Easy-Flex DIY Painted Screen Solution

**Tiddler** · **08-16-07, 04:51 PM**

I'm afraid I really don't know anything about spray painting. I would think that spray painting should produce a smoother finish though.

Maybe one of the spray painters can jump in here with some advice.

**mechman** · **08-16-07, 06:35 PM**

All paint can be sprayed, as long as it's strained and thinned enough. wbassett's doing some work with PreVal spray cans if you're looking for a reasonable way to spray price wise. Otherwise you can use a Wagner Control Spray ($70) or a compressor with a regular HVLP gun. I've done just enough spraying to be considered dangerous with my HVLP gun!

You'd want to thin these latex paints out with water. Also, spraying will give you a much smoother finish. But if you're unfamiliar with spraying you'll need to practice some. Six months ago just about every spare hunk of wood in my garage had either stain, lacquer, paint, etc on it.

mech

**08-19-07, 03:24 PM**

This message is for tiddler. I was wondering which easy-flex solution I should go with. I will have a Mitsubishi HC1500 projector mounted on the ceiling at 15.5 ft. from wall for a 106 " screen.The room is 12x21.The walls are eggshell color and the ceiling is white and the carpet is beige.I have complete control of the lighting.I do most of my watching at night but would like to watch some ball games with some light on. Thanks for you information.

**Tiddler** · **08-19-07, 09:30 PM**

Your walls are light colored, your projector is bright, and you want some ambient light tolerance, so I am inclined to suggest a bit darker gray.

Are you painting the wall or a separate substrate?

Any chance of changing the room colors?

The best way to go about this is to start by priming. That gives you a good matte white baseline for comparison. Then you could either start applying successively darker gray coats or better still make a sample panel to determine the gray you want.

I'll get back to you later.

Short answer EasyFlex-05

**Tiddler** · **08-20-07, 12:02 AM**

Rick,

Is there any chance of painting your walls another color?

It does not have to be really dark to make a difference. For example a fairly dark slate blue on the wall opposite the screen, a lighter slate blue on the side walls, and a fairly light slate blue on the ceiling. The ceiling will still have a similar effect to being white if it is lighter than the walls. You cold still go with a white or cream color on the wood work. Anything darker than a white, cream, or beige. By-the-way, by beige do you mean a really light brown about the color of cardboard or more of an off white?

**08-20-07, 12:15 AM**

Hey tiddler ,Thanks for the reply. I will be painting the wall.As of right now I won't be making any changes in the room colors but I am planning to paint the walls a darker blue this winter.

**08-20-07, 12:17 AM**

the carpet is a light brown. The ceiling is a stucco type.I don't know how hard it is to paint.

**Tiddler** · **08-20-07, 07:33 AM**

Quote:

rick1017 wrote:

the carpet is a light brown. The ceiling is a stucco type.I don't know how hard it is to paint.

There are rollers that have a very deep nap for painting the rough stippled ceiling. I believe you can tint ceiling paint as well.

Since the addition of a Pearl Clear Coat has been shown to lighten the effective shade of gray, I am thinking you can take advantage of this to make a screen that works well now and better when you paint the walls and ceiling.

Since you will be using the screen for a while without a top coat I suggest you use the Behr Premium-ULTRA Exterior paint and go with a darker gray tint like EasyFlex-06. The Behr ULTRA is self priming and very durable. With your brighter projector you could even go as dark as EasyFlex-07 for optimum ambient light tolerance in the light colored room with some ambient light.

Later when you paint the room darker colors you should try the screen for a while with the darker screen. If you like it, then just top coat it with the matte polyurethane. If you feel the new room conditions warrant a lighter shade of gray then top coat with a Pearl Clear Coat. By that time I should have rewritten the EasyFlex thread presentation to include the Pearl Clear Coat instructions. In the meantime here is a brief set of instructions for the Pearl Clear Coat.

Quote:

Preparation & Application of the Pearl Clear Coat

In a separate container combine one quart of Behr Matte Polyurethane #780 and one 2oz. bottle of Folkart Pearlizing Medium. The Folkart Pearlizing Medium can be found in the craft paint section of Wal-Mart or Michaels Arts & Crafts. I have found a 1 or 2 oz. syringe with a catheter tip is very helpful. You can get one of these from a veterinary office. The pearlizing medium is very thick. Squeeze as much out of the bottle as you can. Fill the bottle half way with poly using the syringe. Put the lid back on and shake. Pour out the poly and repeat until you see that all the pearl has been rinsed out of the bottle. Be sure to mix the poly well before dumping it into the container for mixing. The flattening ingredients in the poly settles to the bottom of the can. You want to be sure you mix the flattening agents into the poly before mixing it with the pearl. Mix the poly + pearl very thoroughly using a drill attachment. Be sure to stir the pearl clear coat every time you go to use it.

