DIY Painted Screens

**toecheese** · **05-10-06, 10:23 PM**

I checked out some other forums and just saw a bunch of arguments.

Sonny recommends Misty Evening Gray- but I read discussion about that which said that the formulas have changed.

I plan on painting something on a Kilz primed drywall. What's the topcoat recommendation?

**Sonnie** · **05-10-06, 11:43 PM**

What... folks arguing on a forum... surely you jest?

I'm not sure how the forumla for ME can change... ME is ME and there ain't but one way to make it be ME. If the forumla changed then it ain't ME anymore, if ya know what I mean.

There is a goo mix but I'm not familiar with it. I also know there are some who have stated they really couldn't tell any difference between the results with goo and ME. Some folks even use a white painted wall. I chose the ME because it had a hint of gray in it, but it almost looks white. Some have mixed some silver with the ME and state it was pretty good, but I think for painted walls we are really getting extremely technical.

**toecheese** · **05-11-06, 12:42 AM**

Apparently there have been three variations of ME. Now, supposedly, it has more blue in it, which gives it a (bluish (duh) tinge.

I haven't seen the actual formula, but supposedly, you can get the original one and have them mix it up for you instead of the new ME.

**toecheese** · **05-23-06, 09:43 PM**

I went to Home Depot and got color swatches of ME, as well as some Behn paints (Moon something and Silver something).

I've been doing the 'hold it up to the screen' thing, but right now, what looks best is the whitest/silverest.

I'm not sure if that's a valid test because I think the swatches are just the color and not any of the luminescence. So... I guess I need to buy quantities of the actual paint and paint actual drywall (or posterboard?) Grrrrr.

Sonnie- are you satisfied with the ME thing?

**GregBe** · **05-26-06, 12:36 PM**

Is there a type of sheen or texture that is recommended? How much worse is this than an actual screen?

**Sonnie** · **05-26-06, 01:13 PM**

Yes toe... I've been extremely pleased. No complaints whatsoever here.

Greg... it's just flat paint... and I sanded the dickens out of my wall, baby butt smooth.

When this was all started there was one of those forever and a mile threads at AVS... maybe a couple of them it seems like. They were comparing this with some of the best screens available at the time, so I'd say that it would be possibly better than some screens and couldn't be all that much worse than the new screens of today (which I'm not at all familiar with). There appeared to be some serious testing done on this color during it's discovery and it became rather popular at that time.

, I know folks that have painted their wall pure white and been happy with that. I think it really all depends on how picky and critical you are. Some folks may or may not notice much difference from one to the next. I really wouldn't know myself since this is all I've used and haven't been able to see any side by side comparisons.

I've never had any calibration done on my pj so I'm probably missing out on the potential image quality I could get, but for me it just looks really good.

JimP (member here and long time member at AVS) lives about an hour or so north of me. As soon as I get my replacement VMPS RM30's in the HT room he is planning on making a visit. He's pretty good with video and such. It will be the first time anyone that knows much about this stuff has visited. Hopefully I can learn a little about my setup then. He can comment on the screen after he sees it. Hopefully this will be within the next few weeks... or at least before June is over, all depends on how quick VMPS ships the speakers and then they gotta come from California. They claimed they were going to ship this week but haven't heard from them as of right now.

**kingkip** · **05-30-06, 08:54 PM**

Anyone used screen goo? It seems interesting and has reviewed decently.

Maybe I'll have to be the guinea pig.

**toecheese** · **06-01-06, 12:39 PM**

Screen goo seems to be popular, but the whole reason the ME and MM and other formulas came out was because of the price. People have replicated it for about $30 instead of $200. (other forums have threads 1000s of posts long about screen paint)

What you really need to think about is that you're going to have to do lots of prep work to get your wall as smooth as possible- it is taking me days to prime/sand/prime/sand, until it is glistening. If I then had to pay $200 on top of that, I'd have been better off to just buy a screen- or screen material and be done with it.

**catnip** · **06-07-06, 01:18 PM**

Here's another idea if you don't want to go through the process of filling and sanding your wall and getting the paint applied smoothly.

Wilsonart makes laminates (like Formica) in a huge variety of colors and textures. Not wanting to invest a ton of money in a screen until I settled on the "right" size, I decided to go this route. Based on an AVS thread I picked Designer White and used contact cement to fix it to a 1/2" 4x8' sheet of Sandeply from Home Depot. I suspect the gain is somewhere around 1 and there is no hot spotting whatsoever. So far I'm very pleased with the results.

P.S. Wilsonart also makes 4x10' and 5x12' foot sheets, so you could easily make a 2.40 aspect screen out of this stuff.

**kingkip** · **06-08-06, 02:36 PM**

Quote:

toecheese wrote:

Screen goo seems to be popular, but the whole reason the ME and MM and other formulas came out was because of the price. People have replicated it for about $30 instead of $200. (other forums have threads 1000s of posts long about screen paint)

What you really need to think about is that you're going to have to do lots of prep work to get your wall as smooth as possible- it is taking me days to prime/sand/prime/sand, until it is glistening. If I then had to pay $200 on top of that, I'd have been better off to just buy a screen- or screen material and be done with it.

But what if I am not using a wall as my screen. I was thinking about using a chunk of MDF or something similar. Do you think that changes anything?

**Fincave** · **06-10-06, 07:12 PM**

I am using a sheet of MDF painted with a grey latex based paint and it is definitely good enough and only fraction of the cost of a ready screen. The MDF seems to be smooth enough and requires no sanding if you apply the paint very carefully the end result is pretty good, IMO.

