A few weeks later I picked up a pencil & paper and within 20 minutes came up with the rendering you see here.  It is unfinished but it was enough to present to the clients.  I gave them a copy and asked them to think about it.  After a few days we met and converged some of the homeowners ideas with what I had on paper.  Going forward, we arrived at the look you see on these cad drawings.  Marshall Wiley (a common friend of both mine and the clients) was commissioned to work out all the CAD drawings.  Marshall is a wiz on Auto Sketch and his eye for detail should definitely be recognized here! 

The customer did not care for my idea of the stone-wall behind the small arches (or the arch for that matter) so we decided to put functioning plank doors in that area and turn it into DVD storage.  The customer did approve the stonework on the stage kick and below the screen.  They also liked the stair step framing around the screen.  We all agreed that the top beam should go across the entire width of the room.  It has now evolved into a faux beam made of a rustic alder.  We will install down lights in the bottom of the beam to high light the stair step framing and also task light the two plank doors (media storage).

Here is the plan view that depicts the seating riser, steps and curved stage.  There will be imbedded step lights to prohibit tripping in the dark (I usually specify rope lights under a step-lip but flush step lights are less expensive and just as effective).  The seating depicted is only a suggestion and at the time of this posting, is still up in the air.  I paid careful attention to the “golden triangle” rule.  The customer feels (and I agree) that this room needs to excel in 2-channel music mode as well as theatre!  The distance between the left & right front speakers is equal to the distance to the money seat.  This is not always easy to achieve,  because I must also design the front row to be the proper distance to the screen for a proper movie viewing experience.  Careful crunching of the dimensions pays off here!

Here is a sidewall elevation.  This also helps you get a sense of the character of the room.  The sight lines on this rendering aren’t perfect but the homeowner is 6’5” and unless I wanted to make the riser 24” nothing would help!  So it is what it is.  It will be fine.

Here you see the room after framing & rough wiring.  The stone stage kick has also been installed

And now after the stage and seating riser has been decked.  Sheet rock has also been put up.