Specialty rooms that offer the cinematic experience with audio and sonic escapes from real life are on the rise.
With Time Out giving The Stella, Rathmines, the silver gong in its 100 greatest cinemas in the world right now, here's how cinephiles can enjoy Hollywood in the comfort of their homes.
Forget simple soundbars, high-end homes are installing dedicated spaces in which to escape everyday life, where the family can gather to roar on the Irish team tonight, cheer on Jessie Buckley at the Oscars, binge the latest Netflix series or compare Spotify playlists, in pixel-perfect places with lush soundscapes.
You could take your lead from luxe label Louis Vuitton's recent Autumn Winter 2026 menswear show at Paris Fashion Week, designed by the brand's men's creative director Pharrell Williams, which showcased a listening suite that goes well beyond showing off a couple of record sleeves.
The centrepiece of the runway was a prefabricated timber bachelor pad, Drophaus, designed with Japanese architecture studio Not a Hotel, whose listening suite featured a large green daybed and Louis Vuitton-branded vinyl.
Closer to home, O’Donnell O’Neill, the architecture practice led by Graham O’Donnell, Ann-Marie O’Neill, Marie Smyckova, Aisling Healy and Gordon Devenney, is the firm behind the look and feel of Dublin 6’s Stella Cinema, which recently came second in Time Out’s top 100 cinemas in the world right now.
Opened in 2017, it was all about amplifying the levels of comfort, O'Neill explains.
The light levels are a visual cue to relax. Instead of harsh spots overhead, it features tablelamps, featuring a softly diffused lighting approach that also flatters, a critical consideration when on a date and you want to look your best.
The well-upholstered leather loungers with footstools have velvet seats and back cushions to create a cocooning and tactile effect. The table service for cocktails and snacks is also critical.
Some might think that throwing a projector and some blackout curtains in the guest room is the way to go.
It's not, as Rosanna Davison and Wes Quirke recently demonstrated with her swish set-up, where Chris de Burgh likes to come to watch the game.
While new-build and specialty-built homes want natural light with floor-to-ceiling windows, Ivan Cloney of Cloney Audio explains that, to get an authentic home cinema, a room without windows, such as a basement, is paramount to ensure the picture doesn't wash out.
Light needs to be minimal, he says.
"Cinema screens are low-lumen, {a unit of light}, and to get the right contrast for your black levels, the room has to be dark. If someone wants a large projector and screen in their glass box house, it's not going to work."
Movies come in all different aspect ratios.
If you want a true cinematic full you need a projector, says Ivan. With entry-level projectors starting at €1,000, Ivan says that the size of the room is also imperative, explaining that prices for a high-end projector start from around €3,000 to €4,000, but a really good laser projector, which will deliver a crisper picture, will cost around €5,000 to €6,000.
But Cloney Audio's client base extends to seriously high-net-worth individuals.
A good cinema room, the kind Gail Wall Morris, of Wall Morris Design, created features custom individual seats and specialist joinery by Newtown Woodworks to cleverly conceal the sophisticated AV system.
Dressed in red velvet, with dark oak and bronze finishes, it featured a local smart system, seven speakers with a sub-woofer, a projector and a Control 4 system with a custom cinema screen.
The designer added a new skin to eliminate wet building works, with a cavity helping to dampen sound transference.
The attention to detail, the high spec technology and overall ambiance won the company a Design Award in 2023 in the home cinema category.
By lining the new interior walls with special red velvet with acoustic wallcovering properties, the team created a luxurious and experiential space. features some ten different forms of lighting.
It also offers warm sound with great clarity and deep bass. Ivan estimates it would cost about €32,000 to outfit.
Cloney also fitted out seven very beautifully finished A-rated homes at Shrewsbury Gardens with cinema rooms. Located at the basement level of these four-storey homes, you could expect to pay about €20,000 to replicate the levels of finishes and tech, Ivan estimates.
This sum does not include the design and build of the basement space.
Some cinephiles spend up to seven-figure sums to create the right ambiance.
One spent €1 million on his cinema room back in 2008. It included front speakers that cost €250,000. He's just spent €200,000 on a projector upgrade, Cloney says.
When it comes to the viewing experience, size matters. Variables, like the distance between the projector and screen and how big the room is, need to be considered.
"The further back you go, the wider the screen gets. So for an 80-inch screen, or a two-and-a-half metre widescreen, you're looking at a room that measures 16 metres by 14 metres," he explains.
Whatever the size or the sums of money spent, it is a seriously social space, he concludes.
"I know a lot of people who love watching the big matches on a big screen. They might have some friends over too, and make a day of it."
They might also make it the ultimate date night.
