Hi all,
I just bought a home with a large media room: 34ft by 23ft. by (sigh) a 15 high ceiling. I am dealing with the sound issues, but am very confused about paint for the walls. I am going to install a 3 chip Dlp (O.K. it is a Runco and I know AVSers hate Runco, but I am just a simple customer). This cavernous room is totally light controlled. I have read all about the Munsell color system and it confuses me. Oh, and I have a WAF. No way I can paint the room "flat gray". I need help figuring out how to judge if a paint will do the best I can do: dark tan, brown, etc. How do pick a paint that is safe?( Oh, and there will be no second chance:))
I might be able to get dark curtains to wrap around the room corners if that would help.
Thanks for your advice.

Black velvet works best but I would do Navy blue Paint, I have in the past and it does not color shift.

Hi all,
I just bought a home with a large media room: 34ft by 23ft. by (sigh) a 15 high ceiling.
Those are incredible room dimensions including the height, I'd be singing from the rooftops, not sighing :). It might help if you would explain the goals for the room a little bit more. Since you posted in the ultra high-end forum I will point out that one normally does not paint a theater of this type :), other than ceiling, the walls would usually be finishes with fabric. The room dimensions support 3 levels of seating, is this going to be a multi-level theater? As for colors, I would choose the darkest color possible that will also work with your design preferences, whether that is brown or blue or green, and of course it should be non-reflective.

Personally, I would go with the darker earth tones, such as brown, near the screen, ceiling, and the back wall. Use tan, as a complimentary color, closer to the seating area, where light reflections are not as much an issue. I think you can go darker with earth tones, without it feeling cold, like other tones, and the use of lighter shades near the seating area will keep it from feeling like a cave. Most important areas for the darker paint would be around the screen, especially the ceiling right above.

I have chosen the following colour as the primary tone for my HT room. The screen wall will be completly black with all wooden constructions being made from the sepili hardwood as shown.

http://i637.photobucket.com/albums/uu100/sierraalphahotel/HT%20Room/HT%20Room/HTcoloursamplesmall.jpg

If you size a system for that size and you can't close it off, movies will reverberate through the whole house!! I imagine you do not have any kids. Hopefully you have doors!

Thanks for the responses guys.

QQQ, the house we sold in May had an “eye candy”, high finishes, media room. We had it designed and furnished to look like a paneled den/family room. We did not have, nor want tiered seating. This house came with a giant room that is tiered and requires what I view as the more traditional set up. So, we will go with non-reflective paint, cloth and sound treatments as needed (we are addressing the “ceiling factor”, which creates quite the echo, now).
Some fabric on the walls will be added as needed. I don’t know whether to go with the acoustic panels I have read about or a wood border at chair rail level with fabric to the baseboards.
The purpose of the room will be to view HD movies and sports. It will only have two levels of seating (less is more sometimes).

Sierra, I really like your color scheme. I love the wood you are using, but I am going to avoid lots of wood this time (which violates the WAF, but, heck, she is not hot on another media room anyway :) ).

Jeff, I too am worried about the sound. I am putting in two big subs and, darn, the master bedroom is right next to the theater. I may need a marriage counselor.


One other question: It seems everyone suggests black on the screen wall. At a certain light level black and dark brown look alike (you can check my socks in the morning if don’t believe me). I am leaning towards a dark, non-reflective brown, with tan accents as Phil suggests. Is a dark brown screen wall an equally good choice?
Thanks again for you input.

Ed