Home Theater Furniture: Seating and Beyond
For most people, hearing the term home theater conjures up thoughts of two things: big screens and bold sounds! Audio and video are definitely the main players in the home theater arena, but consider this: no matter how terrific your home theater screen and speakers are, you just won’t be able to enjoy them if you aren’t comfortable.
That’s where home theater furnishings come in. Any film is more fun if you can recline in a seat that cradles you perfectly from the opening to closing credits. But what good is it to watch a movie in the chair of your dreams without a snack console by your side, keeping your popcorn and Milk Dud stash at the ready? If you need to improve your seating situation but are running short on ideas in the home theater furnishings department, check out a few of our favorites below:
Movie Theater Seating
If there’s anything that’s going to help your viewing room both look and feel like the Real Deal, it’s actual movie theater seats! Home entertainment stores and online home theater retailers offer a huge variety of theater seating in a wide range of options and prices. Fabric or leather? Separate or detached? Recliner or straight back? Would you like cup holders with that? The sky is the limit… no matter what your tastes or budget are, you’ll be amazed at the selection of movie seating on the market.
Club Chairs
While theater-style seating provides both comfort and ambiance, it’s not necessarily the right choice for all home theaters. If your home entertainment setup is in a small or multipurpose room, it probably just doesn’t make sense to have bulky rows of movie theater seats anchored right in the middle of everything. In situations like this, sleek and sophisticated-looking club chairs are a terrific seating alternative.
Club chairs are also the perfect solution for those who’d rather not squish onto a sofa or sectional a whole gang of movie-viewing companions. When scattered around a viewing room, club chairs provide individual oases of comfort, allowing you and your friends to take in a film together without having to sit shoulder-to-shoulder!
Kid-Size Chairs and Ottomans
When you’re planning out home entertainment seating, don’t forget about the pint-sized future film critics at your house! The days of movie theater booster seats are over. Sure, their bodies are younger and more resilient than ours, but kids enjoy comfortable furniture just as much as adults do!
If you’re going all out for grown-up home theater seating, think about investing in scaled-down, kid friendly furniture for the members of your household who aren’t fully-grown yet. Your kids will be much more likely to sit still and enjoy an entire movie if they’re able to relax in chairs that actually let their feet touch the ground!
Seating Platforms and Risers
Whether it’s the subtle gradient found in old-school movie houses or the stadium seating that’s a feature of modern multiplexes, one of the surest signs that you’re at the movies is the fact that seats are arranged on a slope, so that you’re able to see over the head of the person in front of you! The good news is that it no longer takes a trip to the movies to enjoy the viewing benefits of tiered seating!
If your home theater setup is in a room dedicated to nothing but viewing, you can get the same great “stepped” effect by installing home theater seating platforms. Available in a wide variety of widths and riser heights to suit virtually any home theater, seating platforms are the ideal solution for creating raised cinema-style seating in your very own viewing room!
Snack Trays and Consoles
It’s a fact that’s useless to deny: watching movies brings out the Inner Snacker in all of us! If you’re especially prone to develop hankerings for popcorn and candy mid-flick, think about taking movie noshing to the next level with snack trays and storage consoles. Combination snack trays/consoles let you store home-theater related goodies chair-side, but keeps them neat and hidden from sight. If you’re a less-dedicated movie snacker but would still love someplace to set a drink down, keep a fun cinema-themed snack tray at your elbow… you’ll be able to enjoy beverages while watching films, but won’t have to hold onto a glass the whole time.