- This video is sponsored by Sennheiser. (intriguing music) What's up, my friends? It's Mike again, glad to have you guys back. So over the past year I've done several room makeover projects, but this time it's
definitely one of the biggest and most challenging projects to date: making a home theater. So to make this happen, I have to tap into my
inner interior designer and learn some new woodworking skills to integrate my love for tech into a space where everyone can enjoy. It's a huge project to transform an outdated looking basement into something that
looks modern and elegant, and keeping it cozy and inviting for my friends to hang out in. So there are four stages to
the evolution of this room. I can't wait to show you
what I've accomplished here and share the satisfaction
of building a dream space and watching it come to life. So without further ado, let's
get right into the video. So this is the room
that we're working with. This is a multipurpose
room in the basement, and I do a lot of
different things down here, like workout and game. It's kind of like a man cave, but I've never really
enjoyed being in the room because it's just kind of a mess and the room looks a bit
outdated with the wall color, cork wall, fireplace, and that huge wall made of wood panels. So it's finally time to
give this room some love and transform it into
a single purpose space that I'll be happy to hang
out with my friends in. To start the home theater build, I cleared out the room and
got a projection screen. This is the Kestrel Tab-Tension 3 electric rising screen by Elite Screens. And I gotta say that it's
quite magical and futuristic because to this day, I have no idea how it's able to roll up and hold the entire screen
all in this metal case. The cool thing is that it uses its Tab-Tension design on the sides to help maintain a flat surface so when the screen is fully extended, anything you project onto it
will have a ripple-free image. And that's quite an important thing because the screen is 122
inches wide diagonally, so it is huge. I love the simple design of this because it was the perfect solution for my drop ceiling panels, 'cause I can't really
install anything up there. Also the screen has a black backing so it blocks out any lights that leaks from the window blinds. And when I'm not using the setup, I can totally hide the screen away so that I can still get some natural light in through the window during the day. As for the projector, I've been using the Hisense PX1-Pro. It's an ultra short throw projector, so it only needs to be
placed around 16 inches in front of the screen. I've been watching so
many movies on this setup, and the picture quality
is just next level. The PX1-Pro is a triple laser projector rated at 2,200 lumens, so the colors on the screen
looks super colorful. Everything is very vibrant and bright. And best of all, there's no lag when I'm
playing "Smash Bros" or gaming with my friends. When we're using this setup, it's really hard to
believe that a projector can produce this kind of quality. The 4K content is just super crisp, and combined with the screen size, I can say it's a super
immersive experience. However, there's a few
problems with the setup. If you know me, I like to
make my spaces look nice, so I hate seeing cables. Everything is just kind of exposed here, making the setup look a bit messy and it's definitely a tripping hazard. I did some research, and it looked like using
the IKEA BESTA units was the best option. If I wanted this projection screen to be right behind the cabinet, I needed the projector to
be able to slide in and out as that's how I can control
the projection size. So I decided to use a BESTA frame and installed a drawer inside to be used as a slider for the projector, and this design worked out perfectly. The sliding motion was super smooth, but we ran into the next problem. The projector was too high off the ground, so when it's projecting at
the right size of the screen, the top is kind of cut off. So we need to raise the
projection screen as well to make all of this work. And this is actually where the fun begins. I had to design a shelf
or some kind of mount to hold up the screen, so I quickly drew something up
and went to get some plywood and got right into building
my first woodworking project. So this is actually my first
time using a table saw. I gotta be honest, it was
quite intimidating to use this because of all the horror
stories of losing fingers. But after watching a ton of table saw safety videos on YouTube and being super careful, I'm so glad that I learned how to use it because I can see that it's the one tool that made me fall in
love with woodworking. With a table saw, I'm able
to make smoother, straighter, more accurate cuts, and most importantly, I can
precisely replicate my cuts to make multiple of the
same sized boards quickly. So after gluing and
screwing the boards together and making sure it's square,
