[R B Customs]

Hi all,

Thought I'd share the progress of our new dedicated cinema room

Background story:

My brother has recently moved into his own place So I'm moving out of my old room which was part bedreeom, part cinema. It was not taking full advantage of my kit though.

with one more room in the house spare, I moved into it, so it's left us with a nicely shaped and sized room for a projector cinema setup.


The hurdles:

First major hurdle is - the parents. My dad loves his films, my mother does too, but neither are that interested in quality, or know what to look for. so When I suggest painting the ceiling black they dsimply freaked out :D

The room needs to double up as storage for books, cd's and dvd's too. aswell as being able to accomodate guests, so a sofa - bed is required.

I need to make it as projector friendly as possible without using black. this has been the biggest challange, but small victories here and there are getting me on my way to an almost ideal setup (as ideal as I will ever get - never gonna get it completly my way). Dont get me wrong - I'd have a velvet coated dungeon if I could but that just aint gonna happen.

Budget:
I've already got the main piece - my IN80 PJ. but the budget is limited for the rest of the AV equipment which is all going to be bought from new. we're looking at the sony DH800 AV amp and sony 350 blu ray. speakers are not decided on yet please read the last paragraph if you can help me out!!!
budget is tight, so don't expect any groundbreaking equipment here.


So here's how it starts -
My room and screen as it was. I was limited for screen size due to my desk, and other things.

Plans for new room:

I'm installing a 90" DIY black widow screen with a mask for 2.35:1. here are the plans for the new room. THe storage on the back wall does not need constant access. we're happy enough with just moving the chair around 90 degrees when not in use.

Paint:
It took us all best part of a full day of arguing over the paint. they refused point blank to have a very dark neutral like dark brown or grey. opting for a purple / violet / pink shade instead. Not a lot I could do but we all likes this particular shade of crown paint and it's darker than my old room was and works okay.

looks a bit loud in the pics but it's a really nice shade in the flesh. I love it!

out with the old, in with the new. it almost completly covered it in one coat to be honest.

I pulled the old screen down for ol' times sake. We're keeping it in there... all will be revealed.

don't bother asking why the door is still white - it's still a sore subject.



That's about all I've got for today. carpets are going down tomorrow and I've got a pile of ikea stuff to build bigger than I'd like.


The ceiling:
This was (yet another) topic of mass debate (carefull) I wanted it the same colour as the walls, Dad wanted it a lighter shade, mam wanted it white. I tried my best to exlplain that it was quite important that the immidiate ceiling above the screen needed to be as dark as possible. I suggested making a velvet canvas to hand up there but no...

painting it a lighter shade of the walls (pink) would be no better than white.
My mother, of all people, came up with a genius, however, 'heath robinson' solution.

"What colour is the back of that screen?" *pointing to the existing screen...

So the plan is this: 2 hooks on the ceiling, pull the screen all the way out and up to the ceiling where it will hook up and stay there - instant black canopy.
It does not cover the whole stretch, and it's not matt black but believe you me - It was a triumph in it;s own right.

It will look something like this - but done properly :D

Not going to miss the old screen - this has to be the best use for it.





This is where I need some help:
Speakers:

We need some speakers, My dad bought a set of 5.1 speakers way back in the day. 'solid TEAM' made by B&W (75watt, unknown ohm) there is one in my house and the others are at work. He is convinced that they were epic at the time, and should stil be so today. I know they will need a new sub as I'm sure the one with the kit is past it's best and also passive iirc.

Is it worth entertaining these speakers? I know nothing about them, and have nothing home cinema wise to compare them to.
so the options are:

-Go with the Solid TEAM speakers, and perhaps buy a new centre and sub.
-Buy a set of KEF 1005 on special from richer S
-Buy 4 wharfdale diamond 9's, a centre and a sub (from Richer S also)
-Buy TANNOY SFX5.1 set
-Buy Eltax 180 floorstanders, concept mini rears, centre and sub
-Buy another ~£250 speaker set


amp is Sony DH800 btw.

here's some pics:

Thanks for looking,
Rick

[Lemon_Sherbert]

Looking good, good luck with the project

[albriscoe]

Hi Rick

shame about the ceiling mate but I suppose the screen back was a bit of a bonus, tell yer mum to look at my room before she starts complaining .

As to speakers, once again very personal, the tannoys are quite good apparently but def don`t get white any as they`ll stand out like a sore thumb, a decent sub is a must for movie watching though.

Get the door done next or so will that as well.

