What Color To Paint Your HT?

**timps** · **06-30-06, 07:25 AM**

I should be OK with emailing them!

**Tommy** · **06-30-06, 07:29 AM**

ok I pm'd you my email address, send them to me there

**Phil M** · **07-06-06, 04:37 PM**

I've just painted the front half of my ceiling matt black, has it made a difference - well the color was neutral before, so it hasn't had any impact on color balance but has significantly reduced the reflected light I used to get. Now I'm off to buy a black area rug to stop the sunburn from the grey carpet.

Sonnie, I went to get a roller from Home Depot yesterday and discovered a cloud painting kit. I liked Alans idea but knew you couldn't find anyone in LA that could spell mural. Take a look:

http://www.woolie.com/products.htm

**Sonnie** · **07-06-06, 05:06 PM**

Hmmm... 25 bucks. I like the pair of feathers for 4 bucks...

I could start a business at 2 bucks a feather. We have hundreds in our goose pen every year.

**Alaric** · **07-08-06, 09:53 AM**

Hi Guys,

I have a dedicated room, it is a Home Theater and that is it, well maybe with a bit of music. The room was an odd extension to the house and iradicated the back garden, it has a factory at the back (party wall), an house converted to offices on the left and a builders merchants on the right. As of a weekend/evening there is no one arround for at least a 100yrds in any direction, it is also at the back of the house and the bedrooms are at the front two floors up, so no chance of disturbing anyone. It had a roof light and a pair of patio doors and that was all for windows. It was an L shape to start with. Converting to a rectangle of good proportions (i looked at room ratios and picked a close one) gave a kit area and refreshment area (with the patio doors). The ceiling and external flat roof needed re-doing anyway so a inch or so lower hit the ratio and got rid of the rooflight. As such an excelent room for a HT with fully controled light. I run a CRT projector and when a film is showing the room is completely dark, i don't keep any lights on at all.

We've painted the main walls and ceiling with a nuteral flat matt grey paint. A guy (Gary IIRC) ages ago on a news group i was on got Dulux to match Kodak 18% grey to a paint colour (6000N in the UK, maybe the same US) which is the ceiling and all of the walls. Its a very recessive colour that dipps to black without light on it.

A neuteral flat black would probably be the most ideal, but i've seen black rooms and they are quite opresive and i wanted a room that was good to be in.

The carpet is a very deep pile grey/black mix without any paterning, it has a hessian underlay which is very sound absorbant.

Seats are two laz-y-boy matinee black leather cinema style recliners for the front row and three red cinema style flip up seats at the back.

The boxing and carved panels make quite a feature and these are also painted grey, but will end up with some darker grey and black highlights for a stone like effect that is also picture friendly.

You do not really want bright / strong colours as they will affect the picture, you can adjust for some tint if you grey scale calibrate, but the less you have to compensate then the more acurate your end result will be.

You can also increase your perception of contrast ratios by shrouding the screen in a deep black light absorbing velvet, a few inches around the screen can really make a difference from what i've heard (yet to get that far).

Http://www.the-dreaming.com - Should prove you can have a stunning room, with inviting decor and still be movie centric !

Cya,
Lee

**nobbie** · **07-10-06, 05:11 PM**

The darker and flatter the better! It all about not detracting from the immersive aspect of theaters. No outside noises or lighting will be tolerated! I know going all black is a tough pill to swallow. Most darker colors, especially the red-based colors go black in the absence of light, so that's always a good choice.

**Alan Brown** · **07-15-06, 04:00 PM**

Quote:

Most darker colors, especially the red-based colors go black in the absence of light, so that's always a good choice.

It's helpful to remember that a theater in use can have an significant amount of light in it. The screen will illuminate the entire room during bright scenes. Be cautious about the use of red as a dominant color in a front projection theater. How rich the red and where it's used are important. Richly colored room surfaces can contaminate the image being projected if enough light reflects back onto the screen during brighter scenes.

There is a tradition in theater decor that rich red velvets, carpets and velours impart a sense of excitement, luxury, and departure from life's mundane normality. This tradition began in live performance theaters. Such methodology was intended to provide enhanced enticing escapism for the weary masses. An audience inspired with awe and wonder prior to the performance was deemed better prepared for the main attraction. Many of those classic "palace" style theaters were later converted to film exhibition houses. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) didn't mature until decades later.

SMPTE's human factors research over the years has developed standards and practices in theater design for optimum motion picture image and sound performance. What one sees in practice in commercial theaters or photos in home theater magazines may or may not be representative of imaging industry recommended standards and practices. A well-integrated, holistic, system design philosophy will adhere to the SMPTE standards. THX certification was one attempt at providing consulting services and quality assurance to the film exhibition industry. All of THX, Ltd.'s certification programs today are founded upon industry standards and solid engineering theory and practice.

Dominant colors in a home theater should be neutral to nearly neutral. Vivid or rich colors and reflective surfaces should be limited to use as accents and with knowlegable discretion. Conventional interior decorating philosophies can actually diminish home theater system performance when it comes time to use the room for its intended purpose. Home theater viewing environment design is not "business as usual."

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

"Advancing the art and science of electronic imaging"

**Phil M** · **07-16-06, 09:38 PM**

Well Alan when I started this off I believed I was going in the right direction with my grey walls/ceiling/carpet and charcoal diffusers.
I've recently painted the first half of my ceiling matt black (a boxed in RSJ makes a nice transition) and put a black area rug down in front of the screen. I'll get some before and after pics posted.
Some of us do listen.