we get this shelf thingy. It may look simple, but I learned a lot from
just making this project, so I was quite happy. So I made three of these in total and placed it under the projection screen. I designed it so that the
back and front of the shelf would act as spacers between
the wall and the cabinet. And the miraculous thing was that we made it just high enough so that the screen avoided
hitting the ceiling. Now that we maximized the
screen projection size, it was time to build
the rest of the cabinets to hide everything. So I added bigger cabinets on both sides. As for the cover panels, we
went with the glossy white color and installed the push openers as well for a simple and modern look. However, once everything came together, I felt like it didn't look
as cool as I wanted to, so with my newfound table
saw woodworking skills, I wanted to take this to the next level and make it look more premium by adding a walnut wrap on the top. To do this, we have to
get a special plywood that has a walnut veneer on it, and we had to get this at
a special plywood store because this isn't something
you can find at Home Depot. And the cool thing we're doing here is making a waterfall edge effect where the grain continues from the top piece to the side piece. So we cut both the panels
at a 45 degree angle, and this would've been
very hard to get right without a table saw. Anyways, after fitting
them on top of the cabinets and making sure that
they're the right size, we had to add edge banding
to hide the plywood. This takes a lot of time
gluing and trimming the bands to make it look like it's solid wood. But each step is actually
really satisfying and the end result is so worth the effort. So the next day, I
actually had a crazy idea of putting lights in between
the wrap and the cabinet, so I tested it out and it really brought the
whole thing to the next level and gave me that wow effect. So I just had to do it. We added spacers in between
and glued them to the boards, and then we glued it again
to the top of the cabinets while matching the side pieces to make sure that it's
glued in the right place. After letting it dry for a while, we secured it with screws from the bottom to hold them down for good. Now, securing the side piece was crucial. We had to make sure that there was no gaps in between the two pieces. And thankfully, it turned out great. I love the look of the waterfall edge, and the space between the
cabinet and the plywood created such clean lines that it really gave the entire thing a really minimal and modern aesthetic. I mean, it looks really good, even without the lights installed yet. And next, to make it look even better, we're gonna hydrate the
wood with some mineral oil. So with any kind of
wood that's unfinished, the wood is usually kind of dry, so doing this part really
brings the wood back to life and adds more color to it. It's really a night and day difference with the before and after. Finally, I added two layers
of polyurethane on it. This stuff really helps seal
the wood and lock in the color. It also adds some
protection to the surface. To complete the cabinet,
I made two extra pieces. I made this piece to hold
the projector on top of, and the other piece I made
it to connect in the middle so that visually, it looks like all the
units connect together. And it's also a great
place to hold a soundbar, which we're gonna add later on. Now, the cool thing is that I can actually hide the projector by pushing it inside the frame. This way it's kind of protected
in its little cozy space. Now to add the light, I'm using
the Govee neon light strip. I love how this light does
not show any hot spots where you can see the individual LEDs, so instead it looks like it's
one continuous strip of light. The other reason why I'm using this is because it's made of a really thick, bendable plastic material, so it's very easy to work with and I was able to bend it and
fit it through the corners and push 'em through in between
the cabinets and the wrap. I don't know why, but adding
lights is always cool. In the Govee app, I can change the lights
to many different colors. There's a lot to choose from. But this orange color really
hit me just differently. I think it really works with the walnut and the white panels. Now that the cabinet and
everything looks awesome, the next thing on the list to upgrade would be the audio system. So for this setup, I'm using Sennheiser's AMBEO Soundbar Plus with the wireless sub to really complete that
home theater experience. So the AMBEO soundbar is quite impressive. It has nine speakers housed inside. There's seven high end aluminum
cone full range drivers, along with dual four
inch long throw woofers. So setting this soundbar
up is super simple. On the back it has two HDMI ports for two different input sources. So I can plug in my Apple
TV and Nintendo Switch in HDMI one and two, and then I can connect the
soundbar to the projector using the HDMI eARC port. This is a great feature because the soundbar
