Hi everyone. I have painted my theater ceiling flat black and the chalkiness is really bothering me. I have painted my entire basement and other area with flat but have never had this problem before. What happens is if I touch the black painted surface, even with clean dry hands I get the chalkienss residue. If I try to wipe it, it removes a little but I can still see it. I am wondering if I should move to an eggplant sheen to alieviate the problem. I am just wondering if that is not advisable for some reason.

What have all of you done, flat or with sheen. And if you used paint with a sheen, which was it?

Thanks,
Dave

Just painted mine flat, and it's the same as what you speak, if my knuckles rub the ceiling it makes a haze on the surface. Someone had mentioned a microfibre cloth with some vodka on it works. A friend of mine has a harley that is flat black and he uses rubbing alcohol I think.
I would leave it, and once you're done working on your room you will probably never touch your ceiling again.

Yup. I painted my ceiling flat black. I would advise only painting flat black on a ceiling that is too high for people to touch.

If I were to do it again, my light shelf and the underside of my soffits would likely be an eggshell or something, since the lightshelf is only 8' high.

flat black for me...

I painted a Matte Black finish on the ceiling, projection wall, and trim..... and I notice the same thing you're talking about on my hand-rail / "half-wall" going up to my movie room. since it's a place where you put your hands, it's going to be impossible for me to make it look great, so I'm not sure if I should re-paint or not..... My room has many flaws since it's an attic, but I think I should try to at least correct the smaller issues.....

Matte finish

Flat black for me too. Including my entry door! You can imagine all the chalky fingerprints. But a "micro-fiber" (eye glasses) lens cloth is pretty effective in wiping them off.

I did try several versions of higher gloss and eggshell black paint. But ALL caused too much reflection. Flat black was the only way to go. So I put up w/ the constant need to wipe down the door. Thankfully no one touches my walls or ceiling:)

Flat black for me too.

Black cloth on the ceiling! It's matte and doesn't show fingerprints.

I used a flat gold and there's no glare to speak of.

I went with Flat Black for the theatre's ceiling and walls and glad I did as far as the projected image and contrast ratio is concerned....

I went flat on the ceiling as well and its great, but dont do flat on the walls...I made that mistake and just finished repainting them egg-shell, flat walls arent kid-friendly.

Flat black for me too - my painter/faux guy did something awesome though. He took white paint and thinned it out a bit. Then he took his brush and pulled the bristles back (with the paint on the brush) and literally "flicked" it at the ceiling. It basically put tons of these little white stars in the ceiling....looks really very cool and did not take long at all. He just said he needed to make sure he covered the side walls from what he called "star splatter". I will post pics tonight...

Brian

Remember when buying FLAT - DO NOT - get the washable kind. The washable kind still reflects light.

Just painted mine flat, and it's the same as what you speak, if my knuckles rub the ceiling it makes a haze on the surface. Someone had mentioned a microfibre cloth with some vodka on it works. A friend of mine has a harley that is flat black and he uses rubbing alcohol I think.
I would leave it, and once you're done working on your room you will probably never touch your ceiling again.

I use a black t-shirt and some pledge. leaves nothing behind but the original paint color. I have Behr flat black paint btw.

I was going to comment about the ceiling must be way low if people are accidentally touching it

Flat black for me too - my painter/faux guy did something awesome though. He took white paint and thinned it out a bit. Then he took his brush and pulled the bristles back (with the paint on the brush) and literally "flicked" it at the ceiling. It basically put tons of these little white stars in the ceiling....looks really very cool and did not take long at all. He just said he needed to make sure he covered the side walls from what he called "star splatter". I will post pics tonight...

Brian

I am very interested in seeing this. I might steal this idea from you.

Reagrds,

RTROSE

WOW...that's 100% on flat black. That's what I thought. Looks like I will stick with Flat. Thanks for all the responses!

Dave

Yep, count me on the flat for the ceiling as well. For walls, I use matte now.

I was going to comment about the ceiling must be way low if people are accidentally touching it

Like him?

http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/worlds_tallest_man_leonid_stadnyk_2b.jpg

Kinda hard to see from these pics - but I like it a lot...cost me $20 for whole ceiling. For some reason - the black brings out all the imperfections of the ceiling - this definitely helps.

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g312/suntzu18/Cinema%20519/P1050174.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g312/suntzu18/Cinema%20519/P1050176.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g312/suntzu18/Cinema%20519/P1050177.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g312/suntzu18/Cinema%20519/P1050178.jpg

I would have done "Flat" but had to do "Matte" (as mentioned before) because I used Sherwin Williams' "Duration" brand paint, and they don't do the Duration in Flat finishes (for whatever reason, I don't know)

Walls, Ceiling, and trim is all brown/black Matte Finish.....

