High Fidelity

Surround sound, DLP TVs, DVRs – oh my! That’s just a sampling of what goes into today’s entertainment/media centers. As cutting-edge electronics and the pursuit of the perfect home theater experience take a more prominent role in homes, there’s a growing opportunity for kitchen/bath dealers and designers to turn them into profit centers for their firms.

Entertainment/media centers, as well as multi-media rooms and home theaters, are increasingly becoming part of the kitchen/Great Room experience, part of the master suite experience, or rooms all unto themselves. In fact, the greater availability of audio/video options, coupled with a decline in their prices, has translated into a surge in popularity for customized entertainment/media centers.

Products making up these rooms cut a wide swath, ranging from the high-tech in the form of flat-screen or panel TVs, DVRs and/or VCRs, game stations, multi-CD/DVD players/recorders and other stereo equipment, and surround sound systems, to storage in the form of custom cabinetry. Custom entertainment/media centers are also being paired with undercounter refrigeration, wine coolers, built-in microwaves, secondary dishwashers, wet, juice and/or coffee bars, and more.

Sound Value
Because of all of the different products out there that can be combined into everything from a “simple,” customized entertainment/media center to a dedicated home theater, there are a growing number of dealers and designers moving into this new niche – to varying degrees.

While Kleppinger Design Group, Inc. in Fairfax, VA is currently not doing a lot of entertainment/media centers, “of the few we do, I believe the interest is generated by those who want the design flexibility that cabinetry offers,” says Andrew Gay, designer with the firm. He adds: “For the ones we draw up, the price can be a deterrent.”

But, according to many other dealers/designers, that can be turned into a positive. For instance, they say fellow dealers/designers shouldn’t be afraid to broach the subject with clients, and quell their possible objections to price by selling the quality, flexibility and detail that can be obtained through investing in a custom entertainment center created by a designer.

“I don’t think it’s that hard if the client sees the value,” believes Gay. “Like the kitchen, you get what you pay for. If there’s a specific look or component they want… then clients already sold themselves on a custom built-in.”

“Because of those feelings, we’re able to capitalize on the possibility of a media center sale by indicating that we have the skills... to build these [customized] furniture pieces,” says Susan Knight, president of Korts & Knight Kitchens in San Francisco, CA.

Peter Ross Salerno, CMKBD, says that at his own firm – Peter Salerno, Inc. in Wyckoff, NJ – when he sits down with clients, he goes over the entire floorplan of the home, and asks what they are planning for each room. That invariably turns the conversation toward pointing out that, yes, his firm does custom cabinet work in other rooms of the home.

For him, designing these centers is what helped his firm through the recession of the early 1990s. “It soon made up about 10% of our business, which is pretty substantial,” he recalls. “Some of these can cost as much as a kitchen, or at least half of a kitchen. Say you do one a month at $20,000, times 12, that’s $250,000 of business!”

Kennedy Hahn, which has showrooms in Appleton, Fitchburg/Madison, Milwaukee and Waunakee, WI, employs a similar approach. “I encourage our sales team to constantly ask about rooms outside the kitchen. The key question is: Where do you entertain? It’s simple, but there are plenty of different answers. [For instance], in addition to a noticeable rise in game/media room projects, outdoor entertaining is also gaining traction,” explains Ross Blount, the firm’s director of corporate and builder sales.