acts as a HDMI switcher, and because the sources are plugging directly into the soundbar, it'll ensure that there will be no latency between the audio and the video. Next, we are adding the
AMBEO subwoofer to the setup. This little guy looks
super modern and compact, and it houses an eight inch
high-end proprietary woofer. So to connect this to the soundbar, it's super simple. All I had to do was
connect it to the power and go on the Sennheiser
Smart Control app. In the app, it found the
subwoofer right away, and it paired it to
the soundbar wirelessly with just a push of a button. Now, the special thing
about this audio system is that it creates a virtual
7.1.4 home theater system using an automated
self-calibration process. It does this by playing a
series of sweeping sounds to help it map out the room, and then the speaker uses state-of-the-art AMBEO
virtualization technology to figure out how to use the room to bounce the sounds off
the walls and the ceiling to create an immersive 3D effect
for surround sound content. I think this process took
around three minutes, and all I had to do was
kind of just sit there and wait for it to do its thing. I gotta say I loved how simple
it was to set all this up, and the overall aesthetic
of the sound system looks very minimalist and modern, which really enhances
the rest of the space. As for the sound quality, it
sounds totally on another level than anything else I've heard before. When we were watching movies, the sound felt like it really
is coming from all around us. I couldn't believe it at first, but this made it feel like
there are multiple speakers placed around the room, and the dedicated subwoofer created such a deep and thunderous bass that it literally felt like
the ground was shaking. Sometimes I could even
feel the rumble in the air. To make things even better, you can use the app on the phone to customize the soundbar settings. If you want to tinker about the sound, there's a four band equalizer
to play around with. There's also the AMBEO 3D mode, which I always have it on boost mode to get the most expensive
surround sound effect. Anyways, I would say all the
techy stuff of the home theater is pretty much perfect now, so it's time to finally work
on the rest of the room. So this room looks quite old. I think the last time it was renovated was like 20 years ago. However, I think there's a few things I can quickly change up to
make it a bit more modern. To begin, the first and easiest upgrade would be fixing up the walls
and changing the paint. There are a lot of holes and
imperfections on the walls, so it was definitely a
good chance to fix them up. I chose to use a dark black and blue color called Black Force from Dulux. I'm painting this wall a
darker color intentionally so that it will give the
room a more theatrical look when the lights are off. I knew that painting the
biggest wall a dark color might make the room feel small. However, I think that this dark blue color actually makes the space feel moody and it creates a cozy
and intimate atmosphere that is perfect for
relaxing and unwinding. As for the other two walls, I chose to paint it white
to add some contrast and lighten up the space. I think it's also gonna go well with the cabinet doors
that we made earlier. As for the lighting, I went to Home Depot and picked up some sconces that could blend in with the wall, and that's because I actually
don't want to see them when they're not being used. So I ended up choosing these ones, and I think it instantly adds
a modern look to the room. Next, we got a small ledge
at the bottom of the wall. I have no idea what it's for, so I decided to paint it black. Now, this is kind of weird. I've never seen anyone do this before. But I wanted this part to
kind of disappear in the room, so I think that does the job very well. After doing that, I had another crazy idea where I wanted to make use of that ledge and use it for lighting, so we put a light strip on top of it and suddenly it made the whole
room look very futuristic and really had the wow effect, so I just had to do it. To implement this idea and
make it work in the room, I needed a way to hide the hotspots and turn it more into ambient lighting. So me and my friends friends
picked up some two by fours and cut them at a 45 degree angle to make a beam that would cover the light. And if making this looks dangerous, that's because it is. A table saw is no joke. I should have set up an outfeed table to hold the piece of wood. However, I have my friend
holding up the other end instead. We're risking our lives trying to make awesome
content for you guys, so remember to like and subscribe. (Subscribe button thuds) We really had no idea what we were doing, but somehow this worked out perfectly as it could stand on its own on the ledge and it successfully covered the brightest parts of the lights. And by the way, I am using the
Govee M1 strip lights here, and I was super impressed
