How to decorate your movie room

Decide on a theme

Your home movie room should feel like a special retreat -- a place where you can relax and leave the rest of your life behind you. When decorating your space, choose a theme that appeals to your sense of style. Common movie room themes include:

• Modern and trendy with clean lines and a simple color palette
• Old Hollywood style with heavier furniture and darker fabrics in maroon, green, navy and gold
• Kid-friendly with bold colors and comfortable furniture

Organize your space

Arrange your furniture and theater equipment so that people can enter and exit the space and access snacks and drinks without constantly walking in front of the TV screen. You'll also want to make sure the screen isn't directly across from a window that could cause a glare.

Start with basics

Start your movie room design by painting your walls and hanging drapes in an effort to extinguish ambient light. In most cases, you'll want to paint your room a dark color that will enhance the darkness experienced during movie screenings. If dark paint isn't practical for your space, choose a color that appeals to you, then focus on cutting out light from the room's windows. You can do this by hanging heavy, black-out drapes over your windows. To enhance the movie theater feel, choose drapes in a velvet or velour fabric and cinch them in with gold rope or cord.

Hang movie posters

Nothing will transform a standard room into a movie theater faster than hanging a series of movie posters on the wall. If your theme is kid-friendly, hang posters from popular cartoons like Toy Story and Rio. If you're more into Old Hollywood style, pick up vintage posters from classic movies like Gone With the Wind, My Fair Lady or Casablanca.

Set up a concessions area

Every good movie theater has a concession stand. Designate an area of your room as a place to serve and eat snacks and drinks. You may even want to situate a bar, bistro table and bar stools in your space to encourage guests to keep food off your furniture.

Add theater accessories

When decorating your space, add accessories with a movie theater theme, like movie reels, ceramic popcorn holders and low-light wall sconces.

Floor pillows

Even if you have amazing theater seating, chances are a few people will prefer lying on the floor to watch the film. Invest in a few floor pillows or bean bag chairs to give people a comfortable option for watching the movie while lounging on the floor.

Get inspired with this gallery of luxurious home movie rooms >>

More tips for family media rooms

Best furniture for your movie room
How to set up a movie room on a budget
Best TVs for your family media room