To apply the white or gray base coat refer to the Basic Roller Painting Instructions.
The following clip is included in the instructions.

The application of the Pearl Clear Coat is similar with a simple addition of down rolling. This final uni-direction rolling causes all the pearl flakes to be aligned the same way. This is demonstrated in these video clips:

NOTE: In the video I made one minor error when down rolling. Notice the end of the roller the handle is attached to. The pressure on the handle end is actually slightly higher than the free end of the roller. I should have been rolling with the roller flipped over so the free end was the last part of the roller to down roll the screen. I was also not getting enough polyurethane on the screen and ended up redoing the base coat and top coat to fix the streaks. So remember load as much Pearl Clear coat on the roller as it will hold. Always trail with the free end of the roller when down rolling.

Well that will get you going with a good matte neutral gray for now and then add the appropriate top coat to suite the new room colors.

**08-20-07, 08:51 AM**

Thanks for all your help tiddler.I will try this and let you know how it comes out.

**cynical2** · **08-20-07, 02:25 PM**

Rick...I want to suggest you spend about 20-30 minutes reading the thread that I created...linked here. Just read through post #98...the rest is about how to take good screen shots with a camera.

I just completed the process, and asked a ton of questions that were very patiently answered (primarily) by Todd, and also got some great information from Bill and mech.

I had the same color walls, ceiling, carpet, etc as you...and (not surprisingly) ultimately ended up with a similar solution to where you are ending up. I can confirm that if you listen to what Todd tells you to do, and do it like he says to do it, you'll be a happy man at the end.

My hope is that reading the thread may answer some unasked questions you have, answer some questions that you hadn't thought about, and may also make you think of other questions that I didn't ask. Any clarifying questions we can ask will serve to help those in the future that apply the EasyFlex solution.

**08-20-07, 05:45 PM**

Hey Jim, I read the thread you wrote. What screen did you wind up going with.

**cynical2** · **08-20-07, 11:26 PM**

Quote:

rick1017 wrote:

Hey Jim, I read the thread you wrote. What screen did you wind up going with.

Rick, I originally mixed 1/2 gallon at EF-08, but then "chickened out" (since I can control lighting 100% if needed) and cut it down to a lighter grey (EF-04). I topcoated with 1 bottle of the Folkart pearlizing medium mixed with 1 qt of the Behr matte poly.

So, material and number of coats I did:
- Kilz-2 (ended up at 6 coats, IIRC)...2 coats recommended
- EF-04 (ended up with three coats, IIRC)...2 coats recommended
- 1 QT Behr matte poly mixed WELL with 2oz (1 bottle) Folkart Pearlizing medium topcoat (one generous coat, down-rolled per Tiddler's instructions)...make sure you get the wax that's stuck in the bottom of the poly can (you have to scrape it out into your mixing container), and use Todd's instructions on how to get all the pearl out of the bottle. One coat gives most of the benefit, but if you have enough for two coats, it will brighten things a bit more (more of the topcoat, which gives those properties)

As I said, I couldn't have asked for more. Image looks great...screen looks consistent top-to-bottom and side-to-side. Once I figure out how to take good pics that don't mess up the image, I will share...but you can get a flavor for the results with the pics I posted.

BTW, the area I'm projecting on now is about 153" diagonal. Once I frame it in, it will be more like 142-145".

One last thing...I watched movies after each stage. After the Kilz-2 (to get a gain=1 baseline), and after the grey (I was happy with the image at that point. For me, the primary driver for the topcoat was protection/"clean-ability" of the screen. In your case, you may decide to stop somewhere along the journey (e.g. you think the Kilz-2 screen looks great, so you decide not to make it grey). Probably won't happen, but you should at least be aware of the "baseline" for your projector, which means knowing how it looks with just the Kilz-2 painted on.

**08-25-07, 06:18 PM**

Hey tiddler, where can I find the 3/16 nap white synthetic roller. I tried Home depot and a few other places.Nobody had any. Thanks, Rick

**Tiddler** · **08-25-07, 06:33 PM**

Quote:

rick1017 wrote:

Hey tiddler, where can I find the 3/16 nap white synthetic roller. I tried Home depot and a few other places.Nobody had any. Thanks, Rick

You may be able to find them at paint stores like Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams. I was actually using 6mm nap roller that turn out to be closer to 1/4" nap than 3/16". I'm sure the same store had 5mm nap rollers the first time I bought them but the second time they only had 6mm. Honestly though I can't tell the difference between them.