with how bright they can get and how good the colors looked. In the app, I can change them
to a lot of different colors, so there's a lot to play around with. Also, everything that
I'm using in this video to make the home theater can be found in the description below, so you can check that out later. Moving along, we secured
the beams to the trim using brad nails and
painted it black as well to make it blend in with the wall. Next, we have this cork wall over here. It was used as a dart board before and it looked kind of funny
with the miscolored cork panels, so it just had to go. We're going to apply a quick fix here and turn it into an accent wall using some slat wall
panels by Andor Willow. I've used these types of
panels in my desk setups, and this time I went
with the walnut option. The slat panels look gorgeous
right out of the box, and I think that the black backing pairs really well with the
walnut for a bold look. Another reason why I
like using these panels is because of how simple and
quick it is to install them. All I needed was to get the measurements for the height of my wall and then use my trusty circular saw to cut them to the right length. If you're doing this yourself, a circular saw is a lot safer and easier to use than a table saw, so this should be an easy
DIY project for anyone to do. When installing these to the wall, we just put them right on top of the cork and the panels easily slide
together for a perfect fit. So we just have to make
sure that they're level to ensure that they'll look straight. To secure them to the wall, we used the brad nail again and put a few nails in each panel, and that was pretty much it. It only took around two
hours to do all of this, and I really love the end result. The vertical slats really help the room look taller than it is, and it instantly adds a bit
more elegance to the space. Again, to make it look even better, I played around with adding some lights on the bottom of slats, and man, that orange glow of the lights look so good on those panels, it's definitely another wow moment here. For the next upgrade, we're
gonna change the window blinds. Since the cabinets were
right in front of the window, I needed an easier way
to access the blinds, so we ended up replacing it with the smart motorized
cellular shades from SmartWings. Now, these shades are custom made, as I had to give them the
exact dimensions of my window. And the cool thing is that these shades are powered using this battery, so everything is wireless, and the battery is just
attached right behind it, so it's hidden. Each charge can last up
to four to six months, so that's pretty good. To install it, all I had to do was to
drill in the three clips to the top of my window, and then I just simply pushed the shades into it to secure it. To make the shades go up and down, you can control it with a remote or pair it with Alexa
for home automations. But man, seeing this in action
is actually really cool. I haven't been excited
about a window blind since, like, ever. So I chose to get the light gray color and the light filtering option instead of the blackout option because this room is already pretty dark, so I would still like to
get some natural lighting to come through during the
day when the blinds are down. Now that this side of the room
is looking nice and modern, the last thing that we have to tackle is this huge wall that's made of wood. These wooden panels
actually look kind of cool, but I'm not a huge fan of
these black knots on them, so to improve it, I could
paint over the entire thing, or even take them out entirely
and put in a normal wall. However, that would be a lot of work. There is something in these wooden panels that make the room feel warm and cozy, so for now, I'm just gonna keep it simple and add some furniture to tie
in this section of the room. The main goal for the space is to make it more modern and cozy, so after a lot of research
and browsing around, I decided to get the
furniture from Article. We chose to get quite a few
products to deck out the space, and since the setup is in the basement, we had to unbox everything
and move it down there. I couldn't have done this by myself, so I'm super glad I got
my friend to help out. Everything was quite
simple to put together, and after playing around
with the positioning and using it for a while, this is the configuration
that we ended up with. (smooth upbeat music) So for the furniture, we wanted something that's
high quality, designed to last, and most importantly, it
must be very comfortable as I'll spend a lot of time here. When choosing the sofa, we went with the gorgeous Sven
Charme Tan Sofa from Article. The seat cushions are just so comfy and the leather is so smooth
and soft to the touch. We also paired it with the ottoman from the same Sven collection
to really kick back on it. The ottoman is just as
comfortable as the sofa, and it feels like my feet
are held up by clouds. And this quickly became my
