Sdallnct

For some reason I'm having a heck of a time hanging my FP screen. I had hung it temp when I built the screen a couple of weeks ago with those picture hanger things, but when I pulled the screen down to build the outer frame, I saw they were pulling out.

I tried those heavier d-ring things, but since this is flat wall I can't get to or even see how to hang those to the screws in my wall.

Anyone know where to pick up some really heavy duty picture hangers that take screws instead of little nails? Any other suggestions?

My screen is right at 93" diagonal WS and built out of 1X4's with an outer frame of 1X4's. So pretty heavy, but not outragous.

Dead

Have you considered just putting screws through the 1x4 into the wall studs? That's pretty much what I did with my screen. My screen is made out of a 4x8 sheet of dry erase board, so it probably is lighter though... still might be worth considering.

Spiky

That's essentially what I did, too. It's worked pretty well. Mine is a Parkland sheet on aluminum frame, quite light. But I could've hung a 100lb screen the way I screwed it in. Use lag screws with predrilled holes directly into studs. Get screws long enough to go 1" minimum into the stud, and you'll be fine.

Sdallnct

Honestly, that is what I wanted to do, but my wife had a fit. When I built the outer frame, then she helped me cover the outer frame in black fabric and when I told her I was having trouble, and was just going to drill through it to studs, she freaked. I know I could have painted the screws black with a little nail polish, but she did no want to hear it.

This morning I did find something at ACE Hardware. They had this bracket system that you screw part of it directly to the wall, then the other side to the picture. Then it hangs on the wall just like ordinary small sawtooth picture hangers. Only these are very heavy duty and each holds 100lbs. What is even better is that they are 6" long and so I should be able to slide the screen from side to side slightly to get exactly centered. This SHOULD work.

Will try to put it up this afternoon and post back. I always find it odd that I can find things a ACE that neither Home Depot or Lowes carry (I also checked Hobby Lobby and two different framing stores).

Spiky

Hardware stores are always better for the small stuff. What exactly are you actually screwing into the wall? I would think a permanent wall screen of almost any sort could be hung with five 1/4" lag bolts of appropriate length, which would be a smaller hole than wall anchors and fewer than many hanger systems would require. The WAF is just amazing on this stuff, isn't it!?

Sdallnct

I guess I said that wrong. My wife has no problem with me screwing into a stud, she knows that is needed. What she did not want is for me to screw from the front side of the frame, "surface screw" it if you will. She wants all screws and hardware to be hidden.

I got the wall pieces up and they are indeed very strong. I'm trying to measure the how high th screen will be now, hopefully will get is right.

This is what I'm trying. Like I say each one suppose to hold a 100 lbs, so should be plenty strong enough...

http://www.hangmanproducts.com/hangman-system.html

Will post back on how it works.

Sdallnct

OK the Han G Man product worked perfect! Took a little patience to make shure all pieces were perfectly level (but they come with a small level), and then had to make sure all the pieces were at the exact same height. I must have measured and checked each piece a dozen times. But is does hold the screen flat against the wall and is very sturdy.

But looks like I got it perfect. I ended up with the screen about an inch higher then I had planned, but it is level and square. And the mount for my projector is adjustable so that was easy. And I would rather go up, then down (since I will have 2 rows of seating).

Very nice clean look, wife is happy, I'm happy, so now can move on to the next part of this project! Ordering chairs and adding some more rope lighting.

Spiky

Life is good!!

Dead

Oh the temptation to comment...


Do you know what kind of seating you are going to use? Right now I've got two rows using a couch and loveseat, but I'm looking into other options.

Sdallnct

-Yea sort of left you a nice hanging curve ball there didn't I. You could have blasted it out of the park, I certainly left it up there for you!

-I have decided on the rear row. For my rear row, I'm going with Movie Theater style chairs. High back with lift up arms, but no rockers. They are used, but been "refurbished". They had not been used long so he cleans the material (fabric) and then repaints all the metal, power washes the backs and bottoms etc. Doing this will allow me to have a row of six chairs. In fact he just e-mailed me today saying he had some ready, so need to place the order.

