Techorate Your Home With Tips From Janna Robinson

STUDIO CITY (CBS) — Does your family room need a seasonal makeover, but you're not sure where to start? Techorating is the latest craze in home design and it doesn't have to cost a fortune. It's about re-defining your space, maximizing what you have and adding what you need.

Janna Robinson, America's foremost lifestyle technology expert, visited the KCAL9 studios Tuesday to show viewers how to give their home a tech makeover.

Techorating is the blending of modern technology with the art of decorating to ensure that a room is functional, stylish & clutter-free. In the same way that flowers or vases once represented decorative focal points of interior design, technology now sits at the heart of a modern interior living space.

• If TV-watching and game-playing is going to be done frequently, than you probably want to go with the biggest screen your room can accommodate. In theory, the farther you are from the screen, the larger size TV you should buy. You can easily determine the optimal screen size by using this simple calculation. Determine how far you wish to sit from the screen, divide that number in half, and that's your ideal screen size. Remember to do this based on the diagonal not the width.
o The reverse also holds true for this theory: if you already have a screen and want to figure out how far away to sit, than double the diagonal length.

• Painting the wall behind your TV a darker color (like a chocolate brown) will not only help with distracting glares, but accent walls are trending and can give the illusion of depth in your space.

• If you have bare walls, floors, hardwood furniture and windows, add an area rug and curtains to help absorb the sound. Conversely, if your room has wall-to-wall carpeting, heavy curtains and lots of furniture, try and add some bookshelves or even hung art will add some reflective surfaces in the room and help break up the sound waves.
o Ideally, you want a mixture of surfaces and materials to ensure the best sound quality.

• In a word, wireless. Whether it's using a soundbar for your living room or a wireless home music system for your whole house, there are some great solutions out there.

For more techorating tips, visit Janna online.