. We've inherited a really nice pool table. I think this will be the perfect place for it (not much room in the house I don't think).
4. Surround sound system, obviously.
5. Mini-fridge, gotta have that.
What else?
My whole house is a man cave... of course anytime I can convince a woman to come over they say "its a nice place, but could use a woman's touch"... But so could I ... ;( anyhow
1. I would say this is tougher idea, since when you walk on it, it will get scuffed and the like. You can put a clear coat on it to keep it from flaking off, but even a clear coat will eventually get taken apart by dragging chairs, etc. You could do it, but keep in mind it would have ot have touch ups every so often.
2. I have a HD projector older unit that handled 1080i, and it does well. I used a standard ceiling mount though, and connected all the possible connectors on the back, to a panel in the wall. For the wiring, I went to
www.cablesforless.com. They have bulk cabling and all the weird sizes and lengths you could think of as well as the wall plates and just about anything you would need to hide cables.
For my screen, I first turned on the projector to see how large the image I wanted, then while it was on, (be sure you are displaying an actual image from your media, since sometimes, the screen size changes depnding on the resolution) I traced it out then painted it with something called Screen Goo. It is a slightly refelctive paint, similar to the reflectiveness of a standard projector. The paint was about $200 and the misc. cabling and heads and tubing were about antoher $500. You could easily just buy a single HDMI cable though for like a hundred bucks. My particular one is 33 feet and was $128, but they have longer and shorter lengths. In retrospect, I think I will still mount a wall pull down/motorized screen, since they are not very expensive (well, pulldowns at least) and when not on, they can be rolled up, exposing a picture or painting or mural or something. Right now I just have this odd semi gray white rectangle on it. People think I didn't finish painting.
I hired a guy to mount the projector mount, but after I saw what he did, I could have saved myself the $100 doing it myself. he just bolted it to the rafters after he found them with a stud finder.
3. That is what man caves are for! I vote yes on this idea.
4. This one is a little tougher, since I haven't done a full one. I bought a Sony that simulates it with a sound bar, a left and right, and also a sub. It works ok, but some movies it doesn't simulate. You can't really tell or pinpoint what it is, but you can still tell. I would rate is a 90% on accuracy, though I am no audiophile. I am sure a more sensitive ear can hear the difference (i can barely tell the difference between a high quality MP3 and a CD, people swear there is a huge one, but I can't really hear it).
5. Mini-fridge. I got a small one that holds my beers. I was thinking of a kegerator, but just don't drink enough to warrant that. I settled on pony kegs or heineken's draught keg. In my particular set up, it is a "leg" of a table that serves as my "bar". The other side is a wine celler that is the same size as the other mini-fridge. It is just enough to keep things cool, but not cold. Like 60 degrees. The bar itself is just a peice of stained plywood with a 1x1 piece of wood glued and bolted to the front edge to keep it from flexing when weight is put to it.
Either way, good luck, I think the home theatre one is the hardest and most expensive. I saw one guy on the web put a plasma TV in a wood cabinet he built himself. Then he attached a 1 way mirrow over the front of it, so when the TV is off and the lights are on, it looks like a normal wet bar with mirror. Turn off lights and turn on TV you get a mostly normal TV. I thought that was neat, but I don't know how to build a cabinet that woud look nice enough. Also, I wanted the big 62" type screen size, so I went with projector. Also another thing about the projector route that I never thought of before I actually did it, was my particular projcctor has a loud fan. I don't hear it during normal movies, but with quiet scenes, it is a little annoying. I didn't notice it at all while at Fry's, or even when I painted out my screen. Since the projector is right over where we sit, it is hard to get away from it.