A homeowner plans to renovate his Cape Cod-style home without adding a theater until his interior designer convinces him otherwise.

When building a home theater, the interior designer is usually considered the enemy. Often having a complete disregard for acoustical needs and the proper positioning of screen and sound.

Frilly flourishes here, fancy accents there—and don’t even think about visible speakers.

This private screening room, however, would not exist without the coaxing and cajoling of—surprise—the interior designer.

“As an interior designer, I see so many clients who build home theaters and they love them,” says Kathryne Dahlman of Kathryne Designs in Studio City, Calif. “The theater wasn’t in the original plans. They renovated a semi-historical house and reoriented it slightly. When we realized we had extra space, I talked with the owner and told him he should put in a home theater.”

At first the owner pooh-poohed the idea, Dahlman says, adding that she, too, had previously considered the home theater as nothing more than a big toy for the man of the house.

“It took me a while, but once I got into it I fell in love with it,” she says. “Even if you don’t have room for a dedicated home theater, a big screen—whether it comes down from the ceiling or not—is a great thing to have, especially for entertaining.”

After showing her client some preliminary sketches and emphasizing her other clients’ positive experiences with their private screening rooms, Dahlman says the owner changed his mind.

“I talked to people who had theaters to see how much they used them,” he says.

“And the people I talked to really liked theirs. I thought that even if I didn’t use the theater, it has sex appeal for resale. It’s like a wine cellar: Even if you don’t have a lot of wine, you certainly will get your money back when you sell.”

It turns out everyone in the family adores the home theater, from the grandchildren to the adults, and they use it much more than anticipated.

“The grandkids use it by themselves for a couple of hours at a time watching Disney stuff,” the homeowner says. “And my grown boys love it. They come over and use it all the time.”

After the wife expressed her love for Art Deco, Dahlman coordinated a shopping trip to one of her favorite lighting-fixture stores in Ojai, about 50 miles outside of Los Angeles. There they discovered a delicate Art Deco sconce crafted of blue glass and nickel that instantly became the basis for the private screening room’s design.

“The idea was not to make the theater elaborate or over-the-top, but comfortable, with some fun elements like the silver credenza,” says the designer, adding that the California home is Cape Cod in style. “Everything in the theater is really subtle. We tried to make [it] more of an extension of the home.”

As a result, the theater’s recurring design motif is the polished silver-leaf finish, which covers all of the finely crafted crown molding—from the baseboards to the square pilaster columns and the fan-patterned molding on the stepped ceiling.

“We made the ceiling as high as it could go and gave it a soffit to give it an angular, Deco feel,” Dahlman continues, adding that this treatment not only adds interest to the otherwise minimalist space but also makes the 315-square-foot room appear larger than it is.

The textured wall fabric, in a navy blue and green spiral pattern by Pindler & Pindler, has a slight iridescence to it. Deco-style theater chairs by Fortress, in Prussian blue chenille, and a low-pile navy-slate carpeting add a touch of drama to the streamlined space.

“Although silver can be a cooler color, it’s not cold. The theater is quite warm and comfortable,” says Dahlman, who custom-designed the silver-leafed storage cabinet, which houses various pieces of equipment—including the DirecTV box, and CD and DVD players—while the right and left speakers of the JBL Synthesis sound system are tucked behind the screen per the homeowners. In keeping with the Deco theme, the cabinet doors are recessed and have mitered corners.

Since the theater had space constraints, a retractable screen was not an option. “They were OK with a permanent screen,” the designer says. “The Stewart CineWide screen allows the homeowner to watch movies in true widescreen format like you’d see in a [commercial movie] theater,” says custom installer Patrick Martinez of DSI Entertainment Systems Inc. in Van Nuys, Calif.

“The [projector and screen] package gives a true widescreen image if the movie was shot in 2:35, such as Troy or The Incredibles. Two-thirty-five is much wider—it’s the exact reproduction of what the director intended.

“Runco [innovated] this technology,” Martinez continues, adding that picture took slight precedence over audio.

“Sound was a little secondary, but you can’t go wrong with the JBL Synthesis system.” To maximize the sound, Martinez installed acoustic treatments behind the wall fabric, which DSI approved for acoustic use. The four surround speakers in the back and side walls are fronted with the same fabric.

Even though image trumped audio slightly, the sound is so stellar that the owner has become a concert junkie.

“We’re into DVD concerts. We see more of those than movies,” he says, adding that he and his wife often host concert nights for friends. Some favorite artists include Cher, the BeeGees, Elton John, while the owner’s favorite DVD concert is Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night.

“People buy [concert DVDs] for us, [and] we buy them. When you crank it up, it sounds really good.”