All in all mate quite an achievement cheers Al

[R B Customs]

Originally Posted by albriscoe

Hi Rick

shame about the ceiling mate but I suppose the screen back was a bit of a bonus, tell yer mum to look at my room before she starts complaining .

As to speakers, once again very personal, the tannoys are quite good apparently but def don`t get white any as they`ll stand out like a sore thumb, a decent sub is a must for movie watching though.

Get the door done next or so will that as well.

All in all mate quite an achievement cheers Al

Ha ha, I've already mentioned your room to her, she was not impressed, sorry mate! I'm going at this with so much heart, and she just wants it to look nice (light)

They're absolutly refusing to paint the door any colour but white.It just is not the done thing in this house... I had the job of paitning it today as a matter of fact. I reluctantly painted it. I shed a tear for what could have been a purple door

Going to have to make a black cover or something for it as it's just going to bounce so much light back onto the screen, and also cause a massive distration as it lights up whatever colour is on the screen.

I've just finished hanging the hooks to lift the old screen to the ceiling - it's not pretty but it will work to an extent. Anything is going to be better than white.

Dont worry about the colour of the solid TEAMS, I can paint them whatever colour I want, probably black. I just need to know if it's worth persuing. I'll stick a post up in the speakers section in a moment.



We're just finishing off the coving and skirting today, hopefully have the carpet laid in the next few hours and then I need to double check my drawings for the screen. and get that made up.


cheers,
Rick

[albriscoe]

Ah well

spose mums know best (not)

You will be doing the coving and skirting dark though won`t you, if not they will stand out period

Why not try the team speakers first before deciding to change, you might like `em.

And a nice roller down the door when film watching could be ok I suppose but better painted dark

I bet you can`t wait till you get ya own place

[cram]

Why not have some sort of blackout curtain that you can pull over the door?

[R B Customs]

Originally Posted by albriscoe

Ah well


You will be doing the coving and skirting dark though won`t you, if not they will stand out period

...

I bet you can`t wait till you get ya own place

nnnnnnnnnope, It's as if they're scared to do anything that is different from the rest of the house - white coving, white skirting.

Own place? I'm moving 140 mile away for university on the 19th of september, but I'll deffo not be able to do anything in the halls of residence!~

this is another point of leverage they have "You're moving out, so it wont even matter - you're hardly going to be here' I keep being told

"When I come back from my prison cell like room at uni, I want to come home to some hi-def movies in a nicely set up room, thanks " is the reply. ( I will be home quite a lot)

Originally Posted by cram

Why not have some sort of blackout curtain that you can pull over the door?

THey wont have it. All I can get away with is making a black sheet that will hook in the top and cover the door. No blinds or anything.

I've tried convincong them that painting the damn door the same colour as the walls will not only make the room look bigger, but it will let me sleep at night, and make a significant difference to the image on the screen!

Fighting a loosing battle chaps!


by the way, to the older guys here - you you work half an hour and then have an hours coffee break? It seems to be the norm around here!

can you tell I'm getting frustrated?

[spocksbeard]

If I was you I'd wait till the parents were having a tea break and then sneak away and paint the door, coving and skirting purple anyway

Then again, I'm a bit of a git.

[albriscoe]

Originally Posted by R B Customs

nnnnnnnnnope, It's as if they're scared to do anything that is different from the rest of the house - white coving, white skirting.

Own place? I'm moving 140 mile away for university on the 19th of september, but I'll deffo not be able to do anything in the halls of residence!~

this is another point of leverage they have "You're moving out, so it wont even matter - you're hardly going to be here' I keep being told

"When I come back from my prison cell like room at uni, I want to come home to some hi-def movies in a nicely set up room, thanks " is the reply. ( I will be home quite a lot)


THey wont have it. All I can get away with is making a black sheet that will hook in the top and cover the door. No blinds or anything.

I've tried convincong them that painting the damn door the same colour as the walls will not only make the room look bigger, but it will let me sleep at night, and make a significant difference to the image on the screen!

Fighting a loosing battle chaps!


by the way, to the older guys here - you you work half an hour and then have an hours coffee break? It seems to be the norm around here!

can you tell I'm getting frustrated?

I know what I`d do................

Fit a bloody good lock, they be dying to get in after a day or so when its all done nice n dark

Anyway I thought it was your room (stir)

[R B Customs]

Originally Posted by albriscoe

I know what I`d do................

Fit a bloody good lock, they be dying to get in after a day or so when its all done nice n dark

Anyway I thought it was your room (stir)

It was my old bedroom, I'm in my brothers old room now.