favorite spot to sit in. Next, we needed a table that said we've upgraded
from IKEA to elegant, so we added the Vena Walnut
Rectangular Coffee Table. The table has a white glossy marble top paired with solid wooden legs, so I love how it matches the cabinets and it's just big enough to
fit in nicely in the setup. Moving along, I needed more
seats to host more people for board games and parties. However, I didn't want
to add another sofa, so we ended up getting the Sven Charme Tan Chaise Lounge instead. This is like a day bed and
it's super comfortable as well, so it's nice to be able
to just lie down here and take a little break during the day, or when my wife kicks me out
of the bedroom for the night, which I'm happy to do now, but, I mean, that never happens. Anyways, over in this corner, we added the Roscoe Walnut Tall Bookcase to help the white wall
and the wooden panels blend in together better. It looks quite industrious and classy with the walnut frame
and the steel shelves, and it's perfect for storing
our board games, books, and some decorative pieces to add some personality to the room. And lastly, by the couch, I added the Neat Filing
Cabinet by Ergonofis. The solid walnut panels match the rest of the setup very nicely, and it's very handy to use it as storage, as it keeps all the remotes
and controllers I use at arms reach for quick access. Overall, I really love the
aesthetic of the setup. The sofa easily became the focal point, making the entire space feel more friendly, cozy, and inviting, but also keeping it very simple
and modern at the same time. Now, we're gonna talk about
smart home automations, and this might be the coolest part. The Sennheiser Soundboard Plus actually has Alexa built inside, so I can control all
the lights in my room. So if I say, "Alexa, hello there," it will turn on all the lights. Doesn't light make such a huge difference? Next, I wanna show you the
other automation I created. When I say, "Alexa,
activate home theater," a few things would happen here. The lights will dim,
the screen will come up, and the blinds behind it will close. It's all happening at the same time, so I thought this was like
one of the coolest things. And lastly, I put ambient
lighting all around the room. They're all lights from Govee, so they're all connected
together wirelessly, making it super easy to change the entire
color scheme of the room. This feature is particularly impressive because it really allows me to perfect the mood for any occasion. Whether I want a calm
and relaxing atmosphere or a vibrant and energetic one, I can achieve it with just
a few taps on my phone. So with all these useful automations, I really only use these three controllers. I use the Sennheiser one quite a bit. It has shortcuts to quickly enable night mode or voice enhancement mode, and I can also switch between
six different sound profiles depending on what I'm doing. When my friends are over, I love playing music in the
background while we hang out. It's very easy to use Spotify and stream the music over
to the Soundbar Plus, so I love how it can also take a backseat and function as a background speaker to really change the mood of the space. Again, the Soundbar Plus sounds amazing. The highs and mids are so clear and crisp, and that bass was so powerful and deep that my friends couldn't
stop talking about it. I think that upgrading the audio system really took our gaming and
movie watching experiences to a whole new level. It was as if we were really
there in the game or movie, experiencing every sound as it was happening right in front of us. I couldn't believe how
much upgrading the audio had enhanced our overall experience, and I can't imagine going
back to anything else now. So big thanks to Sennheiser
for sponsoring this video and making the home theater
transformation possible. I'm super happy with how
everything turned out. It's one thing to have nice tech to enjoy, but there is something special to be able to share it with your friends in a warm and relaxing environment. It creates a sense of
bonding and togetherness that is hard to replicate
in any other way, and I can't wait to see what new memories we'll make in our new space. So guys, if you like the
design of this makeover, the color scheme and everything is actually modeled after my desk setup. I think you'll like watching that as well. I'll put the video link
in the description below. And I know you're still
watching this video 'cause you're seeing this right now, so thank you so much
for supporting my videos and watching till the end. Make sure you drop a fire
emoji in the comments below to let me know that you
watched up till this point. And if you have any
questions about the setup, please comment below. I'd love to help you guys out. And that's it for now, guys. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the very next video. Bye. (smooth upbeat music) So that's the end of the video. That's the end of the video.
