HowTo Choose Colours for a Theatre

Choosing Colours for a Theatre...

This is something that gets asked time and time again when someone is constructing or renovating their theatre..

What colour should I paint my walls?
What colour should I choose for my GOM walls?
What colour carpet should I put down?

Colour choice of course is always a very personal thing and what suits one person, won't necessarily suit another..
Another question that's not asked very often is " What do I select first for my colour"!?

There is a trick that most Decorators use for selecting colours when re-decorating a room and the principles can apply here..
When re-decorating a room (which is already furnished) the Decorator will pick colours for the walls from various furnishings in the room..such as a colour in a cushion, or a colour from the drapes or a piece of furniture.etc..This helps to tie everything together..

One of the requirements for most dedicated theatre's is to have dark colours where possible..and this makes the task even harder..
We don't have furnishings in the room to pick a colour from and any colour there.. or lack of (black ceiling or black cloth screen wall for example) is not going to help us in our choice.

You may have already decided that you prefer a blue or a burgundy or a purple room etc. and that's fine..but what shade of colour is that going to be!?
Even in dark colours there are varying shades of dark, so the choice becomes more difficult!..

So where do we start?..Your newly constructed room is just bare walls and a floor, or if you're re-decorating you've removed most things out of the room and maybe even taken up the carpet..if you're planning on starting from scratch..

It's the completely bare room that we will be working with..

First thing to consider is carpet colour!..
Most people first think about wall colour and at the last moment when everything is done..then think about the carpet that's going to suit the wall colour..

There is a huge choice of carpet colours and patterns (not so much here unfortunately) to choose from and generally most people will choose a patterned carpet of some sort that has more than one colour in it..

Example 1. Lets say that you've already decided that you want an overall blue room..so you go shopping for a darkish blue tone patterned carpet..
In that patterning there will be various shades of blue..Pick the darkest blue in that carpet and get the same shade of paint made up..That's going to be your wall colour.

If you feel that the darkest blue in the carpet is not going to be dark enough , for the walls, then get a sample of the colour (cutting a piece out of the pile) and take it to your paint place..Get them to match the colour initially, but then add black until you think it looks dark enough..
This will then match the general toning of the carpet and not look like a mismatching tone..

Of course, you won't be laying the carpet down until the walls are painted, but you won't have that problem any more of "What carpet should I get!"

The same principal applies when choosing a GOM colour for the walls..although you may not be able to get an exact match, but it should be fairly close..

Now the other side of this decorating is a contrasting colour between the carpet and the walls..

Example 2..Lets say that in this instance you've decided to have dark brown walls..You've found a carpet that you like that has another dominant tone to it besides brown..For this to be successful, it has to be a complimentary colour..something that goes well with brown..
In this example, the carpet has a dark blue overall toning..
Select the brown toning in the carpet and mix your paint to that shade or darker or lighter if you prefer.and that will be your wall colour..

In the two examples above,. you now have three colours in the room to choose from for other things like walls panels, seating and anything else that needs colour..

Example 1..Two tones of blue and black..
Example 2. Blue brown and black..

In the second example you also have the choice of using a different shade of the blue or brown for other colourings in the room, whilst still maintaining the balance between carpet and walls..

I hope this will be of some help for anyone who is about to decorate their new home theatre..