5 Tips for Basement Home Theater Lighting

A basement makes a perfect space for a home theater and home theater lighting adds an authentic and professional feel to a basement used for home entertainment. If it’s an unfinished basement, you can really plan your properly. Even if it’s already finished, you can still make some solid plans regarding lighting. Since your home theater is already in a basement, it will most likely be fairly dark and without full-sized windows which should helps a lot because you want people to be able to see the screen with no glare. Full-sized drapes over any windows will help, too. The lighting plan you use will, however,  be equally as important.

Tip #1 - Plan Ahead

Before you set about buying lights and putting them in, you need to create a plan for the room you’re using. Remember, there will be times when you’ll be using it purely as a room and not just a home theater. Therefore, you need lighting zones that allow for different usage.

Create your plan to scale on graph paper with the seating shown. You won’t want too much light near the television itself apart from being able to see what you’re doing when inserting and removing DVDs and wiring up your system. You will, however, need adjustable lighting over the seating area which will be a different zone. There may be times when you want to use it for other reasons such as reading and relaxing.

The third zone should be close to the entrance to the theater space, allowing full lighting when you need it.

Tip #2 - Dimmer Switches

The last thing you want in a home theater room is blaring overhead lights. Nothing is guaranteed to ruin the atmosphere more than excessive light. Instead, your lighting needs to be more subtle and adjustable. Dimmer switches for each of the lighting zones are the perfect solution since they let you control how much, or how little, light you want.

Tip #3 - LED Lighting

If you’re using ceiling lights, use recessed LED lights. They’re not as powerful and you can focus the areas of light very easily. They also add to the cinema atmosphere, especially when you dim them all the way down before playing a movie.

Tip #4 - Sconce Lighting

Theaters use sconce lighting a great deal and it’s an idea well worth considering for your own home theater. By having the lighting at the sides of the room, you still have enough light for people to see what they’re doing but it’s not as intrusive. With the lights wired to dimmer switches you can adjust the levels as you need to, turning down to little more than a glow when a movie is playing. You may want to leave enough light for people to find their way out, if necessary, but without it being an annoyance while enjoying a movie.

There are special home theater sconce lights that you can buy, although you’ll probably be fine with regular sconce lighting at regular intervals through the room.

Tip #5 - Remote Control

It’s all well and good having adjustable lighting but it can mean you need to keep standing up to make the adjustments. It’s far better to have everything on a single universal remote control in much the same way as you use one for your television and audio requirements.

An X10 light controller will let you do just that. Once you have it hooked up to your lighting, you’ll be in the position to control all the lights in your home theater without leaving your seat. Unless your home theater arrangement is especially complex, you’ll be able to find one that suits your needs for a relatively low price.