One of the most important things in designing or renovating a home to handle the latest high-tech electronics is to allow room for what comes next – even if you don’t have any idea of what might happen in the next decade.
“When we designed homes 10 years ago, who would have thought that people would have one computer downstairs for mom and dad and two more upstairs for the kids – or that they might want to network them?” says Walter Kilroy, AIA, a Lake Highlands architect.
“That’s why, when people get a chance to add electronics now, I always tell them to leave a conduit in the wall. You never know what you’re going to be putting wires in for next.”
And it’s not as if there aren’t plenty of gadgets, large and small, to take advantage of the wiring that does exist. The emphasis seems to be on more practical, less high-end hardware, with homeowners opting for big-screen TVs instead of video projectors and Star Wars-like plasma screens. And, say architects and designers, homeowners can take advantage of a variety of simple – and even ingenious – ways to install and display them.
“What so many people want to do is to get them out of sight,” says neighborhood resident Randall Hall, whose self-named company designs, builds and remodels homes throughout East Dallas, Lakewood, Lake Highlands, the Park Cities, and Preston Hollow.
“We’re doing more and more built-in entertainment centers, where cabinets are built into the wall and the doors slide in and out.”
Those entertainment centers still seem to be centered in specially designed rooms, but there is as much variety in where to put them as there is in how to display them, Kilroy says. The idea is to integrate the electronics into how people live and the look they want for the room. For example, a more formal slant might find the TV and stereo in the bedroom in an armoire, tastefully hidden until used.
Or, homeowners might opt to show everything off at one end of a room. Hall says a typical setup might include a 40-inch-wide television screen, DVD player and surround-sound speakers. If the homeowner wants to go very high-end using this approach – say, the five-figure plasma screen – the homeowner can set up a screen saver that rotates much like it does on a computer monitor.
“You’d be surprised at how much cool stuff you can do,” Kilroy says.
That includes lighting. It’s possible to not only zone a house from a keypad at the front door, but to turn on specific lights – say, on the way from the front door to the bedroom.
And one thing no one has to worry about is the wiring gumming things up. Consider a false floor, with wires, cables and the like underneath, and the floor resting on wood strips (and adding radiant heat for good measure).
