Retractable Screen Painting - The Final Development

[tiddler]

Retractable Screen Painting - The Final Development


A Short History

For those who don't know, I got involved in the DIY Screen section here at AVS Forums in the spring of 2006. After tinkering around with bed sheets and some interesting fabrics I ran across East Porters and the very inexpensive EluneVision screens they were selling. The screens were only available in white and I knew I needed a gray screen. Initially I purchased a 120" 16:9 screen with the intension of replacing the fabric if the white did not work well. I figured the electric motor and RF remote justified the $250 price tag, so I took a chance.

As expected the white fabric was unacceptable to me so I started to investigate ways to improve my screen. Somewhere along the line the notion of painting the screen arose. if I recall correctly, someone on the screens forum over at Projector Central pointed me in the direction of AVS and the DIY Screens section. I had been keeping a log at Projector Central called Tiddler’s Home Theatre Integration Adventure. So I came to this forum and asked the question "Can you paint a retractable screen?".

I had many good suggestions from knowledgeable members here but ultimately I had to answer the question myself. Realizing that painting a retractable screen surface is a one shot deal, I started to investigate the various paint mixes that were being presented here. After much tinkering I finally settled on a solution and painted the first screen. In an effort to avoid the usual curling caused by painting one side of a flexible material I applied several coats to each side of the screen. It was way too stiff and the material would not flatten out completely when down. I added lead bird shot to the bottom bar which did help flatten out the surface. I was still not satisfied and I decided to get another EluneVision screen and paint it.

By inverting this image you can more clearly see both the horizontal waves down the screen surface and the usual V waves in the upper corners:

Click image to enlarge.

The second time I only applied one primer coat, two EsyFlex-06 gray base coats and two coats of Behr matte Polyurethane #780. I did not apply any paint to the back of the screen. Again the material is a bit too stiff, but nowhere near as bad as the first screen.

I found a location to hang the first screen in the basement. The second screen was of course mounted in the living room where we could use it. The reason for mounting the first screen was so that I could lower and raise it regularly. You see most people expected the paint would crack. I have been lowering and raising these screens for about a year now and there is no sign of cracking anywhere on them.

Then I did some sheen experiments with Behr paint products. In the process it was demonstrated just how well a flat paint could hide roughness in a screen surface. The screen I had painted had a polyurethane top coat and therefore had some gain and some reduction in viewing cone. This lead to the waves and bumps in the screen being quite visible during bright scenes. It was at that time I realized I should have used a flat or matte paint on the screens.

Behr had just introduced a new exterior paint Premium Plus Ultra™ Exterior Flat #4850 that had caught my eye one day while wondering around in Home Depot. I decided to try applying two coats of this exterior paint to my first screen that was hanging in the basement. I figured that if the matte finish made the waves in that screen disappear then the second smoother screen would look great if repainted with a matte finish paint. The matte finish paint did indeed hide all but the very worst of the waves in the screen. The waves are only visible on very bright uni-color scenes that are panning. The fact that exterior paints are also UV resistant, and flexible to withstand expansion and shrinkage due to temperature changes was a bonus. This particular Behr exterior paint is also self-priming and it levels out very well.

So now I think I finally have the answers to if and how to paint a retractable screen. With the use of a self-priming exterior paint it should be possible to paint a retractable screen with only two coats. This should result in a more flexible screen surface that will not show waves or bumps. Indeed I will paint the second screen this way. It will no doubt benefit from the matte neutral gray finish. BUT! It will have a total of 7 coats of paint on it. So while it will be an improvement over the first screen it will not be as good as it could be if I were starting over with my current knowledge and experience. I also do not feel comfortable presenting a solution that I have not implemented myself.

That realization lead me to take a peak at the East Porters website to see if the current EluneVision Value Line of screens was actually the original screen mechanically. It turns out that they are the same as the screens I have and they still have a few in stock. They only come in a white as before and the price is still under $250 for a 120" 16:9 remote controlled motorized screen. So I could not resist the opportunity to finally do it right and document the process.

This thread will represent The Final Solution for painting a retractable screen. I will be rolling the paint on but there is no reason why you could not or should not consider spray painting the screen if you are so equipped.