NB
What got me started on this was seeing the 'industry' giving awards for creative designs - but destructive from maximising audio and video performance.

**rolyasm** · **07-17-06, 10:54 AM**

I think part of the equation is balancing what you want ( a dedicated, kick-**** HT) vs. what you can have (a wife/gf who still loves you and gives her 2Cents) vs. cost. You really have to balance it all out. Do you need every ounce of perfection out of your HT, or are you going to be happy with a 70% perfect room that still makes your local theater look like Sesame Street? Some people want the very best and spend a good part of their lives and fortune seeking that. Paint isn't too expensive, but I have seen some ugly, ugly rooms that are great for the cinema, but **** for entertaining. Like everyone else here has said, stick with the flat, darker colors. See how you like it. Keep making changes like you are, but keep it realistic.
Roly

**Tommy** · **08-11-06, 12:49 PM**

Still waiting for the drywall to get completly finished but we picked up the paint for the room, black and a dark maroon

**vitod** · **08-11-06, 03:27 PM**

My place.

**Phil M** · **08-12-06, 06:39 PM**

Looks great, when can I come over?

**vitod** · **08-13-06, 09:40 AM**

Where are you located?

**Chrisbee** · **08-23-06, 02:35 AM**

My modest CRT hardly counts as a real HT but by coincidence we have just replaced the original cream curtains behind my TV and stereo speakers. This curtain hides a row of bookshelves which always looked far too fussy and distracting when listening to music. Not so much of a problem with films with the lights off but the moment we switched on any lighting there was the background competing for attention.

The red curtaining we have now is actually much darker than the image in my sig. The flash lifted the brightness of the red considerably even though it was set to Low. The red looks even darker in normal daylight without sunshine.

My point? (finally!) Is that even dark red is just not relaxing. It glows and sucks at your eyeballs as you try to ignore it. Red is antisocial and will lead to aggression and antisocial behaviour. God help your neighbour if he turns up and asks you to turn it down!

Black is awful! I painted my bedroom matt black as a kid just for fun. I know. I know. I was a wierd kid too. Or just ahead of my time?

I'm now looking for some mid to dark green plain material. Green is surely the colour of choice? For millions of years we have been wandering through a green world. Our instinctive survival skills are finely honed to seek detail and movement within a green background. We go to green spaces to relax. People who have green environments have fewer sick days and are generally much happier than those who live in grey cities.

Our last listening room was painted flat light green with mid green detail and it was superbly relaxing. Even the view through the large windows behind the speakers was all green grass and trees.

Downside: (There's always a downside!) I would sometimes fall asleeep in the middle of an LP even when the music was playing loudly.

**Sonnie** · **08-24-06, 12:31 AM**

That's money green there... that's what that is.

Fell asleep...

**dynamowhum** · **10-19-06, 03:34 AM**

I painted all my walls red, took 6 coats too. I call it Never Again Red because of all the work involved. My screen wall will be a procenium with the screen recessed about 6" to keep reflections down. The wall will be covered with black speaker grill cloth other than the acoustically transparent screen section. Behind the false wall will be a couple bass traps and wall absorption along with the speakers of course. My floors are ceramic tile but my ceiling will have acoustical treatment and be covered in black polyester batting. Will give pictures when complete. Hopefully by next spring maybe summer. Cheers

**Allan** · **07-17-07, 12:57 AM**

Hi Sonnie, thanks, I'm kind of looking around to check color combos for a HT

**Tommy** · **07-17-07, 06:35 AM**

Vitod, excellent looking pictures and it appears you may be semi-local to me. Is there a thread set up for your HT room?

**Anthony** · **07-18-07, 11:20 AM**

I know it's not ideal, but my theater is a hunter green split with a white top (above the chair rail) and ceiling. The white is a flat to eggshell (whatever the sheen is right above flat) and the green is Behr sandwash. Really sucks in the light. It looks much darker and ZERO glare reflections off of it.

There's no chair rail on the projection wall and it's entirely hunter green, so there's nothing bright up front competing with the screen.

But since the room is also a darts alley, bar, and the walkout to the back yard, we had to keep it looking more normal and less like a cave (I can do that at the next house, I keep telling myself).

**John Simpson** · **07-19-07, 06:34 PM**

Great post Alan, and welcome!

Originally I planned on painting the walls of our dedicated HT room flat blacks and greys, but recently someone put me onto velour wallpaper (Is that a term they use in the US? It has a suede finish.).

I imagine that if you used a very dark velour wallpaper (much like the material used on fixed-screen frames) there'd be very little light reflection.

**Tommy** · **07-20-07, 07:05 AM**

I've read and looked into the possibility of carpeting the walls but found out it had very negative effects to the sound system in the room. I wonder if wall paper with this type of finish may have the same results...

**salvasol** · **07-20-07, 03:24 PM**

Quote:

Tommy wrote:

I've read and looked into the possibility of carpeting the walls but found out it had very negative effects to the sound system in the room. I wonder if wall paper with this type of finish may have the same results...

What kind of carpet are you planning to use????
My HT room has carpet from floor to chair rail (about 36")

... When I was building the room I was planning to use regular carpet, but I found a special carpet here http://www.acousticalsolutions.com/i..._tree?comp=ASI (just look under fabrics)

I haven't used REW to measure my room response ... but to my ears, sound good

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