**09-11-07, 12:32 AM**

hey tiddler,just wanted to let you know that I finally got my screen done.I went with two coats of the easy-flex 05 and two coats of the behr matte poly #780. I must say that I am really impressed with the picture I am getting with this screen.

I also built a frame for it with 1x3 covered with black velvet.I think it looks really good. I want to thank you for all of you help.

Thanks, Rick

**wbassett** · **09-11-07, 02:07 AM**

Rick... you need to put some 'obligatory' screen shots up!

**cynical2** · **09-11-07, 04:54 AM**

Quote:

rick1017 wrote:

hey tiddler,just wanted to let you know that I finally got my screen done.I went with two coats of the easy-flex 05 and two coats of the behr matte poly #780. I must say that I am really impressed with the picture I am getting with this screen.

I also built a frame for it with 1x3 covered with black velvet.I think it looks really good. I want to thank you for all of you help.

Thanks, Rick

Rick, Congrats! For the topcoat, did you end up going with poly only or poly/pearl?

**Fred33** · **09-11-07, 09:10 AM**

Very informative thread. Tiddler sounds like you got a lot great tips. I was about start my painting project, but after reading this thread I have to make another trip to the store.

**Tiddler** · **09-11-07, 12:05 PM**

What are you going to do?

**09-11-07, 05:25 PM**

I will tried to put some pics on here. I went with just the poly only.

**09-17-07, 11:34 AM**

I am new to this whole thing and am getting lost in the discussions ... I am looking for the Easy Flex Guide for dummies. I am a youth pastor looking to paint a screen in a youth room that would be about 9' high and 15' wide. We are looking to project with a dell 2400MP because of the value and brightness for a large area. Our room has some ambient light from windows during the day (but is not brightly lit). If I was to walk into home depot to order one of the easy flex options described (01-08), which one should it be and how do I describe what I want in a way that I am sure they will get it right? Thanks for any Help.

Pastor Jodie
Brunswick Street Baptist Church

**cynical2** · **09-17-07, 12:22 PM**

Quote:

Pastor Jodie wrote:

I am new to this whole thing and am getting lost in the discussions ... I am looking for the Easy Flex Guide for dummies. I am a youth pastor looking to paint a screen in a youth room that would be about 9' high and 15' wide. We are looking to project with a dell 2400MP because of the value and brightness for a large area. Our room has some ambient light from windows during the day (but is not brightly lit). If I was to walk into home depot to order one of the easy flex options described (01-08), which one should it be and how do I describe what I want in a way that I am sure they will get it right? Thanks for any Help.

Pastor Jodie
Brunswick Street Baptist Church

Just to be clear, you want the screen itself to be 9' x 15'?? That is HUGE, and even the superbright 2400mp may not handle it with any ambient light.

According to projectorreviews, the Dell produces about 1800 lumens in all modes other than PC. For a 9x15' screen, you're looking at about 13 ft-L (lumens/sq ft). That is about the minimum you would want for a 100% light controlled room...much less with lots of ambient.

There are lots of other questions to be asked...but I'll start with: Can you go any smaller on the screen size?, and What is the seating layout, especially the off-axis angle for the worst seat in the house (I'm thinking some gain may help with your giant screen)?

**09-17-07, 02:00 PM**

I would paint the wall 9x15 feet but the typical screen size would be 9x12 ... Mostly used for full wall games of wii, ps2, movies, etc. I want to have a bright screen and will often use the screen at night after 7pm (so the room would be fairly dark). I have done this before at an earlier church with a wall painted ultra white ... it seemed to work fairly well. I want to improve the screen by researching properly before we paint this new room.

**Tiddler** · **09-17-07, 02:20 PM**

The only thing I can think of is to apply a very light gray with a Pearlizing Clear Coat. It will give some improvement in the blacks in the presence of ambient light while still being a very bright screen surface.

When you said "the ultra white seemed to work fairly well" what did it NOT do well?

Do you mean Behr Ultra Pure White when you say ultra white?

What condition is the wall in? Is it smooth or rough?

**09-17-07, 02:40 PM**

It wasn't a Behr paint (I forget what brand). I thought it did a good job but get the impression from this forum that the picture would be a bit clearer if it had a touch of
grey. Is that right? If so, is this the paint I should use:

Behr Ultra Pure White Flat Latex #1050
with tinting "Easy-Flex-03"
0 3 0 Lamp Black
0 1 0 Yellow Oxide

If not, which tinting would be best for this larger painted screen?
If so, how do I describe this tinting to the guy at home hardware?

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