DIY Home Theater Lights

Dimming and brightening the lights to suit your mood is a great way to add drama to your home theater. But as any expert will tell you, home theater lighting can be tricky. You have to light all the right places without casting any on the screen, which just happens to be the biggest object in the room. If your theater lighting is leaving you confused, here are some tips to help you out.

Darken the room. In a home theater, you want to have full control of your lighting, and this means blocking out all light from the outside. Get heavy-duty home theater drapes to cover your windows and paint the room in a non-reflective color such as dark blue, black, or burgundy.

Use recessed lighting. Most professionally designed Canadian home theaters use recessed lights, which are built into cavities in the ceiling. This helps to diffuse the light and adds a warm, elegant glow to your room.

Create a cove ceiling. Install smaller fixtures in a cove ceiling to illuminate key areas without casting glare on the screen, in a typical Canadian home theater, these areas are usually close to the door and on additional furniture such as shelves.

Leave a few lights on. When watching a movie, don’t turn all the lights off. Canadian home theater experts recommend leaving a couple of downlights behind the screen and a few home theater floor lights along the wall. This will help prevent eyestrain without reducing the screen’s visual impact.