For design guru Theo Kalomirakis,
the magic of home theater is in the presentation
By Steve Castle

When award-winning home theater designer Theo Kalomirakis discusses his craft, he exudes a certain passion. It comes partly from his keen eye for design, partly from his tireless attention to detail and partly from his respect for history. But largely, it comes from the fact that he simply adores movies. He’s a lifelong student of them.

Kalomirakis is a former filmmaker who earned a scholarship to study the craft at New York University in the 1970s. Now he is renowned for his home theater designs that are reminiscent of the grand theater palaces of yesteryear. His home theaters - from those with elaborate traditional trimmings to those that are strikingly contemporary - evoke the feeling that the theater is a place where something special will happen.

When Kalomirakis built his own home theater in the late 1980s, his creation, called the Roxy, quickly gained public attention. It also captured the interest of others who wanted to enjoy the benefits of a movie theater in their home.

Many advances in home entertainment have occurred since, but Kalomirakis has remained a step or two ahead of his contemporaries. He has taken to designing not just lavish home theaters with lobbies, but entire themed entertainment wings. In addition to his custom work done through his Manhattan-based company, Theo Kalomirakis Theaters, he has designed a Signature line of modular high-end theaters available through CinemaTech Seating, a premium home theater chair manufacturer.

Home entertainment writer Steven Castle recently enjoyed a conversation about home theater with Kalomirakis, starting with the new theater the designer is building for himself in his new Brooklyn, N.Y., residence. This is the first installment of an ongoing conversation with Kalomirakis that will cover home theater design, planning, acoustics, integration and more...

SC: How’s the new theater coming?

TK: I haven’t designed a theater for myself since 1986. It took me two years to finish my first theater, the Roxy, because I didn't know what I was doing. But one area I succeeded in was the extra thing that (home theaters) are frequently missing today: I worked on the overall presentation.

I had a 5-inch monitor on the equipment rack that allowed me to cue the movie and pause it at the opening credits, so the curtain would open, the lights would dim and the picture would slowly fade in. This simple little thing got more applause than the movie itself. The people who saw it felt it was professional.

They don't make it so you can fade in the opening of a movie anymore. The loss of that feels like a slight degradation. So, in this new theater I'm going to try a new PC-based controller, with the promise that I can do a lot of tricky things simply. I am like a lot of my clients. I don’t want to have to touch a lot of buttons.

SC: Ease of use is important. We tend to get caught up in the technologies, but having something simple to operate enhances the overall experience of a home theater. It makes it more seamless and natural.

TK: Three components make a theater successful: the architecture and design together, the technology and the presentation. A great theater is how you bring those three together in a way that is very pleasing to people.

The biggest loss in movie theaters now is the slide show for advertising before the movie. It takes a lot of mystery away from watching the movie. The curtain is a barrier between reality and fantasy, so opening it before the movie makes the reality less real and the fantasy less appealing.

SC: In the past when that curtain opened, it was a very special moment.

TK: Yes, it announced that there is a beginning and that you were about to enter a new world. Otherwise, the movie is like a book without a cover.

SC: The interior of a theater itself can also create an air of excitement.

TK: The biggest accomplishment in building a theater is to get people excited the moment they walk in the door. The bigger the surprise, the better. That's the easy part. What is not easy to control is the presentation.

For example, a bunch of movies from the 1950s and '60s had overtures (music that played before the curtain opened): Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus and Cleopatra, to name a few. In my theater, the lights dimmed in the main theater, but I wouldn't put the curtain lights on the same circuit. They were always on the second circuit, to bring them down separately. It wasn't until the overture played that the curtain opened, and then the curtain lights went down.

Nothing can surpass that in a house. That's when you knew something special was going to happen.

SC: People are finding other uses for home theaters, besides watching movies.

TK: Absolutely, especially for events that have special interests such as the Super Bowl, the Oscars, and the Emmys. One of the most popular nights of the year for a home theater is when people want to watch the Oscars. It’s an event, and the fact that you're in an audience makes it a lot more exciting.

Of course, a home theater can also be used to host special presentations such as small recitals and small concerts. Some people may want a bigger stage to do those things, even a wing door to enter the stage from the side. Sometimes we'll put some lighting behind the stage. A Tuscany-style theater we did had a whole battery of stage lights.

SC: There are other reasons for having a stage in a home theater.

TK: A stage is really a natural in a home theater. If a room is 24 feet from front to back, the front-row seats will be about 12 feet from the stage, so what do you do between the screen and the front row? If you don't thrust the stage into that space, the front row would seem disconnected.

SC: People are also using home theater spaces for multiple purposes, such as game rooms with pool tables and bars.

In that case, I draw a (figurative) line to what is happening from the last row on. Some people want to play pool and watch a movie. And there are ways to create an atmosphere for them and for the people sitting and watching a movie

Some people want to have a bar behind the last row of seats, and have stools so they can sit there and watch the movie and commandeer a touch screen from there as well.

SC: You've stated in the past the design of a home theater should remain true to the rest of the home.

TK: That's a very personal thing. I don't take sides any more; but personally, I would want a theater to remain within the style of my home. Others want the theater to be a surprise and for the escape to be complete when they step into it.

SC: Some interior designers have said they love designing theaters because they can "go nuts" and make it very whimsical or ostentatious and completely different from the rest of the house.

TK: I think you can still be within the style of the home and "go nuts", perhaps be more ornate, but all the while within the theme of your home. My point is that you don't have to be loud to make an impression. You can show off without being loud.

Back to Top