Star Wars-inspired cinema for sale in Western Australia

There’s a sci-fi surprise hiding inside this house in the Swan Valley.

The owners are big fans of the blockbuster Star Wars movies and have painstakingly converted their home theatre to look like the interior of the Death Star.

The spherical spacecraft became famous in the original 1977 movie and had the ability to destroy planets with its super laser.

Owner Helen Walters said the project was all about sneaking a bit of fun into the otherwise serious Herne Hill house, by Peter Fryer Design.

“Architecture is art. It’s nice to do things like that – why not?” she says. “We’re big believers in doing something different.”

However, it also carries a more meaningful message, representing the story of Star Wars character Luke Skywalker​ – an “authentic hero” who overcame adversity against great odds – and how his on-screen adventures relate to everyday life.

“He could have easily said it was too hard, he could have run away and taken an easy way out and not have to confront what he confronted,” Mrs Walters says.

The couple had always talked about a Star Wars-themed home theatre but had been restricted by space at their previous home in urban Subiaco.

There’s no such issue at the luxury property in semi-rural Herne Hill, on 2.2 hectares of land 25 minutes north-east of Perth that includes a workshop, stables and dressage arena.

There is 529 square metres of living space that includes four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a pool under the main roof.

“When we got this block, we thought ‘this was our chance to fulfil the dream we had’,” Mrs Walters says.

When it came to designing the home theatre interior, it came down to simply watching the movie, hitting pause and analysing the detail in each frame.

“It was literally freezing the movie in the scenes we wanted, working out what the scale was, then drawing it up on a plan and getting it built,” Mrs Walters says.

Husband Heath, a cabinetmaker, spent many weeks sourcing materials and fittings and building the theatre.

“He’s got such good attention to detail,” Mrs Walters says. “Because it was his own project, that made him even more passionate.”

The result, they say, is a replica that could serve as a movie set. Of course, the first movies shown in the completed theatre were the Star Wars series.

The cabling and wiring is almost Hollywood-scale. West Coast Hi-Fi worked on the audiovisual side of the project and the suite of technology includes a 100-inch screen, a Mitsubishi HC8000D projector, Denon DBT-331340 Blu-Ray DVD player and Denon AVR-4520 receiver, with seven-speaker Bowers & Wilkins surround sound.

Putting the property on the market posed a dilemma for the Walterses, who had first planned to take the home theatre with them to a new house. But they have since changed their minds.

“We felt like it’s actually part of the house – it belongs here,” Mrs Walters says.

“Hopefully whoever buys the house will appreciate it. It’s a bit of fun, it’s a work of art and it’s just a really cool thing.”