An underused semi-basement in a large detached house in Friern Barnet converted into a professional-grade home cinema — acoustically engineered, fully integrated, and fitted to an exceptional standard.
The client, a film enthusiast with a large family, had an existing semi-basement space used for storage and a utility room. The brief was to transform this into a dedicated home cinema room capable of hosting the whole family for movie nights, with quality to rival a commercial screening room. The budget was ambitious but disciplined, and the client had clear expectations about acoustic performance and picture quality.
Acoustic performance was central to this project. Working with our acoustic consultant, we designed a room-within-a-room solution using independent stud walls with resilient bar fixings and a floating floor system. This decouples the cinema room from the main structure of the house, preventing impact and airborne sound transmission to the floors above.
All four walls and the ceiling were lined with acoustic absorption and diffusion panels, tuned to the room dimensions. The result is a reverberation time (RT60) of approximately 0.4 seconds across the key frequency ranges — optimal for cinema playback.
The completed home cinema exceeded the client's expectations on every metric. The acoustic isolation means the family can watch films at full volume without disturbing the rest of the house. The picture quality and immersive sound system deliver a genuine cinema experience from the comfort of a beautifully appointed private room. The project was delivered on time and received an enthusiastic reception from the client family at handover.
We design and build home cinema rooms across North London — from semi-basements to dedicated loft conversions. Contact us to discuss your project.
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