Here are some updates, nothing exciting yet though


Paint ont he walls is now finished so we pulled up the old carpet:

Started to lay the new carpet (if only the room was upside down...):

Projector needs a bit of a dusting. I attach it to my make DIY projector bracket - a circa £10 TV bracket with some added holes and bolts. It allows me to get the projector mounted very securly and as high up as posible.

and there she is:

I feel like I've been living in ikea for the last few days. We have been trying to sort out a front bench for the room. there were hundreds of options, but these draw/cabinets were an absolute steal. Brand new, reduced from £100 to..... £9.99p !

(protective film still on unit)

however... throughout our entire Ikea hunt, day in, day out looking for cabinets we never once even thought about where the radiator is... so it will have to be moved, or just kept there and not use the 2 draws on the right hand unit. (not much of a loss for a tenner really is it?)

so as usualy, hindsight is at play but it's okay for now lol.




The trip to newcastle was not so good. Global hifi is shut down(what happened there??) Lintone are... well, they're just Lintone. so We're left with richer sounds.

The sony amp is discontinued, so after a little though about what we needed, went for the Onkyo 507. Took the tannoy SFX5.1 speaker package ( Dads decission, not a lot I could do but tried hard to get him to go for the Q acoustics.

changed our minds on the blu-ray too. went for the LG BD307 as it has some very redeeming features such as MKV support and youtube etc.

picked up 25 metres of QED micro, a cambridge sublink, 3 mugs, and got a free blu-ray...
Oceans thirteen. I was insulted! what an absolutly horific film that was! and they sell it for £5 in Aldi! but anyway... it was free so we took it!

(protective film still on units)



With the night drawing in there was not much time to get to B&Q for the screen.

I've gone for an 89" screen with a 40mm black velvet boarder. I'm priming it today, then picking up some black widow paint from StevenG later on to finish it.


THe plan was to borrow my mates van to bring it home in one piece... that did not happen so it was down to my very small pickup. with foam to protect the corners and 12 metres of rope we were ready to go!

put it to sleep for the night:

the other parts are to make the masking for 2.35:1

thanks for reading,
Rick.

[alz2605]

Despite the compromises I think the room is coming together nicely. I'm sure it will all turn out well in the end but just not how you envisioned it!

By the way my mum used to add nice pictures and bits of china to my room while I went away to college! Just to warn you!

[R B Customs]

Nearly done, but only working on it between letting other projects dry and so on, so they're finishing it off really.

Here is the progress over the last few days.

After getting the screen home in one piece, it was a bit too big for my workshop so I just did it in the garden.

First job was to prime it. I used a high build automotive type primer, layer by layer.

the problem with MDF is that parts like where stickers were, where tape has been and so on take the surface off, so tha paint jut sinks in. It took best part of a day, even with the heat gun to sort it out ready for painting.

next up is a BIG THANKS to StevenG for giving me his left over black widow paint. It needed a good mix, and thinning down slightly and then it was ready to go.

Very important step - since the paint has been sitting for a while, there were few lumps and pieces of dried paint that had fallen into it. straining the paint ensures a smooth, even 'sized' liquid.

First coat going on.

light was fading and damp was setting in so I stuck the ol' patio heater on to speed things up a little

A few more coats and It's ready to go. Here is a piece of white copy paper resting on to show the difference in colour.

The paint marks so easily. I managed to put two marks ont he top, which I had to re touch back in witht he airbrush, so we drilled the mounting holes downstairs and made two rope handles to carry it.

A batton was nailed to the wall after we determined the height and level of the image thent he screen was rested on top and secured.

The finish came out wuite nice.

I stareted to lay the tape out for the black velvet strips. I forgot just how much of a bugger this still was to stick. it simply does not stick! to cut a long story short....


...
...


...

T' Daaaaa

Now aint that special!

could not resist sticking chaper 9 of the dark knight in for a whirl. it was still daylight outside and the blinds are not up yet but the grey screen is already proving it's worth.

Removed the film from the cabinets

and the long shot.

next job is to dot he blinds (I'll leave that to pops) and make the masking system for the screen (5 minute job, will tot hat when I have time)

thanks for looking

[Kempo84]

Wow, obviously took a little bit of hard work but that room looks ace. Nice one.

[albriscoe]

Very nice

[chienmetallique]

Looking forward to some pics in the dark & with/without masking.

Excellent work

[R B Customs]

Originally Posted by chienmetallique

Looking forward to some pics in the dark & with/without masking.

Excellent work

The masking is complete and works like an absolute charm! less than £10 to boot!