-On the front row, I have not decided. Right now I'm leaning towards getting a love seat with a hide-a-bed in it and then put nice home theater recliners on either side (been looking at the lazy boy ones as they take up less space then most of the berklines). This will allow me a row of four (with two on the love seat). I would like to get a hide-a-bed in there as this room is at the rear of house and just off this room is a small hall with a 3/4 bath. So it would be a good place for suprise overnight guests or when my wifes brother comes to visit, my buddy comes to visit, etc.

But I have not 100% committed to the front row. I could fit four of the Lazy Boy theater chairs and that would be cool as it will typically be me, my wife and our two kids. But my wife likes love seats not only for watching movies but also for reading with the kids, etc. Yea, I could get a Berkine or Lazy Boy theater love seat and it would recline (and that is an option), but right now we have no place for a guest who comes for just a night or two and I could use an ottoman. Plus getting four full theater recliners or two with the matching loveseat, really get expensive (for my budget). But two with a generic love seat would be more $$ friendly (but not by much, so still thinking).

I really wanted to seat 10 as their are 4 of us, and my parents (2) live just four house down. So six would be pretty common.

kvrdave

I want pics of this room, and I want them now!!!!

Sdallnct

I have pics in another thread, but I'm about to order the theater chairs, let me see how long they will take to get in and I'll add some photos that show the screen, lights and chairs (unless it will be a while for the chairs, then I'll add photos sooner).

Here is the link for photos that was current up till the end of March. I had to work out of town for about 3 weeks and recently have done a lot. You will have to trust me till I post some more that it looks a TON better now (I've added track lighting, rope lighting, finished the curtains, mounted the screen, etc).

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409982

Last night's Mav's game was AWESOME on it!!!! I take full credit for the 40 point win!

Dead

Are you getting these from somewhere local to you or somewhere else (E-Bay maybe)? I'm leaning towards doing three rows of theater seats (probably 5+4+4) as I'm wanting to increase the number of seats available. Right now I can seat six pretty easily, but when the guys come over I can max that out even on a slow night. My project funds are limited, so it looks like I'm going to have to make do with what I have for a while. Maybe I'll get lucky and one of the local theaters will do an upgrade soon.

Sdallnct

I just ordered a few minutes ago. Yes off of e-bay. Kind of tough for me as by far my largest e-bay purchase (I don't think I have spent $50.00 total so far on e-bay) But we e-mailed back and forth and I read a couple of threads over at AVSforum and they seemed happy with them. If you want I'll post the link. On further reading, he does not paint the metal but does say they are easy to take apart if you want to and they are in good shape so generally not needed. The fabric is a blue grey color. Should be neutral in my room. But my wife is very good with fabric and I know she could easily (and cheaply) re-do the fabric if we wanted.

Wow, you going with three rows, 13 seats? That is great! How long is your room? Are you or have you built a riser for them? On my riser I used 2X6's and really I should have gone with 2X8's. But right now I'm thinking about mounting these theater seats on 2X4's laying flat on the riser so that would give me an additional 1.75 inches of height when sitting. I looked at some theater seats locally and they were mounted temporarily on 2X4's flat, and you really could not feel any difference sitting down or standing up.

kvrdave

Thanks. I am very interested to see the theater seats. I have thought long and hard about them.

Dead

Those sound like the same one's I was looking at.


Well, that's what I *want* to do. The room is about 14x28, with a 9' ceiling. The couch and loveseat I've currently got are each about 3' deep, but even with those I could add a third row if I was willing to give up a little space in my computer work area. I don't have a riser yet, partially because I want to only build it once. If I get the theater seats the riser design will be significantly different than if I just stick with what I have.

I've recenly ordered a new digital camera. Once it arrives I'll see about posting some pictures.

Sdallnct

Here are the seats I ordered;

(Link removed as it appeared to show some of my personal information, not sure if others could see, but didn't want to chance it).

Nice looking chair and very good price. I thought $30.00 was a little high to ship in relationship to the total price of the item, but every other chair I looked at had that kind of rate for shipping, and I just couldn't find anything under $325 locally and then I would have had tax (8%) anyway, and either I would have had to rent a truck or have them deliver (for a charge) anything local.

