[Alan Brown]

Sonnie,

Here are some options to consider:

1. A flat black ceiling is the best for your dedicated room. I wouldn't settle for anything short of that. However, my demo theater only has black on the front half of the ceiling. The back half is white to help illuminate the room for cleaning, etc. My ideal would be paying a mural artist to paint art deco clouds on the ceiling, starting about half way back in darker grays (like storm clouds) and gradually transition to whiter clouds in the back of the room. The cloud-scape could even spill down onto the walls some. I wouldn't want hardly any white on the walls, especially for front projection.

2. The walls could be a darkish medium gray with a contrasting faux texture laid on top in burgundy, beige (like your chairs) and/or blue. Something like I've seen done with a sea sponge would be simple. There are texturing rollers that work fairly well.

3. Plain fabric acoustic panels can be textured in a similar way. Use thicker acrylic paint that sits on top of the fabric rather than soaking in. I've used a similar technique to transfer stencils onto fabric years ago. You can also look into making your own large stencils for the front panels. I would use black or dark gray for the stenciled design on the panels.

How did you mount the panels? It's not clear to me why it would be so difficult to pull them off the wall. You didn't glue them, did you?

Best regards and beautiful pictures,
Alan Brown, President
CinemaQuest, Inc.
ISF, THX, SMPTE, CEDIA

"Advancing the art and science of electronic imaging"