Browse Forums Home Theatre & Automation 1 Nov 16, 2007 6:34 am We will be looking at colours for our home theatre wall in the coming months.
Does anybody have any real life experiance with colours that have worked well, or that they like. Matt/Rod any tips? Does the whole room need to be in the same colour? Thanks for any feedback! Re: WALL COLOURS - home theatre 2Nov 16, 2007 8:15 am Hi Timbo.
In the end, I guess some level of compromise is always going to occur - for all of us considering what to do in this regard (my own was an MASSIVE compromise!!! ). The issue here is any surface in the room that reflects light can reflect it onto your screen, and any light hitting the screen where you are trying to project/show black will lighten that area to some degree. Basically, the more ambient light in the room, the more it hurts your contrast - the difference between the darkest and lightest areas of the projected image (ie as the blacks become lighter that difference is less). Darker scenes get washed out, and it gets harder to see things in those dark scenes. Achieving good contrast is key and ambient light is it's enemy. Therefore, the best situation is one where there are no surfaces other than the screen itself that reflect any light at all - ie everything else in the room - the walls, ceiling, carpet, curtains, furniture, etc. is all black! Sounds feasible? Of course not. This is where the compromise comes in. Ideally you'd go for the darkest selection of colours you can while still trying to keep some sort of taste. Even commercial movie theatres are not black - dark colours, yes, but not 'no colour' black. As far as actual colours go, some people believe that the colours of your reflective surfaces (if they are not matt jet black then they are reflective to some degree) can have some impact on the screen too - if your room was completely red then the red light reflected off those surfaces would have some degree of red impact on your screen. So there you have it - darker, duller colours are more ideal for a theatre, so the closer you can get to them the better your projected image will look (trust me on that - we did an install in a guy's theatre only recently where he had painted the walls and ceiling charcoal grey, and the image lept off his screen - in a good way!). My own compromise that I mentioned above started out far less ideal - my better half insisted on light, warmish neutral colours throughout the house - including the theatre - when we built it three years ago, which did bother me. I finally managed to convince her about a year or so ago to let me paint the front wall chocolate brown (it was a good start), and I have only very recently bargained to be able to paint the remaining walls and the ceiling the same colour (YAY!). Finally I will get a fair bit closer to that more ideal situation..... The other half of that compromise is how much I've had to pay her to allow me to do this!!!! (BIG Christmas present for her....). Re: WALL COLOURS - home theatre 3Nov 16, 2007 8:21 am Re: WALL COLOURS - home theatre 5Nov 16, 2007 10:06 am LOL...
It was awesome carpet. I am struggling to remember but I think it was $180psqm plus laying and underfelt.... Re: WALL COLOURS - home theatre 6Nov 16, 2007 9:32 pm Rodda As far as actual colours go, some people believe that the colours of your reflective surfaces (if they are not matt jet black then they are reflective to some degree) can have some impact on the screen too - if your room was completely red then the red light reflected off those surfaces would have some degree of red impact on your screen. So there you have it - darker, duller colours are more ideal for a theatre, so the closer you can get to them the better your projected image will look (trust me on that - we did an install in a guy's theatre only recently where he had painted the walls and ceiling charcoal grey, and the image lept off his screen - in a good way!). I think we discussed this before, but I certainly subscribe to this theory, and have measured results with the appropriate equipment. I've specced a charcoal colour in my theatre, its a dedicated room so I can get away with it. Feel sorry for the poor painter who won't be able to hide any mistakes! Re: WALL COLOURS - home theatre 8Nov 17, 2007 7:03 pm Hi Steve.
Yeah, curtains would be better as they'd cut down a LOT more of the sound reflection. You are talking about floor to ceiling curtains that cover the entire length of every wall, yeah? Also, you would still have to paint the ceiling (unless you were planning on covering it in material also )... Re: WALL COLOURS - home theatre 9Dec 06, 2007 10:33 pm Our plan is to use the home theatre in the house we're building as our main TV room and to deliberately not have a TV in the open plan living area to encourage conversation, reading, music listening, and other activities.
But when we are using the home theatre room I'd still like it to feel relaxing and comfortable, and I think dark colours would feel closeting to me. So, how about this thought? Surely the most important wall to be non-reflective would be the back wall since it'll face the 50" plasma screen? The back wall also has the bonus that you don't face it so you could go very dark without feeling its presence. I'm thinking maybe dark grey or dark brown to rear, something mid to light grey, brown, or cream to the sides (with darker curtains over the window and french doors), and the lightest wall to the front probably cream (but maybe with a middle section of something mid to dark in colour, floor to ceiling, framing the 50" plasma with a 1-2 foot border). What do you think? Re: WALL COLOURS - home theatre 10Dec 07, 2007 6:59 am Hi Jayp.
If your primary or only display in the theatre is a plasma then, although the colour of the walls in the room and how light/dark they are will have some effect on the picture (theoretically), it will be nowhere near as noticable (if at all) as if you were using a front projection system. The information I gave above was done so with a front projection system in mind. If you're using plasmas, LCDs or CRTs then IMHO I reckon you can choose the colours you want for style/taste purposes as it just doesn't matter that much. You just don't want a huge light source (like a window) opposite a plasma, one that you'd see reflected in it... Re: WALL COLOURS - home theatre 12Feb 19, 2009 5:23 pm If you're trying to reduce the amount of light bouncing around inside the room then matt paint is preferable to sheen. Re: WALL COLOURS - home theatre 13Feb 24, 2009 9:03 am Hi there,
With the house we are building, we are converting the living room to a theatre/music room. Wife has given me permission to do as I wish with it. I went down to big picture people to look at their theatre designs. Would there be a big difference in Matt black ceiling and front wall where fixed screen hangs or would a Matt grey still look as good? I will have a window at the back of the room but it will be covered with a ceiling to floor curtain for the whole wall. Was thinking of going charcoal curtain. Carpets will also be some dark charcoal colour. Side walls, I'm not 100% sure yet, as i dont want to have the whole room black/charcoal. was thinking a light matt brown with a suede/brushed effect. The seating will be an L chaise which is a brown/ grey colour. So what do you guys think about the ceiling and front wall colour idea? Re: WALL COLOURS - home theatre 14Feb 24, 2009 10:28 am I can only say that darker is better when it comes to squeezing the most and best out of your projector and screen combo, so combine that rule with taste and you'll come up with the solution that works best for you (colours/tints/shades are always going to be an individual thing...).
Sounds like it's going to be a good room. Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5229 Can anyone recommend a good/affordable retaining wall and fence builder that I can get a quote from located in Sydney? 8 45894 We already paid for somfy motors for the blinds. The quote above was purely for “pre-wiring” so the blinds company can install the motors and blinds. That’s why we… 5 16326 |