I'm amazed sometimes how people seem to think that having a room dedicated to home theater is such a difficult journey. I don't mean that in a bad way. Just that as Owl suggests, doing a little research and preparation makes it a bit easier and affordable. When searching for my home, I made sure that my agent only sent me lisings with a room that was at least 25x12. I found one with a rec room that was 30x12 with brand new dark evergreen carpeting (my favorite color). I contacted a man through a friend I work with who did home theater and sound system installations who suggested exactly what Owl did, curtains. We installed rods in the front and sides of the room (this was after painting the entire room flat black) and then put up valences on the three sides to hide them and covered them with a wallpaper border that had a nice art deco theater look. The curtains were custom cut from a nice heavy black material with a small tasteful pattern and then hung on the rods on each side. In front, a length of curtain was hung on each side and pushed to leave an opening for my Toshiba 65HX81. A small piece of curtain was hung behind the RPTV to cover the wall between the two front pieces of curtain. A five shelf rack from Home Depot went to the left of the TV to hold equipment (that curtain was then split from bottom to the top of the rack to allow access to the equipment)I had sashes made to tie the sides open when needed).Since you don't see the rack, I saved money there. I set up my NHT VT-1 speaker system in the typical 7.1 set-up (I recently added two SB-1 speakers as side surrounds) and placed the sub to the right of the TV. And it sounds awesome. The curtain add just the right dampening effect to the room. I lucked out and got two movie marquees from a local Blockbuster (I just walked in an asked it they ever sold their old ones) while they just happened to be switching to window decals. I was told they couldn't sell them but I could pick them up once they were being thrown away. I gave them my phone number, they called a week later and I got them for free(they run about $650.00 a piece) and hung them on the back wall of the room. Bought a love seat, two recliners and a sofa to match the carpet at a going out of business sale, built and carpeted a riser for the love seat, added rope lighting around the riser, covered the ceiling with those glow in the dark stars you can get at Spencers and I was in business.And it all cost under $5000.00! The curtains were the most expensive item but it does show you that with a little bit of planning, research and luck, you can get it done and enjoy.