14 show-stopping small home theater room design ideas

If there’s one thing our friends and family can agree on, it’s this: Movie nights are the best. We can never agree which movie we want to watch, but at least we can agree that we all want to watch a movie. It’s a start. And if you’re planning the ultimate movie nights, the best place to start is with your home theater room design.

Homeowners who are serious movie buffs will carve out space for a home theater room no matter how little space they have. We’re talking basement, small bedroom, large walk-in closet — anything can be converted into a home theater room if you put your heart into it. But smaller spaces require a bigger imagination.

We’ve rounded up 14 small home theater room design ideas to help you plan the ultimate makeover.

14 small home theater room design ideas

These small home theater room design ideas will help you fit more fun into your movie nights. We’ve got 14 ways to squeeze more seating, more snacks, and more screen time into your space.

1. Get extra comfy with massaging recliners

If you want to recreate the movie theater experience in your living room, reclining chairs give each person their own seat (and their own arm rests so you won’t have to fight for elbow room). For a viewing experience you can’t even get at a luxury movie theater, look for a recliner with massaging features, like the Sanger Upholstered Power Lift Recliner Chair available in Champagne or Charcoal Grey upholstery.

This recliner has two built-in cup holders so you can fit your drink on one side and your popcorn on the other. The power lift ensures it’s easy to get in and out of your seat — even if your legs have turned to Jell-O after a long movie marathon.

2. Use home movie theater seating with (or without) a center console

To create the most official home theater setup ever, you can buy home theater seating, like the Toohey Upholstered Tufted Recliner Living Room Set or the Cyrus 3-Piece Upholstered Home Theater Seating Set. While home theater seating may look like another recliner, the difference is in the details.

These sets are designed so that each seat can be placed flush against the next without affecting their ability to recline. This allows you to fit more reclining seats into a small space. They can also be arranged with or without a snack console between each seat, giving you the flexibility to plan the perfect fit for your room.

3. Fit more friends with a sectional

Movie nights are a visual experience, and your movie room should be too. If traditional home theater decor doesn’t fit with your interior design aesthetic, a sectional sofa can provide comfortable seating that blends with your style. Unlike individual chairs, a sectional also allows more people to cozy up together so you can invite more friends over for movie night.

The Serene 4-Piece Modular Sectional is a great fit for small spaces. With two corner chairs, one armless chair, and an ottoman, it can be laid out as an L-shaped sectional or a traditional sofa. And you can add more pieces to extend the length and create a custom fit for your home.

4. Serve up snacks with C-shaped tables

C-shaped tables — like the Dani Rectangular C-Shaped Sofa Side Table — are perfect for when you’re feeling peckish. You can pull these tables under the edge of your sofa or chair to get your snacks so close you couldn’t drop popcorn in your lap if you tried.

5. Keep snacks within reach with a sofa table

In a small home theater room, it can be hard to fit side tables. Placing a sofa table behind your sectional keeps drinks and snacks within reach for everyone (even the people who ended up in the middle seats). All you need is 14 inches between your sofa and your wall to fit a table like the Benton Solid Wood Sofa Table.

6. Add bar seating behind the sofa

If you have a little more than 14 inches of space behind your sofa, you can try out our favorite seating idea. By placing a bar or counter-height table and stools behind your sofa — like you see with the Cassidy 4-Piece Rectangular Counter-Height Set — you can create a second tier of seating.

Bar and counter-height stools are tall enough for anyone who sits in them to see over the heads of the people sitting on your sofa — creating the effect of stadium seating without the need for risers. To make this seating arrangement comfy for longer viewings, choose padded bar stools with a backrest, like the Ralland Upholstered Bar Stools.

7. Build a DIY seating riser

If you really want to recreate the cinematic experience in your own home, you can build stadium seating risers. Building seating risers is a beginner to intermediate DIY home theater project that you can tackle in a weekend. Once you do, you’ll be able to add two to three rows of seats, which is a great option for long but narrow home cinema rooms.

8. Set up a concession stand

Your favorite films are better with your favorite snacks. You can keep all the best drinks and eats on hand with a snack cabinet like the Figueroa 5-Shelf Wine Cabinet With Storage Drawer.

Open shelves give you the freedom to add all of your favorite snacking supplies. You can place a small microwave or popcorn machine on one shelf and even add a mini fridge or freezer for soft drinks and ice cream cones.

9. Surround your screen with storage

In a small media room, it can be hard to carve out enough space for all your, well, media. If you have a big DVD collection or just want storage space for books, board games, and all those snacks we mentioned, then an entertainment center can frame your TV with storage.

The Lewes 4-Piece Entertainment Center has room for a large-screen, 60-inch TV. Your speakers can find a home on a few of the open shelves, and you can use the rest of the shelves and drawers for movies, treats, or even extra throw pillows and blankets.

10. Add wall-to-wall storage

Some movie collections are no joke. If you need a separate shelf for each genre — we’re talking one for family movies, one for rom-coms, one for action adventure, and even one for film noir — then you need wall-to-wall storage.

In very small spaces, an entertainment center could provide your wall-to-wall storage on the same wall with your TV. You can also add additional media towers — the bookcase section of the entertainment center — on either side to make the furniture fit perfectly into your space. This creates the look of a built-in wall unit without the high cost. You can do the same thing on other walls in your room using bookcases or multiple snack cabinets arranged side by side.

11. Strategically place your speakers

Even a small surround sound system can have a big impact if you get your speaker placement right. For the best home theater sound quality, make sure your speakers face out toward you. The speakers built into TVs often face backward toward the drywall, which creates an echo. Investing in even one external sound bar can make a big difference in your sound.

If you have additional speakers, placing two beside the TV and two behind you creates that surround sound movie experience. But be careful not to put the speakers in the corner. When your speakers are surrounded by drywall, you’ll get more echo. Instead, place them a few feet away from the corners and pull them out from the wall by about one foot.

12. Create acoustic-friendly wall art

For another DIY room decor idea, you can create wall art that improves the acoustics of your small home theater room. All you need to make acoustic panels is a little plywood, insulation, screening, and decorative fabric. You can choose a fabric that matches your home decor or embrace the movie theme and choose one that features your favorite family movie or comic book characters. You can also purchase self-adhesive acoustic panels, which are easy to install even if you have no DIY experience. 

13. Double up on screens

Even the biggest flat-screen TV isn’t as big as a projector screen. But projector screens don’t offer as high-quality a picture in brighter rooms. Serious techies can get the best of both worlds by mounting a projector screen that pulls down to cover your wall-mounted flat screen.

That way you can use your TV for casual viewing and break out the big screen projector for serious movie nights. It’s the ultimate home theater system for every viewing experience.

14. Make it extra dark

There’s a reason movie theaters always feature dark colors. The bright lights of your screen won’t reflect around the room as much if you choose dark paint colors and a matte paint finish.

You can also reduce the amount of natural light in your room by pairing blackout blinds with blackout curtains, creating the ultimate dark and cozy movie cave. Doubling up on blackout window treatments is especially helpful if you want to use a projector screen during daylight hours.

Press play on your small home theater room design

With these 14 small home theater room design ideas, agreeing on your movie room makeover will be easy. To create the best home theater experience, focus on comfort first. If you start with your seating arrangement, you can build the rest of your design around that.

Head to your local Coaster Furniture retailer to test out your options. When you shop in person, you can make sure every cushion is as comfortable as you want. That way, you’ll know you’re creating a design that will be a smash hit. And you can move onto the next challenge — getting everyone to agree on a movie.

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