Best colour for paint or wallpaper ?

MacReady

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Bit of a strange question but does anyone know what the best colours are to either paint walls or for wallpaper in a room that is going to be used with a projector ?

The room is the living room of our house and we are ripping it apart but I am not sure what would be the best colour for the walls to avoid reflections and to keep the room quite dark (without going to the extremes of Black or very dark grey)

I was thinking of a nice deep red but after looking at some of the pics of peoples home cinema rooms on here there seems to be a wide variety of colours used for walls from cream to almost black greys :confused:
 
Basically, the darker the surrounding walls, the brighter your projected image will appear. saying that, for most people with a dedicated screen to project onto, the image will be bright enough whatever colour your surrounding walls are. If you have an especially low brightness projector, then a deep red would be fine, if you have a bright or average brightness pj and a screen, then whatever colour you like will be fine so long as you can blackout the room for viewing. Only the most dedicated of homecinema fans would paint their living room black for the sake of their projector image !!
 
I may have lost out to the other half on this one...she has gone for orange on three of the walls and a dark red on the wall behind where the screen will be :-(
 
Off topic a bit but if you were projecting directly onto the wall is vinyl silk OK or would it cause glare/reflections? If so is Matt White the best or any particular paint?

I take it that white is best of course.
 
I am going to go for dark brown on the projected wall (with a screen) and creme on the other three walls. Its the ceiling that I dont know what to do with, I mean Im pretty old fashioned and say it should be white, but darker would be better.
 
Kahless725 said:
I am going to go for dark brown on the projected wall (with a screen) and creme on the other three walls. Its the ceiling that I dont know what to do with, I mean Im pretty old fashioned and say it should be white, but darker would be better.

I wanted to do our ceiling grey but my Wife insists it has to stay white!
 
Kahless725 said:
Hmm, what about a dark grey to white effect from one end to the other????

I value my life too much to even suggest it ;)

It is only just starting to dawn on her what having a screen and projector in the room is going to look like...I think she regreats agreeing to let me get them :D
 
Orange and red sounds fine. Are you going for a screen?

Use matt paint where possible too to keep glare to a minimum.

Sounds good. Keep us posted when done - we wanna see those screen shots.

Cheers,

Captain Benefit :)
 
As Cap has said, something like 3 good coats of matt white paint will be very similar to a screen with unity gain, providing the wall is pretty flat and doesn't have any obvious lumps/bumps etc.

Kodak 18% grey is a good 'colour' for a room as it makes any light that should reflect from the walls back onto the screen neiutral, and prevents any obvious colour wash (i.e a red wall may give a warmer colour look to the image). Dulux 6000n is the mix colour if anyone is interested. My projection room is that colour, and I've some pics on my web-site. It's a good compromise between a black dungeon like room and something lighter.

Gary.
 
Captain Benefit said:
Orange and red sounds fine. Are you going for a screen?

Use matt paint where possible too to keep glare to a minimum.

Sounds good. Keep us posted when done - we wanna see those screen shots.

Cheers,

Captain Benefit :)

I am ordering the screen today (DRH Slimline 231x130). She has gone for a wallpaper as we can't be bothered to have the whole of the living room walls skimmed over to make them good enough for painting. She is also having the ceiling papered too!

Will post pics as soon as the process starts and the some finished shots at the end....I can't wait :D
 
Nice one.

As Gary said, you dont need to turn your home into a dungeon to enjoy yourself.

Well, you can do but that is a totally different web site/scene altogether.

ha ha.........

Cap :)
 
Kahless725 said:
I am going to go for dark brown on the projected wall (with a screen) and creme on the other three walls. Its the ceiling that I dont know what to do with, I mean Im pretty old fashioned and say it should be white, but darker would be better.

What I did was to paint the wall with the screen on, the opposite wall and the alcoves a very dark red, the rest of the walls are in a colour called "old gold" (Crown). I mixed 50/50 old gold with white for the ceiling. It's hardly noticeable that it's not white to be honest, but certainly seems to have helped with reflections.
 
Alternatively, you could actually move to a 'real cave' somewhere near the seaside. Buy a long extension lead and enjoy movies like stig of the dump......

Cheddar and wookey hole are only 30 minutes from my door, perhaps I will test it out.

Onwards and upwards....

Yep, it really is ONE OF THOSE DAYS!

Cap :)
 
I actually think a cave would be more livable than our house at the moment !!!

The place is a mess and there are builders everywhere nfrom first thing in the morning till late in the evening....plus I have got bits of AV kit being delivered all the time and no where to put it so am constantly making journeys to my Mums to store it there.

It had better be worth all this stress !
 
Cleric said:
I may have lost out to the other half on this one...she has gone for orange on three of the walls and a dark red on the wall behind where the screen will be :-(

I think Lawrence L. Bowen would have something to say about this one :laugh:

There is a definate wifey payoff with having the projector & screen----from an interior design point of view, TVs are a living nightmare :devil:

They are clumsy, ugly to women things that take up too much room and screw with furniture placement --- that is why on changing rooms the tv ends up either in the garden or in a cupboard or in a place you couldn't watch it from.

With a projector on the ceiling and a screen rolled up in the daytime and NO TV, the room is just HUUUUUUGe :thumbsup: :hiya:
 
Wifey has now changed her mind....she now wants to go for a cream coloured paper on three of the walls and a red behind where the screen will be !


Women, they can never make up their mind!!
 
babyG said:
They are clumsy, ugly to women things that take up too much room and screw with furniture placement --- that is why on changing rooms the tv ends up either in the garden or in a cupboard or in a place you couldn't watch it from.

With a projector on the ceiling and a screen rolled up in the daytime and NO TV, the room is just HUUUUUUGe :thumbsup: :hiya:

Would agree with BabyG on this, but horror of horrors, what I wasn't expecting was to have to put up with Changing Rooms on my screen. :thumbsdow
 
To be honest if you have darkish walls you can paint the ceiling with one of the lighter Dulux Ice Storm greys and (if you don't tell anyone) you won't really notice it!!!

Against the darkish walls, it will still look pretty white.
It's not until you put something white against it will you see the contrast.

Just make sure she's not around when you are doing the painting :)
 
After almost three weeks the living room is starting to look like it may actually get finished one day ;)

Most of the other work in the house has now been completed but waiting for the Wiretrack for all the cables in the main room has held the job up quite a bit...and now I have been told it wont be coming :(

Oh well...no time to sulk about it so the builders have come up with a cunning plan ...but for now here are a few pics of how the work has gone so far...

How the room looked (sorry it's a bit tight on the TV but it is the only one I can find)
done.jpg


Work started..
100_3316.jpg


First test of the Z2 on the Vogels mount..
100_3383.jpg


...and it works :clap:
100_3381.jpg


Hopefully should have all the decorating done and the floor down by the weekend then it will be screen fitting time....more pics to follow :D

(Sorry about the size of the last pic...dunno why it has come out so big as I re sized them all :eek: )
 

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