My theater has a soffit around three of the walls (right, left and rear walls). I'm planning on having a black ceiling. I'm also planning on painting the interior sides of the soffit black to match the ceiling. I want to run crown molding around the interior side of the soffit which will contain rope lighting. The crown molding will be black to match the soffit and ceiling. The projector will be ceiling mounted.

My wife doesn't like the idea of a black ceiling or black crown molding. I would like the ceiling, soffit and molding to be black for light reflections from the screen. She also feels the rope lighting will do nothing because it has nothing to reflect off of. I keep telling her the rope lighting will be an accent light and doesn't need to reflect off of anything. With regard to the crown molding being black, she thinks it will cover up any architectural detail the molding has.

What do you think? If you have any ideas I'd like to hear them.

Thanks!

Dave

Compromise... It is only fun if your wife doesn't hate it when it is done. Sure, black everything is best, but you won't destroy the room by having wood, even stained wood, in the room.

Keep in mind, rope lighting against very dark colors can provide very small results if you don't use good (aka, LED) rope light.

Curt

It took Pictures of other great looking theaters to convince my wife that putting fabric on the walls was OK.

It's PAINT for crying out loud. You compromise like this...."Honey, if after a month you still HATE it, then we'll repaint it."

From what I've read on other threads about balck paint, most wives SAY they don't want black paint until they see it.

Good luck,
Tom

Tom,

My wife wanted to start with a white ceiling and then paint it black if it didn't work. I tried to tell her that I would need new black covers for the recessed lights and it would be a huge pain to paint the inside soffit walls with the rope light and crown molding attached.

I like your idea - I'll continue to work with her about the black ceiling.

Thanks!

Dave

Do pictures (http://caesare.homeip.net/basement/slides/IMG_2123.htm) help?

http://caesare.homeip.net/basement/slides/IMG_2123.jpg

I thought about black crown. To be honest with you I am glad that I went with gold. My ceiling is a light blue. I wish the ceiling came out a little darker, but I am leaving it for now. Matching the side soffit to the ceiling makes a lot of sense to me.

I think the "its just paint" arguement is a good one.
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u129/dc_pilgrim/colors.jpg

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it!

Dave

Yep, look for pics, the wife will really love that.

Oh the other hand, you might not end up with black, but then again, you might not want black yourself after you look at a lot of theaters!

Mine: Milano Blue and honey colored poplar trim. You'll also notice that the ceiling in the middle appears black - and when you turn down/off the rope lighting, the ceiling gets very dark.

http://web.mac.com/cptnrandy/iWeb/Cinema%20Murray%20Online/Photos_files/6D2E5509.jpg

Good luck!

Randy

I vote for the CptnRandy look. His room looks really rich with the stained wood trim. My room has similar dark stained crown next to about a 1' band of very deep red ceiling paint. Most of the ceiling is covered with a black GOM star ceiling. The trim is totally not noticed with the lights out and a movie playing (the top half of the front wall is black GOM, so its pretty dark above the screen). I'd go with black paint on the ceiling and dark wood crown and remember you can paint the trim black pretty easily after its up if it bothers you. Not so easy to remove the black and go with stain.

The Spastic Bat theater has some great examples of the rope light ans it's accent abilities....

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11318174#post11318174

My wife had a very hard time visualizing the theater I had in mind. She is very glad she trusted me and now loves the space and is very proud when people come over to visit and can not stop talking about the theater.

I had a very similar idea that I think you have. My ceiling is painted flat black, walls flat dark blue and inside the softfit is a lighter blue. When I watch TV or movies I have the rope light in the softfit and stage on only 50%. It produces more light than I thought it would. The front wall is all fabric and I have three panels at the first reflection points along the wall. These panels are covered in GOM that match the wall color perfectly.

Show these picture to your wife and she want she thinks.

http://www.nicepeeps.com/cdhome_theater/

Here is a pic of mine with a black ceiling. Sides are black above the crown and red fabric below the crown that matches the walls. The crown was spray painted gold. There is also rope lite (white casing not clear) behind the crown.

Are you sure you want black? It doesn't photograph very well. The accent lighting on the walls later in my room will improve photos of it but not much I am guessing.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=94470&stc=1&d=1163600550

Are you sure you want black? It doesn't photograph very well. The accent lighting on the walls later in my room will improve photos of it but not much I am guessing.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=94470&stc=1&d=1163600550

SteveMo=Dexter?

I forgot to mention the light bulb wasn't in all the way. The trim will be black in the room. What or who do you mean by Dexter?

There are some beautiful theaters already linked to this thread, but I especially like Randy's. It's gorgeous whether the lights are up or off!

I vote for stained crown molding. If you're going to do all the work to put up crown molding, people should notice it when the lights are up! Seriously, the stained wood is a classic look that will greatly improve WAF. You can greatly minimize reflections by choosing a lower-gloss finish. Satin varnish shouldn't reflect much light at all when the lights are down. If you go to a paint store that caters to professionals, you might be able to buy varnish in a flat sheen, which would reflect even less light.

-- Paul

SteveMo=Dexter?

:confused: Did you find my first build thread? Are you going to answer this year? (meaning I have been asked this before)

Dexter is a showtime show about a fictional serial killer who kills evil people. Its pretty good from the couple of episodes I have seen. There are a lot of sequences which show a lot of plastic being used to contain blood splatter, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_(TV_series)

Dexter is a showtime show about a fictional serial killer who kills evil people. Its pretty good from the couple of episodes I have seen. There are a lot of sequences which show a lot of plastic being used to contain blood splatter, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_(TV_series)

:p

That is exactly what I was referring too....sorry, couldnt help it. :D

There are a lot of sequences which show a lot of plastic being used to contain blood splatter, etc.