WHY!?

This is often the first question that comes to mind when the topic of painting a retractable screen comes up. In my case the screen is white and I want a neutral gray. I know that I am purchasing white screens and painting them gray but I do not really advocate that. What I do advocate is that if you have a retractable screen that you are unhappy with and you will most likely discard it, then maybe painting it would be a very cost effective alternative. It will only cost about $25 for the paint, masking tape, etc. It could result in a screen that will produce a very satisfying image and save a bit of space in the local land fill. So why not take a chance and try your hand at it.


Considerations & Limitations

The most important thing to consider is that the screen will need to remain extended for at least a week and possibly as long as a month. If you only plan on painting the screen surface, then you might get away with a week. It is best to let the paint not only dry but cure before you roll the screen up. If you plan on painting the border then you need at least a week to let the border paint dry before you can mask it to paint the screen area. Then another week minimum to allow the screen pain to dry. By the time you are done it could be a month before you roll the screen up again.

Painting could be a good remedy for a screen that is soiled or discolored. It may not be so effective on a very rough or damaged surface. Matte and flat paints are quite effective at hiding surface blemishes as these photos demonstrate . . .


Click images to enlarge.


. . . but it is hard to say if a repaired rip will show or not. So you should keep your expectations reasonable.

[tiddler]

Painting The Border

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Tools & Materials


Paint



Masking Tape



Clear Tape Sealer

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Painting the Border

Normally I would not suggest this unless it is necessary.

Painting a border on a retractable is not quite as simple as a fixed screen. On a fixed screen you would simply paint the entire substrate with the screen paint. Then a week or two later using the projector as a guide you would mask off the screen along the border and paint with flat black paint. The fact that the border paint would sit on top of the screen paint would not be an issue. With a retractable screen this represents a change in thickness of the material.

With a retractable screen you want to try to maintain the same thickness across the material. Therefore I believe the best way to do this is to mask off the inside edge of the border for the desired screen area. You should use some of the screen paint to seal the masking tape edge. That will prevent the black paint from wicking onto the screen area. Then paint the border first. Remove the masking tape as soon as the paint is dry enough. Allow the border paint to dry for at least a week.

Once the border paint has dried for an extended period of time, then you can mask the very edge of the border along the screen area. In this case you cannot use the black paint to seal the edge of the tape. That would put black paint on the screen area. Use the screen paint and don't load the edging brush very much. You want just enough paint to seal the edge without wicking. When the edging sealing has had an hour or two to dry, the screen area can then be painted.

When removing the masking tape from the border, be very careful to fold it back on itself and then pull it gently along the surface not out from the surface.




You may have taken note that this method of painting the border does not require masking tape to be placed on the painted screen surface. This was deliberate. If you pull a little border paint off it can be touched up. If you did the same to the screen paint it would show.

So that is my devised method for painting the border. I will attempt this on the second screen. Then I will paint it with CIL SMART3 WASH & WEAR Interior Paint - Ultra Matte which is similar to the Glidden Evermore™ Premium Interior Super Washable Flat.

In my case I would like a wider border on my screen so I am reducing the screen from a 120" 16:9 to 100" x 56.25" for a 115" screen.

I will be using the Behr Ext. ULTRA Deep Base Flat #4853 with the maximum amount of Lamp Black added. If this works out well then there will be plenty to use on the Final Solution.

I have painted up a sample of the flat black and the CIL Universal Grey. When they are dry I will take some photos against the current screen.

[tiddler]

I finally settled on 100" x 5.25" for the screen size. My projector, Optoma HD72, is 15:9 native so I was not sure which way to go. The screen was 58.5" high so that would mean a 97.5" width for a 15:9 screen. I would prefer the wider screen for movies so I went with 16:9. Since the projector is native 768 high it allows for some vertical shifting. The only downside is the 1024x768 image from the PC will get down converted to 720 high.

Since I needed to have the screen much lower to paint the top part of the border I had to figure out a little different way to hold the bottom corners. The screen is cleaned and masked. I also sealed the tape edges with some of the Universal Gray that will be painted on the screen area in a week or so.


Click images to enlarge.

