It’s show time! The media room was THE first room that I wanted to work on after we moved in. I so desperately wanted to feel “at home” in this new house, and for me, what brings me comfort is watching TV. As a result, the media room was first priority. No joke, a week after moving in, we started painting the walls of this room BLACK! Cue “Paint it Black”… 
Before
Let’s see how my final implementation compares to the original vision:
After
Paint
After seeing the “before,” you can probably understand why the paint job. I didn’t like the mismatched wall colors. I also wanted to change the orientation of the room so that our giant TV can be mounted onto a wider wall. It just made sense to paint a media room black. I chose “Caviar” by Valspar in a flat finish.
Originally, wall paneling was in my vision. But I skipped it. I watched a couple of tutorials, and while it seemed doable on my own, I did not want to spend that much time or effort on it! Even painting the room was a LOT of work, since we had to take down a bunch of leftover mounts, fill in holes, dust, AND paint the ceiling. So it took a total of 3 weekends to fully paint the room, including ceiling and trim. I’m glad we painted the ceiling too, because it truly turned this room into a cave!
Media unit
I would’ve loved a giant mid-century console to go under the TV, but when I did my research, they cost upwards of $2000! It’s really hard to find a single console that’s longer than our 86” TV. So I did the next best thing, which was creating one out of Ikea Besta storage units:
All in all, the media unit cost around $350 + tax. And it was 118” long! Check out the full list of material using my code FHC3CR on Ikea’s online planner. It was a beast to put together, because when they say “custom,” they mean you have to buy every little part down to the drawer rollers and door hinges. In the end it worked out perfectly in this space, so I guess the time and frustration putting it together was worth it?
Seating
Ah our couch! What a Craigslist find. It’s full grain leather, was less than $2000, AND the two side seats recline. I imagined a sectional going here, but when I looked into mid century style sectionals, all of them had low backs. I just can’t imagine sitting on that comfortably for a long time! I need my head support when watching TV.
I also ended up going with a leather ottoman instead of trunk as a coffee table for comfort’s sake. It could also double as additional seating, should we have a larger audience. I may add a couple more side seats in the future, but for now we don’t need it.
Decor
Another change that I made was going with a neutral-colored rug. As much as I love a rich Gryffindor red, it did not match the rest of my home. I figured it would be easier to have all the big pieces in neutral colors and add variety with accessories. One day I found these Olly Moss Harry Potter prints online and obsessively printed them out myself. I love it so much! I’m sad they were limited edition prints or else I would’ve bought them in a heartbeat. Moss is a really cool artist who is ok with people printing out his works, so that’s exactly what I did. When framed (spray-painted gold), they look amazing and were exactly what I pictured.
The throw pillows also add a bit of color. They are the sames ones that we had in our old house’s media/game room.
Finally, I swapped out the overhead lights with this cool geometric cage lamp and lined the room with string lights. When we watch TV, we only turn on the string lights, and they create a nice, soft, ambient glow. I’m very happy with the lighting setup!
There’s still some decorating left to be done in this room. I have a bunch of additional Harry Potter knick-knacks that I want to put in here, but I’m not sure what furniture I need (want) for them. For example, I’d like to turn the nook that contains the pipes into a wet bar. But we’ve yet to explore if that’s a worthy investment. I’d also like to put a console or cabinet against the blank wall to hide the electrical outlets. I don’t want to rush this process, however, and want to take time to come up with ideas and source the perfect pieces. My mind changes all the time!
We don’t have a TV in our living room (which I like, and want to keep it that way), so this media room gets a good amount of use. Whenever we want to watch TV or a movie, we watch in the media room. We use it at least a couple of nights a week! As a result, I’m pretty happy that we prioritized this room. There’s nothing like going up to our TV cave after a long day of work and unwinding with a few episodes of 30 Rock!
What do you think? What would you change/keep? See our previous home’s media/game room setup here!
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