Did you know that at the top of the pandemic, nearly three-quarters of Americans said that they’d rather watch movies at home than in the theater, even when they did have the option of going out?
To get the full cinema experience at home, you’ll need dimmable lights, luxurious seating, and some high-end speakers. But even the best speakers won’t be able to help with sound quality if your room isn’t properly soundproofed.
If you’ve never done it before, soundproofing a room can sound daunting. However, it only takes a few steps to achieve theater-quality sound dampening in your home. Keep reading to learn tips for how to soundproof your room.
Hang Soundproof Material on Your Walls
Smooth, thin walls are the enemy of soundproofing. They allow all the sound vibrations to bounce around the room and create echoes. If your walls have thin insulation, you’ll get noises from outside bouncing around as well.
To combat this, you need to hang soundproof materials on your walls. Professional-grade options include foam, rubber, and cork. If you don’t mind the DIY look, blankets, and tapestries often work just as well as the audio industry options.
Smooth floors, such as hardwood, help sound vibrations just as well as smooth walls. Laying down rugs and carpeting will help dampen noise even further. Getting a good surround system from The Grid would be the best solution since they can come and install it to fit your room perfectly.
Not to mention, they’ll also keep your speakers from sliding around and scratching the floor. Read more about the different kinds of speakers so that you know which kind of flooring will be most effective and safest to use with your speakers.
Check Your Doorframes and Windows
Doorframes, especially doorframes that are internal to your home, likely were not built for soundproofing or insulation. This means that to seal up your room, you’ll need to add weather stripping to the bottom of the door.
You may also want to hang soundproofing material on the door itself, and you can even hang a curtain across the whole doorframe to seal out as much light and sound as possible.
If there are windows in the room you’re soundproofing, sound may also be leaking through the edges of the window frame. A light-blocking and noise-canceling curtain can be helpful in this situation.
Permanent Solutions
All the soundproofing tips shared up to this point have been temporary and relatively easy to install. For truly powerful soundproofing, you’ll need to take some more intensive and permanent approaches.
If you have the time available, tear open the walls and put in new insulation. Be sure to caulk between the edges of the drywall and the flooring. Installing bookshelves and other heavy furniture will also soak up huge amounts of sound in the room.
Soundproofing Made Easy
Now you know everything you need to know about soundproofing a room in your home. Use these tips to soundproof your room, pick up some high-end speakers, and live out your home-cinema dreams!
Looking for more of the latest news on movies, entertainment, and the music industry? Check out the other articles in our Entertainment section!
