Choosing Seating for Your Home Cinema

There are a number of different elements to a home cinema. And by the time that you’ve gone to the lengths of creating your own home cinema it’s essential that you invest in some quality seating. We all know that feeling of getting stuck with the worst seat for a marathon at your friend’s – either the seat is too hard, you feel stiff and your back aches, or you cannot put your feet up.

Home Cinema

So, with that feeling in mind, choosing the right seating for your home cinema is just as important as picking all the right electronic gear to get the maximum benefit out of your new set up. You want to create a space that is relaxing, inviting, and comfortable enough for all those movie marathons and sports match viewings you’re planning. So just how do you go about picking the right seating for your home cinema to help achieve this?

1) Consider the room size and layout

Before you get too carried away with dreaming up your ideal seating arrangements, you will need to consider your room size, layout and how seating can be organised.

For a home cinema room to be a success, everyone should be able to see the television screen clearly without being too close or too far away. Each person should be able to have their eyes in the middle of the screen with a thirty-degree field of view.

Since the TV is going to be the main focal point of the room, it is vital to have the position for this set before you arrange your chairs. Even though your favourite sofa may look perfect in one corner of the room, if putting the TV on the wall opposite means you are going to be battling with light and glare issues, it is just not worth it.

Of course, the size of your room is going to play a big part in what kind of seating you can have too – there is no point rushing out to buy five new recliners if you really only have space for two. You can always make up some shapes of furniture using old newspapers and position them around the empty floor to see what works well.

One important thing to note is that you should avoid putting any seats right up against a wall or touching your subwoofers, as this can affect the sound of your home cinema experience.

Home Cinema

2) Think about how you like to relax

When you sit down to watch a movie, how do you like to sit?

Do you like to stretch your legs out? Do you like to lie on your side? Do you want to be able to recline back?

This is going to be one of the deciding factors in choosing the right furniture for your room, as there is no point having seating that you are not going to feel comfortable in.

Some types of seating that you can choose from are:

Beanbags: Just about everybody likes beanbags (as long as they are big enough), and they are something that can easily be stored away when not in use. You can have a few beanbags for the kids so you can utilise the floor space, or they come in handy if you have extra guests over from time to time.
Lazy boys: Lazy boys are the ultimate kind of seating for watching a movie – with your legs out and the back reclined, it is amazingly easy to get comfortable.
Couches – corner and straight: Couches come in all different shapes, sizes, colours, and materials and are ideal for families or for those who like the option to lie down. Depending on the shape of your room, it may be convenient to buy a corner couch or U-shaped couch that allows you to sit in various positions.
Stadium seating: If you have the space for it and know that your home cinema room is going to be used by many people, you might consider creating some stadium seating. This can be rows of couches, armchairs or lazy boys, but you will need to make sure that the back rows are higher than the front row to ensure there are no complaints about people not being able to see the screen.

It is also good to think about the material and colour of the seating that you will have. Leather and vinyl are not great ideas when it is hot and sticky, although are easy to clean should there be any drink spills.

Stadium Seating

3) How many people are you catering for?

How many other people are going to be using the room with you – do you have young children? Only your partner? Will all your friends and family be coming over all the time too?

The biggest mistake you can make when choosing seating for your home cinema is not having enough seating for everybody, as this will limit the type of social gatherings you can have.

As mentioned before, bean bags are a great item to have for unexpected guests or the odd occasion you have a large get together. It also doesn’t make sense to have way too many seats when they are not going to get used either.

Anything else?

You are going to need somewhere to put your drinks and snacks!

Make sure that you have enough space for some small coffee tables that are not going to be in the way when people get up and down from their seats – it’s a pain to have to stretch far to grab your drink so keep this in mind.

Some armchairs and lazy boys have drinks holders in them, which can be a wonderful way to solve this problem if you have the budget.

Conclusion

Creating your ideal home cinema set up does take some time and consideration, but once you have your perfect seating positioned in a way that you and the whole family are comfortable, it will be worth every minute.

August 29, 2018