Home cinema in lounge project....help!

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Frimley, Surrey or 38,000ft
Hey everyone,

When it comes to interior design, well actually pretty much everything, my tastes suck! I've no idea what goes with what! Hence I am having issues trying to furnish my new house! I'm working on the lounge/dinner at the moment, hence I'm having to try and find inspiration. I'm totally technically minded, comes from my job! I'm seriously struggling trying to find artistic inspiration of my own!

The lounge is going to have a basic home cinema system eventually so I'm trying to plan ahead for that as well. I've a 42' Plasma which I plan to keep and then install a roll down screen on the ceiling to pull down in front as needed. I plan to get a 5.1 AV amp and speakers initially and then get the projector and screen early next year.

Right now the big issue is trying to get the room furnished! I've painted the walls all natural calico with a red feature wall. Heres a rough plan:

OTJ9i.jpg


The only furniture I have is that IKEA chair and the tv! The colours aren't quite right, but you get the idea about the layout! First thing I want to get is a sofa, but I'm struggling to figure out what will be the best colour and which will be most comfortable.

The two sofas that caught my eye are :

http://www.furniturevillage.co.uk/Inventory/Upholstery/Carolina/3-seater-sofa.aspx

and

http://www.dfs.co.uk/sofas/fabric-sofas/apollo/

I think the red sofa might leave a 'red' over kill in the room and the cream/brown sofa I'm not sure if the brown will match the room well. I'm also not completely convinced about getting a reclining sofa! Any opinions or suggestions?

As you can tell I'm pretty sure I'm over thinking the whole thing, but am just trying to sort things out in my head!

Blinkz
 
I think you'd be best off leaving the feature wall and smaller accessories (pillows, lamshades and smaller items) red, and are right in thinking that a red sofa would be too much imo.

I like the other link you posted, but not sure if it would go in the room as you've said.

What about something lighter to go with the walls? The brown one is also available in beige and cream by the looks of it.

Another thing to consider to is the chair and any other stuff you're going to put in there, something dark to match the chair you have might work ok...you just want to try and avoid having too many colours, including different shades of wood, fake or otherwise!

As a guide though...and going back on all of my rants above...my mate had walnut furniture, dark brown sofa (like your link) to match, light coloured walls and then a red feature wall. Looked awesome =]
 
Have you considered a corner couch at all that would go down that back wall and then partyly into the room towards the glass door?

I'm just thinking for when friends come round all the seating is in a line and it might not make for the most social setting

NB - The above assums to have friends :)
 
Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciate the opinions!

Like you guys, I also considered a corner sofa but having measured the room I don't think it will fit. One thing the picture doesn't show is that to the right of the sofa in the picture to the bay window is a long radiator. I was planning on putting some sort of armchair to the right of the sofa. I do indeed have some friends, but with the two chairs pointing into the centre I think it will be ok to chat.

Did you see that the red sofa comes in a number of other colours, although not many of them look nice! My thinking is that a beige/cream sofa against a light wall would be a little bland?
 
Thought about flipping it round and having the sofa on the red wall and TV on the long wall? You'd get a nice contrast of cream on red, and more room to space out the front speakers?

Could get another of those ikea chairs for the bay side, for a bit of symmetry? :)
 
Wouldn't fancy having the TV in front of a coloured wall, much better off having it against a neutral colour surely?
 
Thought about flipping it round and having the sofa on the red wall and TV on the long wall? You'd get a nice contrast of cream on red, and more room to space out the front speakers?

Could get another of those ikea chairs for the bay side, for a bit of symmetry? :)

I did consider this however I don't think it would work that well. There are doors on both sides of the feature wall, so wouldn't be able to have any other seats other then the sofa facing the tv and projector.

Wouldn't fancy having the TV in front of a coloured wall, much better off having it against a neutral colour surely?

Actually I like it. The dark colour frames the screen well and makes the picture feel 'crisper'


Some of the Nabru sofas look ok although I couldn't buy a sofa without sitting on one!
 
Nabru sofas not the best looking designs but they fit thru any door and can be tailor made
Go on order a Free Fabric sample
My living room wall is Green
 
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Well does anyone have any suggestions about which colours would look good? thats the main issue I have! As I said I think the red will be too much, and a cream sofa would be too bland! Brown perhaps?
 
As I mentioned before, Dark Brown cabinets/sofa looks really good with red. I'll have to see if I can get any piccies of my mates old place so you can see =] He hasnt been there for a while though..
 
I've been looking online for photos trying to get inspiration, so any pics you have would be welcome!

Problem I have is I have a number of different people have been telling me different things! Some think the red sofa will look great, others that brown will look awful. I know what sofas I like the look of, however I don't know how thinks fit into the room!
 
Perhaps you could get your photoshop on? Take a pic of the room and superimpose the sofa in there? I know it's a lot of effort but sofas aren't cheap, an of wanna make the right choice =]
 
Not a bad idea at all, although I've no idea how to use photoshop haha I barely managed to figure out how to use sketchup to do that diagram!
 
Maybe you could grab a couple of photos of the room and go to a furniture store Nd get a few pics, might help people to visualise it better and come to a unified choice and actually help you out.

Have to say, all this does is make me want my own place to decorate again..currently trying to save for a mortgage =[
 
Personally I would have the TV in the bay and the eventual PJ screen in front of that. That way you have some good distance from the screen to get a good size. A corner sofa would be good. Have it against the near wall (the one not filled in) and out towards the middle of the room with the sofa back level with the right side of the door on the red wall. That will give you a slight break of the rooms thus separating the living area from the dining area and giving you a little walkway to the dining area. Doing it this sort of way will improve the surround sound if you plan to upgrade to 7.1 HD sound. The speakers will be further apart somewhat and have room to put all 7 speakers. on the walls and ceiling.

Just and idea. probably not what your looking for though
 
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