The force is strong with this couple.
Two computer programmers who claim to not be crazy Star Wars fanatics built a home theater modeled after Darth Vader’s destroyer vessel in The Empire Strikes Back.
Kim Howett, 41, and her husband, Jim, 43, said they have loved Star Wars since the first movie came out in 1977. They began designing their home around the Star Wars themed theater in 2006, which was completed last year. And they never seem to get tired of watching a video in the theater — which they call a “subtle reference” to their favorite movie series.
“We still are blown away,” Kim Howett said.
With 12 large black leather recliners nestled in three levels of tiered gray carpeted pockets between gray walls with murals that look like windows looking out to the Death Star and Rebel fighter ships, if Darth Vader wanted to watch a DVD and put his feet up, this is probably where he’d do it.
“People thought we were crazy at first,” Kim Howett said. “But we wanted an acoustically proper room. All the nooks are there for a reason and we wanted to make it look good.”
Knowing that Kim and Jim Howett are avid Star Wars collectors, designer Jamie Pauls came up with the idea of the Darth Vader style room. And the Howetts were swayed by the dark side.
“We wanted to do something Star-Warsy and Vader kicks ass,” Kim Howett said.
Pauls designed the theater and provided the sound system, and worked with Orren Pickell of Designers & Builders in Lake Bluff to construct the 20- by 30-foot room with 14-foot high ceilings, and acoustic paneling that’s built to look like the inside of a space ship, but sound like the audience is on the movie set.
The home entertainment center of the Howetts is modelled after an imperial destroyer vessel. (Tribune\Amy Alderman)
“Well it was awesome — the best request ever,” Pickell said. “We’ve had a lot of great homes over
the years, but this was the best ever.”
Kim Howett recruited a former classmate, Kim Allison of Monticello, to paint the windows looking out to space inside the destroyer theater and two lifelike Imperial guardsman standing outside the theater doors.
Next to the Vader room is a living room and pool table, with posters of a Storm Trooper and Darth Vader overlooking corner pockets.
Most recently, the Howetts hosted Chicago rock singer Cathy Richardson in an intimate house concert for her followers at the Vader room.
Jim Howett, a former bass player for the band Redline, uses the room to record his music. The couple has talked about hosting lectures and more house concerts in the dark side of their home.
But most of the time, they’re in the room where they said they tend to lose track of time, playing Wii, watching DVDs from Seinfeld to flipping channels or hosting football parties.
However, they cannot hide forever from the power of the Dark Side. They watch their favorite characters Hans Solo and Boba Fett in Star Wars-athons with their nephews and friends whenever they can, keeping the force strong within the family.
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