How big does a room need to be for a proper home theatre?

A rectangular room around 12 by 15 feet comfortably fits a two-tier seating layout with correct screen distance, though a smaller room can still work well for a single-row living-room theatre corner.

Does an acoustic wall actually need to cover the whole room?

No. Treating the wall behind and beside the screen, plus the side walls at seating ear height, handles most of the reflection and echo without turning every surface into acoustic panelling.

What is the right screen height for a home theatre room?

The centre of the screen should sit roughly at the seated eye level of the front row, which in most rooms means mounting the screen lower than feels intuitive at first.

Does a home theatre room have to be dark charcoal or black?

No, though a deeper palette does help contrast on the screen. What matters more than the exact colour is that the seating, wall panelling and ceiling light are chosen together as one considered palette, rather than assembled from whatever an AV vendor had in stock.

Is cove lighting enough on its own, or does a theatre room still need downlights?

Most well-designed theatre rooms keep both: cove light along the ceiling perimeter for the ambient, screen-on mode, and a few recessed downlights for the brighter, lights-on state between screenings.

Should a living-room theatre corner have its own acoustic treatment?

Some helps, even partially: a rug, heavier drapes and one treated wall panel behind the screen noticeably reduce echo compared to a bare living room, even without full room treatment.

Home Theatre Room Design, Not Just Gear

Home theatre room design done with a material point of view: tiered seating that reads as furniture, an upholstered acoustic wall that looks considered, and ambient cove light instead of a bare AV-showroom ceiling.