What could be more titillating than a garage space that displays your red-hot sports car and your priceless racing and movie memorabilia? And it’s equipped to play your favorite adrenaline-pumping music or action flick at a moment’s notice? “It’s the ultimate hangout room,” says custom installer Bill Anderson of Genesis Audio & Video in Irvine, Calif. “We matched the look and performance of the room to that of the Porsche. That’s really important with speakers and projectors. It’s high performance but not too esoteric.”

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All of the theater’s memorabilia was donated by Goldstein’s husband-and-wife client, both of whom are former racers. “[His wife] didn’t know he donated everything,” Goldstein says. “So she saw it for the first time when she toured the home.” The garage door mural, by Eloise Lunde, is of a European street scene. Lunde also converted the walls into stainless steel panels with Venetian plaster and silver metallic paint. The top of the concrete bar is designed to resemble a road surface. The theater won the Best Special Project award at CEDIA last year. (Click image to enlarge)

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The room Anderson is gloating about is the car salon/ home theater he dreamt up with interior designer Joyce Goldstein for the 2005 Philharmonic Society of Orange County House of Design. “I had actually said ‘no’ to doing a house that year because the house didn’t have a designated space for A/V, but Joyce said she had an idea for a theater in the garage, as strange as it sounds,” he says. Not only would that room generate a huge “wow” factor as the grand finale of the home tour, but it would lure a male audience—an untapped source of revenue, Goldstein cajoled. “It was such a unique idea. I was in,” Anderson says.

Inspired by a client’s car museum, Goldstein fashioned her design for the ultimate car collector’s dream garage around real memorabilia—from a 1962 Porsche Carrera 2 Rally Car valued at more than $280,000 to some vintage movie posters and a 1938 Indian motorcycle. “My client, who is very philanthropic, loaned it all to us,” Goldstein says.

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Genesis customized the touchpanel to reflect the flooring’s diamond pattern. Systems designer Scott Smith, who works on racecars as a hobby, used Photoshop to create the garage grate floor look. (Click image to enlarge)

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Despite having amazing memorabilia to showcase in the Euro-tech racing-themed room, the project had some serious problems. “We had to look at where the car would enter and exit the room, and then look at the spatial planning for an easy flow so you could circulate around the car, near the bar area and into the theater,” Anderson says of the nearly 900-square-foot space. “We positioned the theater where the sun would not interfere if the garage doors were open, and where you can see it from all three sides.” After determining the best place to position the theater, Goldstein added racing flags, license plates, trophies and awards, and a vintage Mobil gas pump to the space. Porsche wheel rims were integrated into the custom-designed leather-covered bar stools, and real racecar seats from Dynamic Autosports became the theater chairs. A reclaimed chrome and powder-coated floor jack morphed into the base of the theater’s glass-top coffee table, and the custom cabinetry and workstation area took on the aura of real garage cabinetry—walled with galvanized steel in a diamond tread pattern from Gladiator GarageWorks. The silver, red, and black hues of the bona fide snap-and-lock RaceDeck flooring mirror the colors in the theater’s custom rug.

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The funds raised from last year’s design house help provide music education programs to more than 200,000 children in Orange County—from free concerts to in-school lectures about instruments and visits by the Philharmonic Society’s mobile music van. (Click image to enlarge)

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The rug’s diamond pattern not only matches the pattern of the Venetian walls, but also the hand-beveled acoustic ceiling panels painted by theater designer Trayce Blake of Cinema Di Cuore to lend a 3-D effect. Cinema Di Cuore, an acoustic materials and theater design company in Glendora, Calif., also specified the black material for the curtains—a 100-percent polyester blend called Vogue that blocks out light more effectively than velvet and is less reflective.

“Because of the open layout, we treated the majority of the walls with absorptive sound panels,” says Blake, a former commercial theater mural artist who spent 10 hours hand-carving the multilayered 1- and 2-inch-thick absorptive panels. The ceiling panels’ mural, which extends from the theater area to the garage door, visually ties the spaces together. “It was a difficult room because of how it was laid out, but it sounds fantastic,” Blake says. “The materials and the components made a significant difference.”

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“The garage doesn’t house the car anymore. It’s become the ultimate hangout room— the place to entertain, share collections, and experience the passions of its owners.” (Click image to enlarge)
—Joyce Goldstein, interior designer

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The components Anderson selected for this unique room are the frosting on the cake. “We got lucky,” Anderson says. “Runco has projectors with black and gray enclosures. They blend perfectly.” The speakers he chose—a Revel Voice center channel, a pair of 1,000-watt Revel Sub 30 subwoofers, and Revel Studio tower speakers in a black matte finish with silver panels—not only work well within the constrained space, but their modern, industrial look screams for attention. Thus, they are proudly displayed right out in the open. “They are very accurate,” he says. The rear-channel speakers, tucked into the soffit and covered with acoustic fabric, enhance the surround-sound experience. “Every detail tied in with the look of the garage,” he says. Even the acrylic door of the Middle Atlantic equipment rack was customized with hand-cut 8- and 10-inch openings so the LED lights of the DVD player and the mounted Crestron touchpanel would shine through.

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“Current California trends in home theater include upscale garages such as this, and outdoor and rooftop theaters.”
—Bill Anderson, custom installer (shown right with installer Brent Esry)

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Even though this design home was dismantled after raising about $200,000 for the Philharmonic’s youth music education program, Goldstein believes rooms like this are becoming a trend. “A garage is an extension of the home, and especially with growing families—those buying beachfront property where space is a premium—the garage is becoming the room that your home doesn’t have. It’s the music room, the game room, the home theater. This kind of room is happening here all the time. And it had such a ‘wow’ factor because no one had ever seen a room like this before. It set a precedent for next year ... It was the hit.”

For more information, call 949.553.2422 or visit philharmonicsociety.org. Or contact the Orange County ASID at 949.643.1549 or asidocc.org.