I think if you're going to do a lighter color (grey etc) then it is even more of a necessity to go with FLAT rather than other finishes.



EDIT:

By the way..... your pictures above have inspired me.... I think I might "Experiment" with my ceiling today...... Lookin' Good!

Hi everyone. I have painted my theater ceiling flat black and the chalkiness is really bothering me. I have painted my entire basement and other area with flat but have never had this problem before. What happens is if I touch the black painted surface, even with clean dry hands I get the chalkienss residue. If I try to wipe it, it removes a little but I can still see it. I am wondering if I should move to an eggplant sheen to alieviate the problem. I am just wondering if that is not advisable for some reason.

What have all of you done, flat or with sheen. And if you used paint with a sheen, which was it?

Thanks,
Dave

I have started threads here complaining about the same thing. At first I thought it was the paint brand or sheen, but I now have gotten this same problem with two brands of paint as well as with flat and satin finishes.

It really bugs me too and I am thinking about repainting.

I painted flat black using Behr's Disney Mouse Ear flat black. If your ceiling clearance is lower than 8 feet I highly suggest spending the extra time and money to throw some "knockdown" texture on the ceiling before painting. As delicate amd meticulous I was about framing and drywall installation there were soooooo many imperfections and lines and scratches on the ceiling drywall that became INSTANTLY Visible to the naked eye once I painted the ceiling black without texture. White paint is very good at hiding imperfections in your drywall, black paint does the extreme opposite by MAGNIFYING the lines, scratches, and other imperfections with your sheet rock.

So I ended up re-buying the same amount of black paint, textured my ceiling, and repainted all over again, and it looks REALLY good now, not only does the texture hide the sheet rock and paint imperfections, it actually makes the room and the ceiling look 10 times better IMHO.

So dont make the mistake, and atleast texture your ceiling, if you plan on doing fabric on your walls. You can find general contractors that will texture your ceiling for a little over the cost of renting a professional texturing gun from Home Depot. I paid my helper about $100 to texture the entire ceiling which is about 700 sqft and he did a great job.

I am such a freak with my taping (over, and over and over) that even though the ceiling is black, you actually don't see any imperfections. I am going to repaint tomorrow to try to get rid of the roller marks. I also used Behr Mouse ears. I love the color but after two coats I still see roller marks. Since the chalikiness issue exists with all brands, I am sticking with Behr. I do not anticipate anyone touching the ceing, I noticied it when I was on a ladder and touched it.

I will update with results soon.:)

Quick question as we are about to paint our basement theater room with the installation of projector and projection screen (currently white walls and white 12' ceiling):

For all of you who paint your ceiling black... Are your walls black too?

Quick question as we are about to paint our basement theater room with the installation of projector and projection screen (currently white walls and white 12' ceiling):

For all of you who paint your ceiling black... Are your walls black too?

I went with a black front wall, but beyond that, I used a darker color on the walls (virtual taupe) but not black. It actually turned out way better than I thought it would. I was nervous at first, but now I really really like it.

I actually went with a flat dark blue. Black suffers from the same problem as painting red. The base is actually clear instead of white. You need multiple coats to get uniform coverage.

When it is all over, I plan to go back and paint some faux clouds on the ceiling, but I need to get all my lighting they I want it first.

I actually went with a flat dark blue. Black suffers from the same problem as painting red. The base is actually clear instead of white. You need multiple coats to get uniform coverage.

When it is all over, I plan to go back and paint some faux clouds on the ceiling, but I need to get all my lighting they I want it first.

I'm thinking about going dark blue as well. What brand did you go with? And are you happy?

Yes, flat black on the ceiling and projection wall, it'll make your screen POP!

I'm thinking about going dark blue as well. What brand did you go with? And are you happy?

I used American Tradition. The thing about colors on ceilings is the lighting. Unless you have lighting directed to the ceiling, the color will always appear darker than it is. When at Lowe's I held the color card up and looked at it instead of looking it at it under light.

So far, I am happy with it. I am having issues with my rope lighting. Once I get my dimmers in place I can give a final evaluation.

Thanks guys. We have decided to go black on the front wall and ceiling and red on the other walls on top of a chair rail which will be black and black on bottom. This project just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

And it only has to be done before the 27th for the UFC 92 fight!

:(

Alright so it looks like we are going to go black flat on the ceiling and projector (screen) wall and then Red eggshell on the other walls ABOVE the chair rail and then Black eggshell below and on the chair rail.

Does that sound ok?

Flat Purple (Color Name Hotel)

I used an eggshell sheen, because of 'chalking' issues that I'd read about. It's a bit shinier than I expected, but you don't notice it at all when viewing a movie.

The eggshell still does some 'chalking' action on the walls, but I've just used a Swiffer Duster to remove the dust that's creating this. It seems to work really well.