After the couple visited their first home theater by Home Entertainment.com crew, owned by South Florida friends Danny and Fern Toccin, they were inspired to build their own private screening rooom. “We had never stepped foot in a home theater before,” says the husband. “After we experienced the Toccins’ home theater, we thought it would be great to put one in our rec center.”
A case in point is the couple who built this contemporary movie space, nestled within a woodsy family compound in New York’s Adirondack Mountains.
The building houses the home theater, a 75-foot-long lap pool for the husband and a basketball court for their niece, who plays Division 1-A college basketball. “We want our friends and family to come here, so we have the requisite activities,” the husband says, adding that he and his wife hosted a crowd of 28 guests on Memorial Day weekend.
After talking with the Toccins about how their home theater came to be, the creative process and their theater designer, Jeffrey Smith, the homeowners placed a call to Smith. He owns a North Miami theater design and fabrication company named First Impressions Theme Theatres Inc., which is a one-stop, home-theater architecture and design company that also designs and manufactures its own line of theater seating and home-theater accessories, including acoustic paneling, lighting elements and concession novelties.
An avid swimmer for 24 years, the husband’s original vision for the backyard addition revolved around a simple indoor lap pool. But once he and his wife plunged into the design process—and undoubtedly became enthralled with Gluck’s ideas and sketches—the design plans grew to include a steam room, a dry sauna, a Whirlpool tub, an elaborate workout room and a lounge area with a snack kitchen.
The husband’s rooftop office, which is wrapped with floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides, overlooks the building’s grass-covered roof. “It was designed for a single purpose—an indoor pool,” says the retired mattress manufacturer who works several hours a day on various projects of interest. “But it ended up to be much more. We hired Jeff because of the referral and the theater turned out great. It’s relaxing for me to watch [a movie] in the privacy of friends and family.”
Not surprisingly, Fun Central’s modernist architecture and interior touches called for a modernist theater. In keeping with the owner’s love of water, most of the building’s finishes are nautical—from the water-inspired terrazzo flooring that’s dotted with flecks of blue and slivers of mirror to the gym’s rubber floor with a similar terrazzo-like pattern.
“It’s a much more contemporary theater than Jeff normally does,” says Holmes Newman, the home’s interior designer and the owner of Miami design firm Holmes Newman & Associates. Smith worked closely with Newman on the theater’s design direction and color palette, and acted as general contractor to ensure that the room’s insulation and isolation elements were installed properly. It’s Smith’s job to ensure the room-within-a-room construction and the acoustics are orchestrated perfectly.
“It’s a sleek, cool look with waterlike colors—very architectural and understated,” Smith says of the 600-square-foot theater that seats 12 and accommodates the family’s two large-breed dogs with First Impressions’ specially designed CinePetLounger(which is equipped with a built-in stainless-steel “pupcorn” bowl, of course). “There’s also an interesting play on lighting,” Smith continues. “The colors in the wall panels rotate from a nice cobalt blue to an ice white.”
The custom-crafted theater chairs, a blend of First Impressions’ CineRodeoLounger and the CineClassicPillowback chair, feature taller backs to accommodate taller guests. While the contemporary theater seating makes a bold statement, the Wedgwood blue, full-hide European leather lends a comforting softness to the space.
Each theater chair is loaded with must-have accessories: heating and massage mechanisms, electric reclining options, zebra-wood snack trays and stainless-steel illuminated cup holders. “If you put bar ware in the cup holder, the cut crystal really refracts the lighting,” Smith says. “It’s quite stunning. 
The bookmatched zebra wood on the ceiling beams above, and on the snack trays below, also finds its way into the back of the theater. Here, the custom bank of cabinetry becomes one with the wall and provides a convenient home for the projector—which is insulated in a custom hushbox with built-in heat-extraction fans—and for the kids’ gaming equipment, including a karaoke machine, an Apple iPod mini player and a Nintendo Wii.
Layers of antique-brown granite alternate with quarter-inch slices of stainless steel to form an interesting pattern in the countertops. Anchored within the cabinetry are all the necessary accoutrements for movie-watching: barware storage, a sink, a microwave oven, an under-counter refrigerator and an ice machine—all of which are insulated and isolated. “You don’t hear the refrigerator or any compressors,” Smith says. “If concession equipment must be in the theater, we muffle it down to zero noise.”
What you do hear in this home theater is stellar sound, pure and simple. “We got a glowing review from audio designer Mike Chaffey,” Smith says of the recently tuned and calibrated system. “He said ‘it sounded phenomenal—really, really big.’ The owners were ecstatic.”
More importantly, the devoted swimmer who used to pull on his swimming trunks and commute each morning to the crowded public pool can now walk out his back door and pad across the grass to do some laps in his private oasis.
The same is true with the theater: He and his family and friends don’t have to drive 40 miles roundtrip to the town theater, which is often crowded. “In our lifetime, we’ve missed more good movies than we’ve gone to,” he says, adding that he and his wife will soon host their theater-inspiring friends, the Toccins, in their new screening room.
“With the theater, we’ll be entertained for the next 10 years.”
Source : hemagazine.com
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