Note in the edge painting photo the difference in sheen between the CIL Washable Flat and the Behr Flat with a matte polyurethane top coat. I seem to have come full circle back to flat paints, Eh!

I should mention that both of my screens have forward curls in the edges. The wider borders will put the image inside the curl where the screen is flattest. I think these curls are the result of painting the screen but I have notice all the screens at work have this sort of curl to some degree.

[tiddler]

Universal Gray

I had this mixed up in the CIL SMART3 WASH & WEAR Interior Paint - Ultra Matte base paint.

I applied two coats to a sample card and here is what it looks like:



It appears to be close to an N8 in shade and in the ball park as far as being neutral goes.

I clipped it to my screen that has the Behr Ext. UPW Flat #4850 paint on it and had a look at it. It seems to be much flatter and does not produce whites as well. I can't really tell much from such a small card so I will make up a 2'x4' sample to see how it looks. Right now I think it is too flat.

I have the eggshell on my kitchen walls and it looks too glossy. I can see a hot spot from the kitchen light in it.

We will see how the bigger sample looks before I paint the screen with it.

[tiddler]

The border paint had dried sufficiently that I could remove the masking tape.


Click images to enlarge.

It looks pretty good, except for the sheen being higher than I would like. The trade off is a bit more sheen for a paint that is self-priming, quite durable, and flexible.

I made one mistake when masking the screen. I figured why bend down when I could simple raise the screen. So when I was working on the lower parts of the screen I raised it. The vertical strips of tape wrinkled from being rolled. Unfortunately I did not notice how bad the right side was until after I had sealed the edge. here is the result:


I was able to clean off the black paint that had wicked onto the screen area. I think it will cover ok when I paint the screen area.



The horizontal tape was not effected by the rolling and produced a beautiful clean edge.




Here is a photo demonstrating what I mean by pulling the tape back on itself and along the surface.




Now I have to wait until at least next weekend for the border paint to dry and bond securely to the screen material. I would not want the border paint to peal off with the masking tape.

[tiddler]

I took the finished border photo and inverted it.


Click to enlarge.

You can clearly see the horizontal lines or waves from the paint being too stiff. You can also clearly see the usual V waves, especially in the upper corners.

This screen is nowhere near as bad as the first on was. With the matte paint on the first screen you cannot see any but the very worst crease. The V waves are not at all visible in the image either. That is why I am completely sold on only using flat or matte finishes on a retractable screen.

[tiddler]

Universal Gray Trials


I had made up a small 7.5" x 11" sample of the Universal Gray tint in CIL WSmart3 Wash & Wear Ultra Matte but it was too small. I painted up a 2'x4' sample panel with three coats and took some screen shots. This paint is flatter than the Behr ULTRA 4850. The shade of gray is very close but the Universal Gray is supposed to be a bit more neutral. I think my screen is lacking a bit in red. The gain of the Universal Gray is lower and therefore there is a wider viewing cone.



You can see all the screen shots by clicking here.

I definitely prefer the current screen, but not by much.

Since I tinkered with the 4850 that is on the screen now I will have to get some more and tint it properly. I am concerned it may have too much sheen.

[tiddler]

The third and final EluneVision screen arrived today. It is the same case and cabling which is great for me. It will be a drop in replacement for my other two screens. The only difference is the screen material. It is white and rated at a gain of 1.0 instead of 1.3 as the others were. If anyone is looking for an inexpensive RF remote motorized retractable white screen, this looks like a good choice, for Canadians anyway. The material has some sheen and a texture but no sparkley flakes like the first two.

I also picked up a gallon of the Behr Exterior Ultra UPW Flat, tinted as follows:

Gallon Custom Tint
0 32 0 Lamp Black
0 6 0 Brown Oxide
0 2 0 Medium Yellow

Quart Custom Tint
0 8 0 Lamp Black
0 1 1 Brown Oxide
0 0 1 Medium Yellow

This looks identical to the CIL/Glidden "Universal Gray". I know that people are saying the next darker shade with 0 10 1 LB is an N8 but I think this is close to an N8. I will paint up a couple of sample panels and see how they look.

