Last updated on February 19th, 2022. Movie nights are a staple. Since the days of drive-in theaters and black-and-white film, we’ve gathered with friends, family and potential romantic partners to watch movies. Going to the movie theater to do this is the classic approach, but the abundance of technology and streaming services available in modern times make movie nights at home more and more enjoyable every year. Some people love it so much that they build themselves a home movie theater, popcorn machine and all. That’s great, but what if you live in an apartment? Is it possible to have a home theater in an apartment? The short answer is YES! In this article, we’ll go over a few tips for creating your own apartment home theater, including a few recommendations for the best projector for apartments too.
Jump Ahead
- Projector Advantages
- Projector Model Comparison
- Projector Screens
- Black-Out Curtains
- Speakers & Audio
- Soundproofing
- Space-Saving Chairs & Couches
Home Theater In An Apartment: Essentials & Extras
Odds are, you’re probably not looking to add tiered seating, red carpeting and a popcorn machine to your apartment – although if you manage to do that, you’ve got my respect.
Let’s start by going over a few “necessary” ingredients for creating your own apartment home theater.
Apartment Home Theater Essentials
All you really need to enjoy a movie night in your apartment are:
- A place to sit
- Cable, a movie player or streaming service
- A decent-sized screen to watch the movie on
These are the only three truly necessary ingredients to have a good time.
Apartment Home Theater: Extras For A Truly Cinematic Experience
Now for that we’ve covered the essentials, let’s get into the fun stuff.
As far as setting up a DIY home theater in an apartment i.e. as close to a cinematic experience as possible, you may opt for any (or all) of the following items:
- Projector
- Black-Out Curtains
- Sound System
- Soundproofing
- Comfortable Seating
In this article, we’ll dive into each of these categories with some product recommendations and tips. Scroll below to explore more!
Projector Advantages Over A Flatscreen TV
The vast majority of people reading likely have experience in choosing, buying and watching TVs.
Rather than discuss whether you should buy a TV or projector, let’s talk about a few key projector advantages:
- Adjustable Screen Size: Projectors can be adjusted to display a range of screen sizes – up to 100-in., 200-in. or more in some cases. The huge display size makes projectors great for a home theater in an apartment.
- Portable: Bringing your TV anywhere is a pain. the bigger the screen, the more difficult it is to move. Projectors are small – they can fit in a backpack! You can bring projectors wherever you want with ease.
- Adaptable: Your projector can display movies on a flat sheet rock wall, on a sheet, on a portable screen and essentially any other flat vertical surface – inside or out.
If a projector seems like the right fit for you, let’s now get into the best projector for apartments!
The Best Projector For Apartments: Our Top Picks
Just as apartments come in all shapes and sizes, so do projectors. We’ve decided to select three models as the ‘best projector for an apartment” in each of the following categories:
- Best Overall Projector For Apartments
- Best Luxury Projector For Apartments
- Best Small Projector For Apartments
Below is a table that compares the top features and capabilities of each of our top three picks, along with a brief explanation on why we chose the models that we did.
The Best Projector For Apartments: Comparison Table Of Our Top Picks
If you’d like to know a bit more about each of these projector models and why we chose them, be sure to check out the following sections!
Best Overall Projector For Apartments: Anker Nebula Mars II Pro
In addition to the information above, we’ve chosen the Nebula Mars II Pro by Anker as our top “overall projector for apartments” pick for the following reasons:
- Quality Built-In Speakers: Dual speakers put out high-quality tones and bass, just like the movie theater.
- Built-In Apps: Connect to popular streaming services like Netflix and Hulu directly through the projector, rather than using these apps on your connected device.
- Mobile App Controlled: After installing Anker’s mobile app, your phone become the remote.
- High Definition Picture: Featuring a 720p HD picture and 500 ANSI Lumen brightness, this 4-lb. projector has as good of a picture as many HD TVs.
- Wireless Home Theater: The Nebula Mars II Pro is Bluetooth and Wi-Fi compatible, so you can connect many devices to your projector sans cables if you prefer.
- Automatic Keystoning: Image will automatically adjust to horizontal orientation, even when projector is pointed off-center.
These are a few reasons why the Nebula Mars II Pro by Anker is one of our picks as the best apartment projectors.
