Choosing a Home Theater Lighting System

Crucial to achieving the right atmosphere, a home theater lighting system can in some ways make or break a home theater. Both ambient and natural light need to be under your complete control in order to effectively maintain the perfect degree of darkness in your home theater room. Exactly what level of darkness is needed depends upon the type of screen you have. For instance, smaller screens should be supplemented with indirect light at a low level to prevent the eyes from fatiguing. Bigger TVs with direct view displays emit enough light on their own and don’t necessarily need extra light. Projection systems benefit from total darkness. Whatever the situation, choosing a home theater lighting system has a few general rules.

Home Theater Lighting

While the placement of lights, blinds and/or curtains, dimmer switches and their control units are very important, the design of the best home theater lighting system should start with the colors on the walls and ceiling. Although they are not lights, colors on the walls and ceiling reflect light unless sufficiently dark. Since you are creating a room for home theater use, painting the walls and ceiling to create the best atmosphere only makes sense. First and foremost, the ceiling needs to be painted a dark color that is completely non reflective. If it is white or another light, reflective color, the light from a home projection unit or from a big screen television will bounce off of it and produce a glare. The same is true for walls. For especially big screens, the ceiling should be black. Walls may be a dark tone of your choosing. 

Ambient Lighting

Natural light must be dealt with by the hanging of curtains or blinds. It should be entirely blacked out. Ambient light, on the other hand, has a place in a home theater. Any overhanging lights should only be used before and after viewing, such as in a movie theater. During the viewing, to create an ambient yet indirect glow, consider wall sconces aligned symmetrically on opposite walls. The lights should be covered so the glow bounces back against the wall. 

Control of Lights

Most importantly, ambient lighting needs to be in your complete control. That means all lights should be attached to a dimmer. With a light control system, all wall lights may be placed on one dimmer that you can easily control from one place in the room or from a portable device. Lights may be adjusted individually or all at once.

Choosing a Home Theater Lighting System

The home theater lighting system you choose should incorporate indirect wall lights behind sconces, an overhead light used only before and after and a central control unit with a built-in dimmer for each of the ambient lights. 

Beyond that, blacking out natural light and choosing a non-reflective color for the walls and ceiling is also necessary. The right lighting can make home theater viewing just like watching a movie in a commercial theater, only better because it’s in the comfort of your own home.