If you’re like most Florida sports fans, mid-autumn is one of the year’s peak seasons for your favorite games. The World Series is in play, and College and NFL football teams are battling it out on the gridiron to make it to a bowl game or the playoffs. Meanwhile, the NBA and NHL have kicked off their seasons, as have their respective college team counterparts.

With so much action to follow, don’t you wish you could enjoy it in the comfort of your own luxury home entertainment room? Even if you are not a huge sports fan, the general contractors of Carlson Harris believe that most luxury homeowners in the Naples, Florida, area benefit from having a dedicated entertainment room. With almost five decades of luxury homebuilding experience in the area, Carlson Harris has seen first-hand how adding an entertainment room significantly boosts a family’s home-life satisfaction.

ENTERTAINMENT ROOM BASICS

While most people conduct their home entertainment in a living room, family room, or den, these spaces are typically designed with more than entertainment in mind. Sure, one of these rooms might have the perfect space for a wide-screen HD TV. And you can engineer it perfectly for your audio needs, whether surround sound for movies or blasting out party music. You can even carve out a dedicated space for gaming, whether a card table for board games or a nook for computer gaming.

However, you’re typically jury-rigging your entertainment set-up when you bring entertainment options into these spaces. And this usually means you must sacrifice layout and other room components during the set-up.

On the other hand, when you add an entertainment room to your existing or planned luxury home, it can be perfectly designed to meet whatever entertainment goals your family has. A dedicated entertainment room puts the emphasis on the indoor recreation you and your family enjoy, with the design aiming to make ideal conditions for the activities, whatever they are.

LIMITED FOCUS OR MULTIPURPOSE?

If you’re a sports fanatic, you will obviously want to focus your entertainment room on watching sports. Design elements could entail a 12-foot projection screen flanked by smaller HD screens so that you can catch the action of other games being broadcast simultaneously. You would have comfortable seating for all your family and friends and perhaps a bar and mini-kitchen area to serve refreshments. This might seem like a sole-purpose entertainment room, but such a set-up also makes the space a home movie theater. The potential multipurpose nature of this set-up is further expanded by the presence of a bar and mini kitchen, given that it might make the room the perfect place just to hang out and have drinks with your friends.

In short, keep the multifunctional potential in mind when considering the layout and components of your planned entertainment room. There are different types of entertainment and a wide range of indoor recreational options, some of which go hand-in-hand. Depending on how much space you have and the skills of your designer, your entertainment room might be able to accommodate multiple recreational pursuits. Along with a sports center, movie theater, and home bar, consider that your entertainment room might also be perfect for:

• Games—Pool, ping pong, darts, foosball, and/or a dedicated table for cards and board games. If you’re into computer gaming, you can set up a dedicated nook for gamers to play in, but in planning for space, keep in mind the rise of virtual reality gaming.
• Simulated sports—Speaking of virtual reality, simulated sports platforms are growing more popular as they become more realistic. So you might want to make space for the VR simulator for your favorite sport.
• Parties—With a home bar, you’re halfway there, so just up your game with a great sound system and space for dancing.
• Jam center—If you’re musically inclined, your entertainment room could be set up with space for you and your friends to jam out.
• Karaoke platform—Speaking of music, amp up the entertainment with a dedicated karaoke system.

CRUCIAL ENTERTAINMENT ROOM CONSIDERATIONS

When planning your luxury home’s entertainment room, your designer should account for some crucial design elements that can greatly impact the success of the room’s purpose. In particular, ensure that you review the following features:

• Sound—Whatever the audio entertainment, you want it to sound good. You also might want to ensure that noisy entertainment doesn’t affect other areas of the home (or neighborhood). Thus, your designer will need to consider the need for sound-absorbing materials, acoustic paneling, and how the room’s configurations might cause echoes or other unwanted sound effects.
• Vision—Whether sports or movies, the size of your screen and distance from seating will be a key factor in optimizing the visual entertainment.
• Lighting—Natural light is always pleasant, but you’ll want to make sure that you can easily darken the room to watch sports or a movie. Interior lighting should enhance the room’s ambiance, highlight critical features (bar area, games, etc.), be easy to moderate, and minimize screen glare.
• Storage—Clutter can build up in any room, so to keep your entertainment room well organized, consider adding storage space to hold loose items that may only be needed periodically.
• Bathroom—Depending upon where your entertainment room will be located, you might want to consider adjoining it with a dedicated bathroom.

CONSULT WITH CARLSON HARRIS FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT ROOM

If you’re building a new luxury custom home, boost its in-door recreational value with a dedicated entertainment room. Likewise, if your existing luxury home doesn’t have an entertainment room, consider whether you can add one with an addition. Whatever your in-door recreational goals, the skilled contractors at Carlson Harris can build you an exceptional entertainment room that will be the envy of your neighbors. To learn more about customizing the perfect entertainment room for your Naples, Florida-area luxury home, contact Carlson Harris today at 239-352-2460.