USC Home Theater Room

I'm a USC alumnus - class of 2005, DDS

My dad was class of 1980 - I was born while he was going to school at USC.  

I attended every home game as an infant from 1977-1980.

I became a fan again when I attended from 2001-2005.

Now I live in Utah and so I had to create my own USC retreat!

Before my builder had even finished our house in 2011, I had already started on a home theater room in the unfinished basement.  I made the room as large as possible without running into a window so that we can have complete light control when a movie is on.

I placed insulation in all of the walls and placed 6 can lights in the main area attached to a dimmer.

 In the kitchenette area, we had to drop the ceiling to work around the existing HVAC and I used 4 of the smaller 4" cans in this area.

 Sound board was placed on the ceiling prior to drywall to help with sound traveling to the rest of the living area above.

Risers were constructed for tiered seating

 I did some very simple sketching on a paint program on the computer to help me visualize where the sconces would be, where the speakers should go, and room for art work/decor

My brother-in-law Josh sketched out the board and batten wainscoting that we wanted to do around the perimeter of the room.

 We created the effect with two sets of base board stacked on top of each other, a 1x6 mdf and a decorate base board on top of it.  The vertical pieces are 1x4 mdf.  Then the chair rail is also layered with a decorative piece on top of it running horizontally, then one more flat trim piece on top to give it more depth.   Everything finish nailed in place, caulked and sanded.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was one inspiration for the project. 

To get the colors right, I first looked at the carpet options.  This was the first room in the house where I got to choose the colors, so I hardly knew what to do with myself.  I looked at the collegiate print carpet

In the end I decided maybe that was too much, so I went with a simpler pattern that included some complimentary colors:

The "cardinal" red was color matched from some USC items I owned.

The ceiling was a dark brown to reduce reflection of the projector.

This was when oil based paints were still available.  I used a rag-off technique.

After the cardinal red paint had dried, I used a dark stain to accent the pattern on the chair rail.  I brushed on and dabbed off the excess with a rag.

Sconce lighting was installed and also note the trim work around the opening in the back wall.  This is where the projector is mounted behind the wall in the next room.

The screen was painted with a specialized screen paint.  Because I have complete light control, I went with the white screen paint with a 1.0 gain, but many other varieties are available depending on your needs.

Before the carpet arrived, the tile was played in the kitchenette area.  This was leftover from the upstairs kitchen area, so it was pretty inexpensive.

The screen frame was made from 1x4 mdf, painted black then finish nailed into place after painting to avoid any black paint splashing on the screen.

Because the floor was concrete, we got the thickest carpet pad available and it worked like magic.  

Testing out the new carpet

USC helmet from eBay, football was a gift from a patient who was a fellow fan, and the Tommy Trojan helmet on the end was a gift from my wife for father's day

My wife also had this cool canvas made - a reproduction of a sign at the Coliseum from years ago

My USC fan club