[-Spike-]

Hi,

My dedicated HC room is almost finished but I need advice on paint colours.

The room is 16' by 8', not ideal I know and will accomodate my HT300 pj.

Basically I'm looking at painting the ceiling and walls all one single colour as the room is quite narrow, and I feel that this would probably look better.

I'm really drawn towards a dark red but so far all paint testers haven't looked quite right.

Anyone got any manufacturers/makes they could recommend please?

Regards
Steve

[nfordenfield]

Black, black and black, or very dark blue.

Seriously though, why worry about the colour of the colour, just get the darkest non relective colour you can stand, and make sure they are matt. Avoid Silks etc, they will liven the room up and play havoc with room acoustics.

Try hanging/stapling up throws on the walls to give you a slightly deader room. Non need to paint. Everything seem calmer this way.

I did this in my Garage conversion which was 15x9 ft. Amazed, room does not feel small. Only cost £80 for the material. (wilkinson bed throws) Screen wall definately black, gives incredible snap to the picture. I even got black carpet, total cost was £40.

Then just sit back and enjoy.

Nathan

[JFK]

U can't have enough black!!

[RichardH]

I just painted a room a nice shade of red from the B&Q one coat range - called "warm red" I think.
Attached photo not brill because it's against the light, but you get the idea.

[Gary Lightfoot]

I used Kodak 18% grey for the side walls and ceiling (grey carpet to help acoustics for the walls below ear level), with the screen wall being black carpet, and the rear wall a deep red colour which matches the floor carpet (similar red to Richards above).

The grey helps against the 'dungeon' look, and any light reflected is neutral and will not wash out the screen (seems to work!).

Pics at my website.

HTH

Gary.

[Bert Coules]

I have one wall (what eventually will be the screen wall) in matt black, with the others and the ceiling in matt white (left over from the room's non-HC days and to be changed soon to something darker.)

The matt black - vinyl black from Focus Do-it-all - gave me all sorts of problems. It was incredibly difficult to get it to look even and featureless: every brush- and roller-stroke seemed to catch the light a different way, and attempting to patch just a small area was hopeless. The finished wall looks as though it has about twenty different sorts of black on it.

I'm going to experiment with a rich dark blue from the Dulux specially-mixed range, which I hope will give most of the advantages of black with none (or few) of the drawbacks.

Meantime, and in case the blue doesn't work, does anyone have any tips for painting a wall matt black without ending up with a shades-of-black patchwork quilt?

Oh, an afterthought - isn't there something on the Video Essentials DVD about ideal wall and ceiling colours? I must take another look...

Bert
http://www.bertcoules.co.uk

[-Spike-]

Thanks to you all for taking time to reply.

I knew that black would be the best bet for the room but as mentioned earlier was really trying to avoid the "dungeon" look. However I hadn't considered painting the screen wall black, what an excellent idea, definately going for that.

With regards to the rest of the walls and ceiling I like the look of the Kodak 18% grey and the B&Q "warm red".

I'm even more confused now than I was before

Going for a good think...

Thanks again
Regards

Steve

[RichardH]

That B&Q warm red's excellent stuff - that was all done with a single coat onto freshly plastered walls with only a mist coat of white to size beforehand.

[Gary Lightfoot]

For another room with a similar colour scheme, try here

Gary.

[Bert Coules]

And there was me thinking that a big telly and a handful of speakers was home cinema...

Bert
http://www.bertcoules.co.uk

[-Spike-]

Thanks again for all your input.

Colours are so important that I didn't want to leave anything to chance so where better to ask?!

Thanks for the link Gary. I'd like to achieve a colour scheme just like that (and wouldn't mind an install just like it either!).

" And there was me thinking big telly and a handful of speakers was home cinema...."

- it is Bert...it is...

Regards
Steve

[RichardH]

Spikey - if you want a swatch of lining paper or something painted with that "warm red", PM me and I'll put some in the post.

Richard

[Gary Lightfoot]

By the way, if you decide you want the Kodak 18% grey, you can get it made up at any god paint shop that mixes Dulux paint.

I sent off a part of a genuine Kodak card, and they colour matched it for me. The colour to ask for is:

Dulux colour 6000N (no name).

HTH

Gary.

[-Spike-]

Thanks guys,

Went for it today, well the builders/decorators did. Think they were quite relieved as the walls were starting to look like a mosaic from all the test paints I'd asked for!

Decided on "Flame Red" from Crown - not as bad as it sounds, it's a really dark matt red, looks quite good IMO. Went for the matt black colour on the pj wall, just hope the picture looks as good as the room now!

Thanks once more, especially Gary/Richard

Cheers
Steve

[Gary Lightfoot]

You're welcome Steve,

don't forget to post pics so we can see the finished results ok?

Gary.

[-Spike-]

No problem.

Regards
Steve

[ReTrO]

If you ever feel like a change tyr No.36 Mahogany by Farrow and Ball. A nice deep brown, but good brown.