His SOP is to create a plastic room within a room construction where he conducts his vigilantly execution/murders. Then everything gets put into garbage bags and dumped into the ocean.

Great show.

Dave, Like you, I have the soffits and the black ceilings (and walls) As a Interior trimmer, I always tell people trim is for accent so make it stand out! I know its preference but I have to say that black crown on black ceilings is a crying shame. Look at the gallery. There are a million and one awesome theaters to reference. Have fun with it!
http://picasaweb.google.com/mahler007/TheatreRoom

Dexter is a showtime show about a fictional serial killer who kills evil people. Its pretty good from the couple of episodes I have seen. There are a lot of sequences which show a lot of plastic being used to contain blood splatter, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_(TV_series)

That will be one to give a try on Netflix if it is anything close to being as good as The Decent or 28 days later (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_days_later).


:p

That is exactly what I was referring too....sorry, couldnt help it. :D

Gollum's Cave Theater. :cool:

http://home.mchsi.com/~author29/gollum2007.JPG

A deck addition helps around here. I have one conveniently located outside the lobby. There was a second one built as well with another addition on that still in the making.

I'll post the Renders of my room as it looks just like it but I don't have any really good pictures of it yet. I plan to have a person come with a wide angle lens. Note the equipment room is now out of the room.

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o70/DonKellogg/Cinema%204D%20Renders/dk_r5_s2.png

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o70/DonKellogg/Cinema%204D%20Renders/dk_r6_s3.jpg

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o70/DonKellogg/Cinema%204D%20Renders/Render_JVC02.jpg

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o70/DonKellogg/DSCF1419.jpg

It took Pictures of other great looking theaters to convince my wife that putting fabric on the walls was OK.

Yup, nothing beats showing her. I showed my wife tons of pictures of what "I" wanted our theater to look like. I focused of the "Fabric Frame" theaters with black ceilings as seen in the GPowers thread.

She hated them all ...

I took her inside a local home theater store with me one day and we walked into one of their dedicated rooms. It was basically a fabric frame theater with black ceiling, black fabric-wrapped baseboard molding, black fabric-wrapped crown molding, and darkish color carpet. I was waiting for her gripes about how terrible the room looked based on her previous comments.

She loved the room. I then told her that this is what I've been showing you in the pictures on AVS and she was like ... "I didn't know that they look like this."

At this point, it was a done deal ... I got my dark colors and black front wall and ceiling.

Keep trying and use the above advice ... she also has to like and want to use the room too.

T.Wells

I would forgo the black crown - the whole point of crown is architectural detailing - and you lose that with black. You just as well use a blank board.

Put some star panels in the black ceiling she will change your mind - especially if you use the gold crown to give it the rich look that opens to air - just like the Vegas casinos do in their lobbies. Use the constellation she wished upon a star back on your honeymoon - you are out of the doghouse...

My theater has a soffit around three of the walls (right, left and rear walls). I'm planning on having a black ceiling. I'm also planning on painting the interior sides of the soffit black to match the ceiling. I want to run crown molding around the interior side of the soffit which will contain rope lighting. The crown molding will be black to match the soffit and ceiling. The projector will be ceiling mounted.

My wife doesn't like the idea of a black ceiling or black crown molding. I would like the ceiling, soffit and molding to be black for light reflections from the screen. She also feels the rope lighting will do nothing because it has nothing to reflect off of. I keep telling her the rope lighting will be an accent light and doesn't need to reflect off of anything. With regard to the crown molding being black, she thinks it will cover up any architectural detail the molding has.

What do you think? If you have any ideas I'd like to hear them.

Thanks!

Dave
Dave:
With all due respect-why settle for a black ceiling and crown?
I can't believe you haven't at least considered the old standbye "milano blue" for a ceiling and the gold trim, (http://tomdufresne.com/v-web/gallery/album16/IMG_9284?full=1) like mentioned just to the post above mine.

There ARE alternatives to that flat black...
Best luck,
Tom
CHinaclipper

I need ideas to improve WAF!

Liquor. And/or something that sounds like liquor.

Done watching the first season of Dexter. :p

Liquor. And/or something that sounds like liquor.

This always works for me, especially the latter...

Oh do I know about WAF!

I'm turning the front room of our house, the "living" room you see when you enter the house, into our HT projection room. Thus, on-going aesthetic battles with my wife. I am VERY aesthetically sensitive too but I'm also going for performance, hence trying to sell the darker decor. Not easy.

I'm going for darker ceiling, dark brown rug, darker furniture, with dark chocolate brown curtains concealing the screen wall, but compromising on the rest of the walls - not very dark, creamy fabric-lined walls. However, I plan to also have the dark chocolate curtains continue to the sides of the wall. They will be pushed into the corner
when not watching a movie, so most of the walls will be a mid-tone color. But during a movie I'll be able to pull them about 6 to 8 feet along the side walls to the sides of the screen, to cut reflections. That was the best I could think of so we don't have to go for a "cave" but I'll hopefully be addressing the most egregious reflections to maintain image quality.

The thing with my wife is she's very literal and can't picture things in advance. She thinks the curtains concealing the screen will look "dumb." "Why do we need curtains?"
Well...because the screen wall will be painted black and I don't really want to be looking at a big, blank screen on the wall when the projector isn't in use.

She wants me to show her a picture of curtains along a wall. But I've looked and looked and, frankly, I can't find any that I think look too great either - at least none that are like the ones I'm planning.

Ah well, we'll see....

I have a black ceiling and stained crown moulding. I vote for the try it and if she hates it after a week suggestion...

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r287/jikkjack/Royal%20Fortune/DSC192.jpg