Best Luxury Projector For Apartments: XGIMI Horizon
If you’ve got a larger budget and are looking to buy a premium-grade projector for your apartment home theater, check out the Horizon by Xgimi.
In addition to the information above, we’ve chosen the Xgimi Horizon as our “best luxury projector for apartments” for the following reasons:
- Great Value: Given a higher price tag, it’s reasonable to expect more out of your projector. The Horizon delivers. Featuring built-in Harmon-Kardon speakers, a 2,200 ANSI lumens brightness and a 1080p HD LED display, the Horizon puts out a similar quality picture as models double the price. Even if pricier models have better pictures, they probably won’t have any built-in speakers – let alone dual 8W Harmon-Kardon speakers.
- Gigantic Size Range: The Horizon has a display size range of 30 – 300-in. In comparison, the Horizon picture can span from the size of a TV on your bedroom dresser to the size of a legitimate cinema screen.
- Power-To-Weight Ratio: After considering the quality or picture, premium built-in speakers and size range, it’s pretty remarkable that this projector only weighs 6.4 pounds!
- Compatible With The Latest Technology: The Horizon can support 4k devices as well as media with 3D capabilities.
- Automatic Keystoning: Image will automatically adjust to horizontal orientation, even when projector is pointed off-center.
- Warranty: This projector comes with a 12-month warranty and a 30-day money back guarantee.
These are just a few reasons why the Xgimi Horizon is one of our picks as the apartment projector.
Best Small Projector For Apartments: KODAK Luma 150 Ultra
In addition to the information above, we’ve chosen the KODAK Luma 150 Ultra as our top “small projector for apartment” pick for the following reasons:
- Extremely Portable: Smaller than a slice of bread and less than 0.5 pounds, this projector can be brought anywhere easily, not just the living room.
- LED Brilliance: This mini projector puts out a super high-quality, bright picture with over 16 million displayed colors thanks to its’ LED lamp.
- Long Battery Life: For a projector of this size, it’s pretty impressive to be able to watch one full movie on a single battery charge.
- Long Lifecycle: This projector lasts for 3,000 hours of LED lamp life. If you watch a 90 minute movie every day, this projector will last for several years.
- Versatile: The M4 can be used with so many devices, despite its’ small size. This includes smartphones, laptops, TV “sticks” and gaming systems.
These are a few reasons why the KODAK Luma 150 Ultra is one of our picks as the best apartment projector.
Projector Screens
The great thing about projectors is that they can be used in many places – especially when considering their adjustable display size.
A blank wall often serves fine for a backdrop while using a projector, especially when it’s flat and unobstructed.
That said, you may wish to opt for using a projector screen in your apartment home theater for a variety of reasons. If so, here are a couple of options that can be put up, taken down and moved easily:
Black-Out Curtains
When watching movies at night, curtains or blinds aren’t all that important. When it’s time for binge-watching movies all afternoon though, you’re probably going to want a nice, dark room to watch them in.
As you likely know, a home theater doesn’t usually have windows. To create a proper home theater in an apartments, you’re best off getting some blackout curtains.
Even at night, blackout curtains keep all types of light from coming through the window for an ideal viewing experience. This is especially true in a high rise apartment in a densely populated area with lots of ambient light.
As an alternative, you may wish to look into blackout shades depending on the type of window you have.
Speakers & Audio
Before we discuss audio solutions for a home theater in an apartment, I want to re-emphasize that all three projector models we recommended above feature built-in speakers. That said…
Watch any action or thrill scene in a movie theater and I’m willing to bet that the volume and bass levels will be “turned up to 11”.
While the audio in the theater can be almost too much, it certainly adds something to the experience. A high-quality sound bar gives the same effect at home while actually being able to control the audio settings.
As far as a home theater in an apartment is concerned, a wireless, bluetooth sound bar can easily be moved around to suit your liking.
Surround Sound
A home theater in an apartment like probably not exist within a room specifically dedicated to that purpose. In kind, an apartment home theater will likely be establish in a living room or bedroom. How can we have surround sound in our apartment home theater then?
Good news. In modern times, small speakers put out big sound. All you need are two small bluetooth speakers placed around your living room to your liking. These types of speakers can be connected to specific devices like a laptop, or they can connect via Wi-Fi and be controlled via mobile app.