I really thought about these,

http://seatsandchairs.com/products_d...&currentpage=1

They also sell on e-bay. However, I decided against them for three reasons,

I e-mailed them asking questions and the never e-mailed me back
I could not just justify the almost double in cost even tho I wanted burgandy color chairs
Even tho I like the idea of rockers, I didn't want to have to mount them a foot out or more in my room since my rear row would be near the rear wall.

Very smart deciding on chairs 1st then the riser. I just built the riser, and I think all will turn out fine, but I probably would have built it differently had I known these were the chairs I was getting.

Sdallnct

I just got a note from UPS with my tracking number for my chairs. The notes says the total weight is 439.4 LBS so I guess the $30.00 per chair for shipping is not so bad!

Dead

Ok, here's a look at my screen.




I wish that I could have done something about that blasted post. It doesn't cause any problem for the front row. But it means that when I get the theater seats I'll either have to put one in that has a completely blocked view or cut the row short.

Sdallnct

Sweet! I like the red curtains around the screen. I need to do something around mine. Since my X1 is native 4:3 yet I watch exclusively in WS, I get a little light spill over even outside the fram I built for the screen. It is not terrible, but now that I have noticed, think I need to do something about it.

Yea, the pole is tough. I assume this is a basement? So you will like have to go with seperate chairs if you want a row at the same level as the pole. Tho you could probably get creative and put a table there, DVD rack or something.

My chairs should be here on Monday, so if I get them mounted during the week which should be able to do, I'll post some more pic's by next weekend.

Sdallnct

I'm sure most of you guys looking for theater seats know about this thread over at AVS, but if by chance you don't take a look! It is awesome. Basically it is a "post a photo of your theater seats" and has been going on since Feb.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0&pagenumber=1

There are lots of different seating ideas and this is where I found the theater seats I ordered (that should be here tomorrow!!!). Of particular note is near the very end, these. Seems like a great deal and great price. I might have to revisit going ahead and getting the front row!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1077625490793

Dead

Thanks, I like the way it frames the screen and puts the focus of attention on it.


Yup, this half of the basement was already finished when we bought the house. If I had been working with unfinished space I might have been able to dump the pole and stay within budget. I've been thinking about things similar to what you mentioned to fill the space, so hopefully I'll come up with something that looks half way decent.


Please do. Maybe it'll help me decide if I should go ahead and take the plunge or wait a while longer.

Sdallnct

I haven't decided what, but I want to put something that covers about 3 inches above and 3 inches below my screen. Might go with the curtains I put on the windows...will have to see.

Dang I wish I had a basement! I know there are "issues" with having one, but I'd like to deal with those rather then not have one (Here in Dallas area basements are a no no, all new construction is slab and some really old is pier and beam). I'd love to have that kind of room and a "blank" area to work with.

Did get the chairs today. Dang they are heavy! I guess my laptop screen is off, there is no blue in the fabric. It is black/white/gray. Which is actually perfect as the main colors in the room are burgandy/back/white/off white. These are obviously heavy commercial seats. I have looked at some local and none were built like these! I would say overall they are in "good" condition. He did not state they were in "like new" condition so did not expect it. The fabric is very good with no stains (one chair had a tear or cut and will have to see if you can actually see it when installed). The backs and seats overall are in very good condition. The stands (what holds everything together) are in fair condition. I might try to clean up a little more, will see. Tho I have not started installing yet, I'd say they are well, worth the price. Considering the closest thing I found locally was $375 per chair and closest thing on the net I found was about $300, I'm very, very happy with them!

You had mentioned hitting your local theater, I tried that. But there are so many people doing home theaters now, you just got to be very lucky and be there when it is happening. One theater offered to take my name, but wouldn't committ as to cost or when some would be available.

Oh, BTW, I e-mailed him asking how far away from the rear wall they should go, and he stated that it should be 16" as the chairs "lean" back! Now I don't know if they are actual rockers or not, but that is a nice bonus. I had just assumed they were a stationary seat.

Will make a HD run in the morning to get the screws needed for install. The chairs come with all hardware needed to put them together but not to mount to the floor as what you use to mount them will of course depend on what type of floor you have. Think I will use some galvanized lag screws as I'm going to need them about 3.5"-4" long and I don't like phillips for that long.

Sdallnct

Here is a pic of my "rear" row of seating. Obviously, no front row yet. Will probably move a couch in there for the time being.

Dead

They look great... I am officially jealous!