Choosing Your Seating

Seating is often considered a secondary feature in a custom home theater. After all, you’re already spending a small fortune on equipment—why spend more on home theater seating? Actually, that’s precisely the reason you should invest in good seats. You wouldn’t spend thousands of dollars on high-end equipment only to ruin the setting with cheap plastic chairs.

So what makes a good home theater seat? Like any other furniture, it all boils down to your personal preference and budget. Here are some selection tips to help you out.

If you want your seats to scream “luxury,” leather theater seats would be the obvious choice. Leather has a cool, opulent feel to it that’s hard to match, and it gives your custom home theater an authentic and elegant look. Genuine leather is the best choice, of course, but if you’re on a budget, you can get fairly good quality with faux leather upholstery.

You’ll also have to choose between individual and sectional seating. The latter is great for small rooms as it accommodates more people in less space. It’s also useful for parties and sleepovers. If you like to watch alone or with a partner, consider getting individual recliners—the softness adds a sense of intimacy and comfort to your custom home theater.

It’s also important to consider positioning. Just as speaker placement is essential to audio quality, home theater seat positioning can make or break your viewing experience. Make sure you can get a good view of the screen from each seat. The Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommends a 30-degree viewing angle relative to the size of the screen; this is generally the standard for most flat-screen TV sets.