When homeowners Richard and Maureen Coleman asked interior designer Char McNamara to mastermind an extensive expansion for their home in Asheville, N.C., they didn’t allow her to put pencil to paper.  They wanted her to present her ideas right on the spot.

“I said theater,” says the Waynesville, N.C.–based designer, who orchestrated the home’s original interiors, as well as those of the Colemans’ Utah vacation home. “Not gang seating, not the typical home theater, but one that would look like part of the house.”

---

The open, flowing design of the three-tiered media area allows for easy entertaining. The English pub bar, an import, lends a touch of antiquity to the casually elegant space. Rich leathers, chenille and herringbone fabrics dress up the  informal arrangement of the sofas and tilting theater chairs. (Click image to enlarge)

---

With the Colemans’ enthusiastic response of “Great, do it,” the road was paved for another mutually successful design adventure. Of course, knowing the Colemans’ design tastes and preferences helped in achieving just the right space—which was especially important since watching movies is one of the family’s favorite activities. Of course, the family must be able to tune in to several football games simultaneously while keeping an eye on the stock market.“My wife and I love movies,” Richard says. “We buy [DVDs] and keep them in two 300-disc storage sets.”

When the 1,800-square-foot addition was complete after eight months, the Coleman family had a brand-new second floor, two new garages, a self-contained mother-in-law suite, a new master bedroom and an 800-square-foot theater on the lower level. Designed in wedding-cake fashion, the theater has three tiers:  The first and second tiers hold the cushy, deep-red leather and pale-olive silk chenille Thayer Coggin sofas. The chair cushions and throw pillows, upholstered in green nubby silk chenille, lend a soft contrast to the masculine leathers and heavy mahogany cabinetry.  An oversized ottoman wrapped in the same rich leather accompanies each sofa. “You can lie down on them,” McNamara says. “Most people collapse in them for hours at a time.” Other seating includes tilting club chairs wrapped in a sporty herringbone silk-wool blend, also by Thayer Coggin. Maitland Smith’s sconces —torchères reminiscent of 1920s and 1930s theaters—introduce a touch of nostalgia. Sage green carpeting in a diamond pattern creates a neutral foundation for the mixed textures and colors.
 
A wall section upholstered in a Ralph Lauren paisley print, which makes an encore on a chaise, adds acoustical integrity. Remote-controlled draperies also sport the Ralph Lauren paisley print and are lined and interfaced to alleviate sound distortion and to keep even the finest thread of light from entering the room.On the top tier of the theater is the pièce de résistance: an old-world English pub bar in dark oak, exquisitely hand-carved and highlighted with a ceiling of stained glass. For safe transport from the London area to North Carolina, the bar was dismantled and each piece meticulously numbered and perfectly re-assembled, just as stained-glass panels are reassembled in cathedral restoration. Re-engineered with modern amenities, the bar now houses an ice maker, several wine coolers and a refrigerator. A nearby game table and chairs by Ralph Lauren enhance the multifunctionality of the exceptionally comfortable space.

A massive wall of cabinetry draws all eyes to the front of the room; the custom piece houses four Sony 27-inch TVs, two Pioneer 64-inch screens and a 100-inch Stewart Filmscreen that recesses into the ceiling. When the screen is retracted, the shelves of leather-bound “books,” which cleverly house DVDs and CDs, are exposed. The front speakers are contained in the cabinetry above the screen displays. Surround speakers are tucked within ceiling soffits. Special fiber-optic lighting lining the perimeter of the soffits alternates from red to blue, purple or green for an added atmospheric touch.
 
Richard, an engineer by profession and builder by avocation (he built the home and the addition), was so intrinsically invol-ved with selecting the audio and video components that he even attended out-of-state electronics shows, including the an-nual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But when it came to designing the audiovisual system, he chose Innovative Systems Inc., based in Indian Trail, N.C., as the firm of record. Creating an audiovisual system comprising surround sound and multiple visual elements was of the utmost importance.“As we started building the system, we started realizing what Richard really wanted,” recalls Jeff Gray, formerly with Innovative Systems Inc. and now one of two owners of  The Big Picture, a custom installation company in Charlotte, N.C. “He wanted to watch seven independent programs at one time.”

To satisfy this desire, Innovative Systems fashioned the viewing module with a Stewart screen and Sharpvision LCD projector. Accompanying the setup are two Pioneer rear-projection TVs with 64-inch screens, all high definition, and four 27-inch Sony TVs, which are now being upgraded.

Although the stellar system was designed to display high-definition TV, the area’s sole satellite company went out of business as the project neared completion. “So we ended up with DirecTV,” Gray explains, adding that the system was primarily designed to accommodate DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket, which broadcasts every NFL game played during the season.

“When the system was installed in 1999, it was state of the art,” Richard says. “I had the idea of what I wanted and I knew all the hardware. I just didn’t know what was available in the unseen part. We were looking for equipment that could generate enough expansion capabilities to handle seven sets. We had to improvise a little.”What an understatement. Without an automated control system available in the consumer marketplace at the time to handle the monumental array of video sources and display devices, Gray had to do some creative improvisation when Maureen insisted on having a single touchscreen for ease of operation. He picked the Phast 6-inch Viewpoint touchscreen—the most technologically advanced product available at that time—and he increased the Phast control system speed, which originally was painstakingly slow.
 
“I wasn’t going to go to my grave technologically illiterate,” Maureen explains. “Now I can put on a movie, play music, I can work the satellite. When they designed the system, they made sure that I felt very good [about it].”

Now when the Colemans entertain in the space with cocktails, dinner and a movie, they do so with complete confidence, thanks to the user-friendly system. It’s no wonder that, with the exception of attending the annual Sundance Film Festival in Utah, the Colemans haven’t left their home to see a movie in five years.