Need advice on diy room

[jpaul]

Hello, I have a 24x24x8 room with 2 windows and a door going outside(east), french doors (south), a door size opening into the kitchen(north east side).
west wall is just wall with a few pictures.
The room has tile floor, walls are drywall covered with paneling, covered in a texture
design with joint compound. ceiling is also drywall and textured.
entertainment center is on the south (southwest side) facing north.
I would like to add some sound acoustics in the room if possible and still
keep the appearence up.
this is the main room for guest. Appearence is important.
My wife won't go with the home theater look.
Any suggestion as to what I can do?
Thanks
Jpaul

 

[bpape]

Well, you have several issues to overcome.

First of all, consider a nice big area rug to tame the tile floor. That is very important as you'll not likely be able to do anything on the ceiling from an aesthetics point of view.

Next, your room is not real good dimension wise. A square with the height that is 1/3 of the other room dimensions will seriously pile up modes. You're going to need some serious bass control and those aren't small.

Consider things like backing any open backed bookshelves with some nice thick absorbtion covered with good looking cloth.

Also, you can build wooden sealed membrane absorbers on the bottom of the walls - say up to chair rail level or a little higher. Top it off whith a shelf for nick-nacks to make it look like it's just part of the design. The wood panels can be painted or stained or covered with cloth (not touching the front though).

Can you live with panels on the wall or is that out too?

One thing you can do to help overall is to upgrade the curtains from the normal to something really nice and heavy and full.

Bryan

 

[jpaul]

best advice yet.

Thanks, that is good advice. So far it's the best I've got. Most store fronts
just want to sell me ceiling tiles. Placing wall Panels is most likely out.
But, I thought about getting some paintings that has the end wraped back around the frame and place some material inside of it. The bass is going to be a problem, I may can place some bass traps in the corners if I can fit them
into the room decore. What about the rafters? I've read about devices that attaches to the rafter to stop the beams from vibration. I don't know if I really need those or not. I will have a 15x15 area rug and we already have some heavy curtains for the windows and the french doors. One thing that may be good (not sure) the texture on the wall is heavy in design, (sweeping movements when applied giving a lot of design ridges. I'm wondering if this won't help as a defusers to the sound.
Thanks
Jpaul

 

[bpape]

I've done some design work for people in your situation. Would a couple of 'dressing screens' work in the decor? It's easy to hide a lot of absorbtion and make it look like those. Cover with nice relatively transparent (acoustically) cloth. You can even have someone do some light airbrushing on it for decoration. Or you cna build (forget the term now - senior moment) the grids like you see on windows that make 1 pane into 6 or 9 to give it more of an oriental feel. Leave the edges and the grating stained wood and color coordinated cloth and you're set.

For bass control, think about the panels I suggested. Again, they'd be say from floor to chair rail level and only be about 4" thick. They can be stained or painted however you want and can do a lot of good in the bottom end.

 

[jpaul]

Update

Thanks, I'll think about the panels. The screens, I'm not sure what your
refering to, is it cloth type acoustic material that can be painted?
The paintings themselve can be the acoustical element?
interesting idea. I have an update on the walls, I just removed all
paneling. I'm going to repair the drywall and apply the design on them.
Removing the paneling help the sound a lot. Is there some type of
bass trap that I can place in the corners that can look good with
decore? Also, a question of the track, I've been looking over what type of
speakers to buy. what do you think about the Definitive Technology
towers (7006) c-2 center and bipolar rear. Purhaps with a SVS sub.
I've been comparing them with the Axiom m60 series and the PSB image
series. Hard choice and buget considerations also. These seem to be in the same range and I'm wondering how well they'll do in living room.
Any advice is helpfull.
Thanks
Jpaul

 

[bpape]

Something like this:

http://www.bluerice.com/tatdresscree.html

 

[BMXTRIX]

Likewise - a nice wall hanging tapestry or two can help control a lively room. Those are both A/V friendly and WAF approved in many situations. Let the wife choose, then you handle the rest.

 

[tbewick]

Though I haven't looked at them myself, the BBC research and development page has some papers on acoustical engineering:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/archive/index.shtml