Subwoofer
As we mentioned above, soundbars are capable of putting out a pretty power bass tone.
What if you’re looking to maximize the bass quality of movies and shows in your apartment home theater? Well, a bluetooth subwoofer may be just the solution you’re looking for.
Bluetooth speakers – including subwoofers – can be moved and adjusted as needed. For instance, you may want to place the subwoofer behind you and other viewers for a suspenseful or scary movie. For watching a live concert, you may want it facing you front and center. A bluetooth subwoofer makes this possible!
While we can all appreciate the deep bass tones that a subwoofer provides, our neighbors might not. Since we’re talking about a home theater in an apartment, we should also consider our neighbors in the process.
A couple of simple ways to do reduce noise our neighbors can hear in our apartment home theater – especially in terms of a subwoofer, given that bass sounds travel the furthest – are as follows:
- Speaker Placement: Maintaining a distance from shared walls and orientating speakers so they project sound away from shared walls is an easy way to reduce noise that neighbors can hear.
- Distance From Floor: When a speaker is placed on the floor, it resonates sound through the floor (if you have neighbors below you) much more loudly. It’s a good idea to place soundbars, speakers and subwoofers off the floor by several inches at minimum. Even better, placing a thick carpet or piece of foam under the speaker will reduce the noise transfer that takes place into the floor – even if it’s on top of a TV stand, table, etc.
- Soundproofing Materials: We’ve recommended several in the next section!
Let’s talk about a few specific ways we can soundproof our apartment home theater.
Sound-Proofing
The great part about soundproofing is that it’s pretty straightforward.
First off, the reason why we’d want to soundproof an apartment home theater is to reduce the noise our neighbors can hear. The sound from our theater can only be transferred to our neighbors’ apartments through three main mediums: the walls, the floor and the ceiling.
Here are some ways we can soundproof all of them.
For the floor: floors can be soundproofed in a variety of ways. We can place a thick carpet underneath speakers like subwoofers, or beneath the table or stand on which they sit.
You may wish to place a sound dampening speaker riser beneath larger speakers like subwoofers as well:
Lastly, if you already have an area rug that you want to keep in your apartment home theater, you can place a noise-reducing rug pad underneath it.
For walls and ceilings: Although speaker orientation can reduce the noise your neighbors will hear, some speakers are loud enough to transfer noise through shared walls no matter what.
In this case, you may want to opt for soundproof wall panels. Here are some examples:
Comfortable Space-Saving Chairs & Couches
One of the hallmarks of a typical home theater is comfortable seating. Many home theaters feature several oversized chairs that exist solely for the purpose of watching movies in comfort.
Apartments are a different beast. Although we might not want to, we’ll probably need to convert our apartment home theater back into a standard living room or bedroom for most of the time we’re not watching movies.
While not necessary, we may want to have furniture that can be folded up and put away while our apartment home theater is “in hiding”. Or at the very least, seats that serve more than one function.
A padded floor chair is a chair that can easily be folded, put away and even transported if needed. Their compact size and light weight make having several on-hand possible for guests too. Here’s an example:
On a similar train of thought, you may also opt for a folding portable mattress which can often serve multiple purposes, including a bench, couch, lounger and of course – a mattress. Here’s an example:
Last but not least, for a premium apartment home theater experience, you can always include a massage recliner chair! These speak for themselves, but are obviously not necessary for an enjoyable home theater experience. That’s not to say they aren’t enjoyable though…
The Best Projector For Apartments: In Summary
I hope this article has been helpful and informative! Best of luck on setting up your own apartment home theater.
If you enjoyed reading this article, consider checking out some of our other articles below!
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3 replies on “Best Projector For Apartment [2022] & DIY Home Theater In An Apartment”
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Could you please discuss subwoofers and strategies for not bothering your downstairs neighbors with the bass? Thank you!
Hello David,
Thanks for your comment and so sorry for the delayed response. Had a few things come up over the past several weeks and are catching up with replying to comments and some site updates.
We’ve updated this article today with some more information and recommendations – as requested, we’ve included some sections on subwoofers and how to help soundproof apartments while using them! We hope this helps.
Patrick