Aug 6, 2026 · 15 min · 9 segments
John Durante has built his dream home theater from scratch in his basement, and it's a modern marvel of understated design and exceptional performance. It cost some serious coin, even with a lot of…
I asked him how he got interested in the home theater hobby, and he said, quote, My father had a Mitsubishi projector in the early 90s.
We had an automatic drop-down screen that was about 10 feet diagonal, probably four by three aspect ratio.
I always loved it, but never really had a chance to build a theater of my own.
His home construction began in 2023 And it included plans for a dedicated home theater in the basement.
His goals were to have a 2.35 to one screen as big as possible so that he could create a feeling of stepping into a real commercial cinema rather than just a room in the basement.
He also wanted a modern feel to the decor, which we'll see, I think he achieved beautifully.
Now, as he educated himself and talked to a bunch of people on AVS Forum, he began to add things like room treatments and more channels, audio channels.
He says the planning took him eight to 10 weeks or so, but the modifications are ongoing as they always are.
And so like virtually all home theaters built from scratch, it started with framing.
I asked him how he got interested in the home theater hobby, and he said, quote, My father had a Mitsubishi projector in the early 90s.
We had an automatic drop-down screen that was about 10 feet diagonal, probably four by three aspect ratio.
I always loved it, but never really had a chance to build a theater of my own.
His home construction began in 2023 And it included plans for a dedicated home theater in the basement.
His goals were to have a 2.35 to one screen as big as possible so that he could create a feeling of stepping into a real commercial cinema rather than just a room in the basement.
He also wanted a modern feel to the decor, which we'll see, I think he achieved beautifully.
Now, as he educated himself and talked to a bunch of people on AVS Forum, he began to add things like room treatments and more channels, audio channels.
He says the planning took him eight to 10 weeks or so, but the modifications are ongoing as they always are.
And so like virtually all home theaters built from scratch, it started with framing.
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