What color paints did you use in your theater??

[daron73m]

Curious as to what color everyone has painted the walls of their home theater and how it looks? Ive read to basically stick to dark brown, dark tan, or black because of the reflective light from the screens.

thanks for any advice

 

[avaserfi]

I am a fan of a medium/dark gray personally. I feel they don't over darken the room but keep light reflection down at the same time.

 

[j_garcia]

Dark blue-gray on the wall behind the display and light gray (almost white) everywhere else. I am going to have to get some updated pics, but you can click on Tempest in my sig and see the colors.

 

[Johnd]

Well, I don't know how apropos my input is (as I have no wall paint at all), but I'll respond nevertheless.

I used dark Walnut stain over indigenous Black Walnut panelled walls...I'm into darkness.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Since we have a family room theater (front projection/plasma) we went with a dark green on the projection wall and used a medium grey for the rest of the room, ceiling included. The carpet is also a medium grey color.

Do NOT forget the ceiling as the white ceiling is completely inappropriate for any theater.

To get the room properly bright after nightfall there are 13 recessed lights in the room. We rarely push them above 50% but when we need to clean or I need to work on the in-room rack there is plenty of light to do so.

 

[majorloser]

My response would be, "Way too freakin' dark paint."

I painted the front screen wall and the ceiling flat black. The walls are dark blue on the bottom and light grey on the top with a medium grey stripe around the whole room. The doors and trim are medium grey.

For what it's worth......

Flat black paint on the ceiling will suck ALL of the light out of the room.

 

[mike c]

I was supposed to paint my room ALL black ... but thanks to Major's advice NOT to do that, I went halfway with ...

GRAY ceiling
some BLACK walls
and some BURGUNDY walls (in between red and purple = dark eggplant)

it ended up being dark enough.

 

[Matt34]

I used Behr's Mahogany(egg-shell) on all the walls and ceiling. I would like to repaint one of the walls a shade of gray to mix it up though.

 

[Johnd]

Flat black paint on the ceiling will suck ALL of the light out of the room.

And I thought I was into darkness. "Sucking" the light out of the room is preferable...so it seems majorloser's got me beat.

 

[Johnd]

shade of gray

Ahhhhhhhh...shades of gray. Brings back memories.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Flat black paint on the ceiling will suck ALL of the light out of the room.

This is true, so I reitorate: There is no such thing as to much LIGHT in a theater. That is, you have to double, if not triple the number of light fixtures in a proper theater vs. a normal room. A normal room which can be fully lit with a few hundred watt lamps may need closer to 600+ watts in a proper theater to get the same effect. You also need to put the lights in about every 5 to 8 feet to get even coverage.

This is 780 watts of lighting in my theater with the projector on:

From...
http://www.avintegrated.com/lighting.html

 

[majorloser]

You ain't kiddin' !!!!!!

I keep adding light to make up for the black paint. Halogen lights everywhere.

If you have an opportunity to add extra high hat lights all around the side walls in a "wall washer" effect, it makes for a great effect without having lights pointed at the screen. Sconces around the side walls pointed up have a similar effect. And of course all on remote control dimmers

The black ceiling is dark:

 

[Bryce_H]

I used "Tornado Grey" from Behr on the front wall and ceiling. The walls are a deep red and deep blue. All paint is flat matte. I have 6 ceiling cans, 3 wall sconces, and rope lighting (under the 2nd row riser).

See this thread (asks same question)

So when did the attachment limit go into effect?

 

[TVJon]

I'm using a natural tones color combination for my media room (not really a dedicate theater - there's a wetbar in the back. Dark gray/green on the walls, a golden tan on the trey ceiling so the rope lights do their job. The green works really well with the oak woodwork with a medium natural stain and a satin finish to cut down the shine. The screen wall will likely be dark gray or black. All flat paints.

TVJon