How to temporarily darken a room?

[gpke]

I currently have a living room with light/white walls and ceilings and my projector screen fills the room and doesn't look very good. I know that you are supposed to have black walls etc. as ambient light destroys the picture. But, it might sound silly, is there a way I can convince myself of how good it could be without actually making any permanent, drastic changes like painting the ceiling black? I'd also like to get an idea of how far I'd have to go to get it to look good. Do I really need to paint the whole room black or would half a metre of black around the screen be a vast enough improvement?

Just looking for some ideas here. I'm thinking something like buying some black fabric and pinning it to the walls/ceiling. Has anyone done anything like it before?

 

[Joe Fernand]

If you have DIY skills you could construct some low cost 'stage flats' or rig up a curtain on your front and side walls and have a play with positioning.

Joe