Yep it’s getting its own blog post – I love it that much. Fact.

Ok, so firstly, for transparency, our projector was gifted to us by AO.com but I am under no obligation to write this post and the review below is my own.

So lets start at the beginning. The living room was one of the first rooms we decorated. We wanted to create a space where we could entertain friends and family but also somewhere we could watch TV in comfort (because, lets be honest, we all pretend it isn’t but the TV is important!) We wanted it to be warm and inviting with a subtle lux feel. Dark walls, velvet cushions and touches of metallic gold set the scene visually but the furniture layout was always problematic. We tried every layout imaginable but due to the room being long and narrow it was always compromised.

The ideal layout for TV watching was, well obviously, the TV on the wall opposite the sofa. However this put the TV as the rooms focal point which I wasn’t keen on and as our room isn’t very wide, there was no ideal location for our two armchairs (floorplan below) as a result the room felt really small and not overly social when we had friends over.

After a year of feeling unhappy with the layout we relocated the TV to the side wall. (floorplan below.) This layout made the room feel much more spacious and it was lovely for entertaining but watching TV was just not comfortable. Talk about neck ache!! The TV was just too close. We did consider a wall mounted TV on a bracket so we could angle the TV more but due to the door location it would still have been too close to the sofa. As a result we stopped using the room and spent our evenings in the snug downstairs. It just felt like a complete waste of a room.

Fast forward to November 2019 and I was determined to sort the room. A little idea began to form … we needed a projector. It would be perfect for film nights (hello Christmas films on the big screen!) and allow us to position our armchairs opposite our sofa, creating a lovely social furniture layout which maximised the feeling of space in the room. Oh, the best bit, when not in use the screen could be rolled up so no ugly TV focal point. Halleluiah. No seriously – Halleluiah! – finally we could have a room without a big black box taking centre stage!

Initially we planned for the projector to sit above our bookcases (ceiling mounted) as it would be nice and discreet and the cables could run neatly down behind the bookcase - perfect. However, when we calculated the throw of the projector in this location we realised it would require a 100inch screen on the wall opposite. 100inches. That is over 2.5meters! Can you imagine?! For a brief second we did … the husband pictured Match of the Day and I, Tom Hardy … we nearly said f*^k it, lets go large but thankfully our sensible sides took charge and, after measuring it out on the wall, we both confirmed it felt way too big for our room.

We purchased a 77inch screen, which is approx. 1.8m wide. Still massive but a much better scale for our room. I selected a ceiling mounted screen as I felt this would be more discreet when not in use, it also allowed for us to keep all our artwork on the wall as the screen rolls down in front. Its nice and neat. The screen is linked here.

In terms of the projector itself, linked here, we couldn’t be happier. The picture quality is insane – its full HD and 3D (we haven’t tried the 3D yet!) - sharp image and perfect colours. I assumed the room would need to be completely dark for viewing but this hasn’t been the case at all! I realise we haven’t had full sunshine in the room yet but, so far, the picture has been perfect in daylight and in the evening with all the lights on. Really impressed. There are also easy to use settings for adjusting the picture to ensure it sits perfectly on the screen. The projector has a speaker which is ok but we’ve hooked ours up to an existing Bluetooth speaker which gives amazing sound, I would recommend doing this. I bought a Bluetooth transmitter, linked here, which plugs neatly into the back of the projector and eliminates needed an additional cable. In terms of operating noise, I think this is hard to avoid as all projectors have some level of noise, I personally think its part of the charm, I did notice it to start, but not anymore. Overall it has been even better than I imagined and I’m so grateful to the team at AO.com.

On the subject of AO.com, I cannot recommend this company enough. We have previously purchased a lot of our home appliances from them and have always had good experiences (excellent customer service, large range of products, low prices and quick delivery) so it was a pleasure to collaborate with them.

We finally have a room that functions for multiple uses and yet remains beautiful. It has gone from being used occasionally to nearly every day and that makes me very happy.

A perfect night in ...