**JimPeitersen** · **07-20-06, 02:42 AM**

I used a sheet of mdf, a primer coat of Kilz (light gray) and the Behr "Silverscreen" paint. The screen turned out much better than I would have thought and works perfectly with my Hitachi projector.
JP

**Sonnie** · **07-20-06, 03:08 AM**

I read a lot about the Behr "Silverscreen" DIY over at AVS... seems to be very popular.

**JimPeitersen** · **07-20-06, 03:19 AM**

Sonnie you are up late! I think that most people would be happy with the Silverscreen as is, but there is a lot of talk of modifying it using other colors. I've felt that the effort to change mine would not bring a huge increase in contrast, so I have left it as-is. By the way, how is the "new" EQ discussion coming with Behringer?
JP

**Sonnie** · **07-20-06, 03:39 AM**

Yeah... I'm a late owl, but about to crash shortly.

I'm the same way... my Misty Evening Gray has done me very well. I get dizzy reading all those different possibilities with these DIY screens.

I thought I was getting somewhere on the discussion just last week... but I am still waiting on a response to my last email. We swapped a few back and forth and it sounded like they were ready to get serious... then it just got quiet. They are soooooo sloooooowwww.

**Dougie085** · **07-31-06, 03:58 PM**

I was thinking about painting my screen that I built but I'm not sure how much it would have actually helped so I never tried it out.

**wbassett** · **02-08-07, 11:58 AM**

Quote:

catnip wrote:

Here's another idea if you don't want to go through the process of filling and sanding your wall and getting the paint applied smoothly.

Wilsonart makes laminates (like Formica) in a huge variety of colors and textures. Not wanting to invest a ton of money in a screen until I settled on the "right" size, I decided to go this route. Based on an AVS thread I picked Designer White and used contact cement to fix it to a 1/2" 4x8' sheet of Sandeply from Home Depot. I suspect the gain is somewhere around 1 and there is no hot spotting whatsoever. So far I'm very pleased with the results.

P.S. Wilsonart also makes 4x10' and 5x12' foot sheets, so you could easily make a 2.40 aspect screen out of this stuff.

P.P.S. Here's the link to the AVS thread with some spectrophotometer measurements. Scroll to the bottom: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ight=wilsonart

Hi catnip... The laminate thread over there is my thread

If there is an interest here I will post all the information and data in this forum, I am looking for a new 'home' and this looks like a good forum and also seems to have a lot of active posters.

I also have a lot of information about DIY painted screens, specifically neutral grays. ME that was mentioned earlier in this thread, has sadly changed the formula from what I have been told. Why the name remained the same is unknown, but it is not the same as it was a few years ago. The good thing though, there are even better grays out there and without the need to buy a bunch of things from a half dozen different stores, go home and mix it all up and hope everything turning out okay. I also don't think people need to spray or have special rolling skills... if you can paint a room in your house you can paint a screen.

To me too much emphasis was placed on making things 'complex' over in the other place. Complex doesn't always mean better, and some people just seem to have the mindset that unless it's difficult it can't be good.

If you guys are interested, I have a ton of information on painted DIY screens using very simple off the shelf paints... screens made from simple one sheet substrates like laminates and Do-able, as well as info on the now twelve different commercial screen paint manufacturers.

Like I said, I'm looking for a new home... is this it?

promise me you guys don't fight over here!

Quote:

toecheese wrote:

I checked out some other forums and just saw a bunch of arguments.

toecheese that is exactly why I bailed from there...

**Sonnie** · **02-08-07, 02:01 PM**

Quote:

Like I said, I'm looking for a new home... is this it?
promise me you guys don't fight over here!

That's the quickest way to get banned around here... check out our rules... Zero Tolerance!

**mechman** · **02-08-07, 03:36 PM**

wbassett,

It's good to find a home with a little more sanity isn't it!

If you folks look thru that thread at AVS you can find numerous shots of my Wilsonart Fashion Grey Laminate screen. I even took shots with full flash mode. The only caveat is that you have to put a coat of polyurethane on it to eliminate a subtle hint of hot spotting. If anyone's interested, I'm willing to help anyway I can.

mechman
mech at AVS

**wbassett** · **02-08-07, 04:27 PM**

Actually I am going to repost the information here so they don't have to forum hop

I'll probably make a new thread though instead of highkacking this one.

**Sonnie** · **02-08-07, 06:07 PM**

Good idea... we could use some good threads on DIY screens.

**Prof.** · **02-08-07, 06:27 PM**

As I said before...Good to have you here..
I'm aware of your experience with DIY screens at AVS, and I think it would be invaluable here, particularly for any newcomers wanting to make their own screen..

**basementjack** · **02-08-07, 08:01 PM**

wbasset - I can't wait to see what you post here - just got a new projector, and a DIY screen is the next big thing for me!

**basementjack** · **02-08-07, 08:06 PM**

Quote:

wbassett wrote:

promise me you guys don't fight over here!

Nope, no fighting allowed. Sonnie insures that - he's like the matrix - he's everywhere!

Can't wait to read all the info you post here.

Please know, if you take the trouble to post - it will not only be read, but will likely be acted up as well!

**mechman** · **02-08-07, 09:13 PM**

Quote:

basementjack wrote:

wbasset - I can't wait to see what you post here - just got a new projector, and a DIY screen is the next big thing for me!

Bill's done some extensive work with laminates, neutral grays, amongst other things. Be prepared to be overwhelmed!

mechman

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