I've taken pics but dont have time to post them tonight. still need to do a 50/50 white/grey too

Masking those pesky black (grey) bars makes such a difference to the image, it's unreal. Parents are away on holiday ( probs after a break from me!) so when they get back I'm 100% sure they will start to see what I've been going on about so much!

oh and the IN80 projector seems to have developed a fault - just my look! The amp has aswell!

[R B Customs]

I know I said I could not post pics tonight, but could not resist.

The masking had to be the following:
-cheap
-easy to use
-adjustable
-versitile

I've had a very busy day today, well all week infact. I've not had time to watch films or work on the cinema, but while I was waiting for some primer to harden on another project I turned my attention to the masking.


I had already prepped the boards. I had them cut last week at B&Q. 2x 203cm x 11 inches (yea I know, metric and imperial but I cant remember the exaxt size in metric, and had to measure in inches for the fabric shop, as they could not work in metric )


I used conatc adheasive to laminate the two sheets of hardboard. which was easier aid than done as the last person to use the contact ahesive ( there is a gallon tin of it) has ended up contact-ashesive-ing the lid to the tin. I had to drill a hole through the lid!


this is how it looked:

So today I rang around the local fabric suppliers, I knew one in particular which is a hop, skip and a jump away was open late on night so I rang them ont he off chance and enquired about velvet. they had one piece about 30cm x 150cm left and that was £17.50 odd I asked if they had any alternative and they said no.

I popped down anyway and after seeing the velvet it turned out to be completly not what I was after and way too small anyway. after a lot of browsing and nearly settling for a sheet of cotton @ £5+/m I stumbled across this:

now I must admit - this is the only time I've seen it looking brown. It's a synthetic 'velvet' and came in at a staggering £3.60 per metre! which I think is very very cheap, even compared to the cotton.

The picture does not show it but this stuff looks BLACK and is completly flat. when it's flatteneed out it reflects no light and just looks like a black hole. It's only the flash off the camera making it look the way it does.


I went about attaching it to the board:

and on with the install:
I've added annotations to the pictures.

[chienmetallique]

R B Customs,

Superb!

How much of that fabric have you got left?

In all of the lights out pictures, there seems to be quite alot of reflection off the back of your old screen.

Whatsay you spray adhesive the fabric to the back of that screen to stop the reflection?

Just an idea.

Keep up the good work
Carl

[R B Customs]

Originally Posted by chienmetallique

R B Customs,

Superb!

How much of that fabric have you got left?


Carl

About..... enough to cover the door



The back of the old screen is semi glossy, I think it looks worse in the photos than it does in reality. closing the iris on the PJ does help. not sure if I can stick anything to the back of it in all honesty

it's far better than the white ceiling though.

just had a look at it in full daylight - it's BLACK very weird fabric indeed.

[GrahamC]

Great job and well done. You have really brought the best out of your cinema given the restrictions that you had to work with. Simple neat and effective

I'm in the middle (by middle I mean the point where you can't see an end ) of renewing my cinema room and had settled on purple myself for the walls and the colour you have used in now on my shopping list, looks great. Anybody got suggestions for an alternate colour for the ceiling/coving/woodwork and radiator. I have taken a few snaps as I have gone along with my build and ill post a thread when I get a bit further.

Once again be proud of yourself mate because I for one think you have got 110% out of your room and gear.

[R B Customs]

Originally Posted by GrahamC

Great job and well done. You have really brought the best out of your cinema given the restrictions that you had to work with. Simple neat and effective

I'm in the middle (by middle I mean the point where you can't see an end ) of renewing my cinema room and had settled on purple myself for the walls and the colour you have used in now on my shopping list, looks great. Anybody got suggestions for an alternate colour for the ceiling/coving/woodwork and radiator. I have taken a few snaps as I have gone along with my build and ill post a thread when I get a bit further.

Once again be proud of yourself mate because I for one think you have got 110% out of your room and gear.

Thanks a lot mate not quite finished with it yet though!

I'm taking 110% out of it at the moment... the amp and projector have developed faults within a day of eachother! ha ha just my luck (on the plus side - may be able to upgrade the amp and the PJ's hours that it's racked up will be a distant memory)

Have a look at Dulux 'Mullbury burst' and crown 'prom night' two very very nice purple paints that the parents deemed 'too dark' (they were not really...)

they were my first choices, but this crown colour we went with was a very good compromise!

[museumsteve]

Great job mate but I just know I'll be complaining about the bars next time I put my PJ on and will be looking at masking options now damn you