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PrintOver-the-top Western home theater is the best room in the house
The theater's pièce de résistance? When someone enters the room, a motion detector is activated and the theater lights come up, the fire screen descends, and the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly kicks in.
As chairman and CEO of an 84-year-old family food-distribution business, Byron Russell works hard. Not surprisingly, he plays even harder.
Grossman Photography
The ceiling design is a modified wagon wheel. Peeking through its spokes is Smith's automated dusk-to-dawn sky scene, which rotates from sunrise to sunset and includes shooting stars. The sky's customized color palette complements the deep, rich hues of the theater.
This third-generation Floridian loves his boy toys — from his private jet to his custom-made swamp buggy, which he uses to cruise the waterways of his 25,000-acre Lake Okeechobee hunting preserve.
"Byron really enjoys life," says Jeffrey Smith, owner of First Impressions Theme Theatres and the designer behind what might be Russell's favorite boy toy: his home theater. "He's just a country boy. If you saw his ranch, you'd understand."
If the Lake Okeechobee ranch is country-boy, his other place — a 60-acre spread in the beach community of Jupiter, Florida — is country-boy-wired-to-the-hilt.
Nestled between two world-class golf courses, Russell's main residence boasts a 24,000-square-foot home with more than a dozen flat-screen televisions; a racetrack for exercising his 15 horses; and a resort-size swimming pool with lagoons, statuary, waterfalls, and an elaborate tiki bar that can seat 30 guests.
After three years of meticulous planning and construction, Russell moved into his dream home in 2005. But he saved the best room — the theater — for last.
"It sat empty for a year while I figured it out," Russell says of his 756-square-foot movie house. "I knew I wanted something Clint Eastwood, Robert Mitchum. And I wanted [my mounted game] in there." Another requirement included the addition of three oversize chaises. "My kids invite up to 16 friends for sleepovers and they crash in there," Russell says. "It gives them a place to hang out."
Jeffrey Smith, theater designer: "If you saw this ranch, you'd have no clue you were in Forida."
After touring Smith's 32,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in North Miami, Russell hired him on the spot and asked for a 120-day deadline on the home-theater project. Quickly, Smith searched for inspiration. While flipping through a book in his office, he found it: an 1890s photograph of famed bronco rider Billy Cramer.
"I showed the picture to Byron just as an example of what could be used, and he said, ‘No, I want that for my home,'" Smith recalls.
After locating the image in the Wyoming State Archives, Smith's team obtained the appropriate usage rights and found a way to print the picture onto a sheer drop-down fire screen.
"I wanted something from the old vaudeville stage with a saloon motif," Smith says. The fire screen with the image was the perfect thing: Back in the day, fire screens protected actors from the flickering flames of the stage's candle-powered footlights.
With the central design motif in place, the remaining details followed easily. Knotty-pine woodworking with a gold belt-buckle trim lent a rustic yet sophisticated feel. Patterned carpeting and distressed suede for the chairs and chaises provided durability and comfort. Tufted wall treatments in moss-green leather and stage curtains in merlot velvet (trimmed with gold bullion fringe) added drama. Four of the owner's prized movie posters — he owns several thousand originals — are framed with velvet draperies.
The theater's pièce de résistance? When someone enters the room, a motion detector is activated and the theater lights come up, the fire screen descends, and the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly kicks in.
The seats in Russell's theater. Smith even custom-built a suede dog bed, complete with a "pupcorn" bowl.
"I just love that melody," Russell says, crediting his audiovisual consultant, Don Dixon of Definitive Electronics, with the special effect. "It couldn't have worked out better."
The room has proven to be the perfect place to enjoy entertainment together — the two-hour George Strait tribute was one memorable occasion. In addition to family use, Russell also hosts regular get-togethers for 200 to 500 people in his theater and home. Parties revolve around the Super Bowl, the Triple Crown, NASCAR races, the Country Music Awards, and political fundraisers. The room never fails to impress.
"The quality of the sound equipment is unbelievable," he says. "There's a lot of power in there."
While Russell loves to entertain at his grand estate, he sometimes needs alone time. When he does, he retreats to the soundproof home theater.
"I'm not a big sleeper, so if I've only had a couple hours, I go in there to crash. It's quiet and dark. It's one way to get some peace."
Info
• Audiovisual consultant: Definitive Electronics of Jupiter, Florida, 561.748.3564
• Home theater designer: First Impressions Theme Theatres of North Miami, Florida, 800.305.7545