If all goes well, this weekend I will paint the screen area of the trial screen. Then I must try to wait at least two weeks before rolling the screen up and switching it into the living room. Assuming the trial screen works well, I will start on the Final Solution. In case that has gotten lost in the noise, the Final Solution is a retractable screen with a wider black border and matte neutral gray screen area, but only two coats of paint.

[tiddler]

There has been some talk about hot spotting recently so I decided to try the camera flash test on the existing two screens.

First let me just say that I really like the look of the wider screen border. I have never really paid much attention to the issue of the image fitting the screen and borders properly. I can't zoom out far enough to fill the current size so it was not an option up until now. Even without an image projected on the screen I can tell it will look better. For wide screen movies I will jsut raise the screen so there a border on the sides and bottom. For 16:9 movies the image will fill the screen and I suspect look a lot better.

Wide Border <=> Original Skinny Border

Click image to enlarge.


Staying with the second screen which I am practicing on, here are the camera flash test:

Click image to enlarge.

You can see that there is some hot spotting going on with the matte polyurethane over flat UPW #1050. It's not so bad that it was ever apparent in the image. However the sheen was making the screen imperfections very noticeable. You can see some horizontal lines, and the surface is kind of bumpy. Most retractable screens will also have V waves that become more apparent with any kind of sheen. This is why I considered trying the Behr Flat #4850 on the first screen.

Here is the first screen that has the Behr Ext. ULTRA UPW Flat, tinted close to an N8 gray:

Click image to enlarge.

These shots are far more uniform except for the curvature of the screen near the edges. I'm a little worried though. When I purchased the first quart of 4850 I only had a light version of the N7 tint (0 5 0 LB ...). I wanted it darker so I had UPW #1050 with LB and UPW #1050 with YO, so I mixed it darker. It's not how neutral it is that worries me it is that the UPW #1050 is flat. So is that screen a true representation of the sheen that plain old 4850 is going to have. Probably not. The black 4850 I used on the border definitely has some sheen, but it is the ULTRA Deep Base so I'm not sure it is representative of what the ULTRA UPW will be like. I'll just have to wait and see how the test panels look. This concern about hot spotting is why I am making up two 2'x4' sample panels of the 4850.

[tiddler]

For those who may think I am rambling on and on . . . . I am.

This is more of a blog than a solution presentation. There is a preliminary Painting Retractable Screens chapter-post in the Beginner's Guide. When I am all done with this final solution exercise, I will review that and make sure it is a concise summary of what I would recommend if one were wanting to paint a retractable screen.

[tiddler]

I had a quick look at the sample panels this morning. I have a feeling they are going to be a little darker than I had hoped for. The screen I am currently using is between an N7.5 and N7.75 and I think that is probably a little too dark for the long run. As the lamp dims the projector will not be able to light up this darker gray. It looks great to me now. We can have quite a bit of light on and the image still looks good. It looks much better in the dark but for ambient light conditions it looks quite good.

Universal Gray looks to be almost bang on N8 and my sample panels look a bit darker. Well we will see this evening. We really won't know for sure until a few days from now though. The color changes, getting darker usually, as the paint cures. Friday night I will have to make a decision on the shade and the sheen.

[tiddler]

Well I put the new Behr 4850 sample panels and the CIL/Glidden "Universal Gray" panel in front of the projector to see if there is any hot spotting issues. I took some of these from about 10ft and some from about 6-8 feet from the screen. I just can't remember which. The good news is I don't think there will be any hot spotting issues.







I know this is a fairly dark gray but man do I like how well it work with a lot of ambient light present. When the lights go off the picture is amazing. I just have to decide if I stay with this shade of lighten it a bit.

I tried reseting the projector to see how much I would have to boost the brightness. I didn't seem to need to but I will have to revisit this before I decide.

At this point I would give a thumbs up for both the CIL SMART3 WASH & WEAR Interior Paint - Ultra Matte and the Behr Premium Plus Ultra™ Exterior Flat #4850. The behr 4850 has a slight edge in blacks and brightness though. It's not blatant but it is observable.

I will let the panels dry until Friday and then take another look before deciding what to do when I paint the practice screen on Saturday.

I don't really think there is anything to be gained by painting the practice screen with the CIL so it will definitly be the Behr, but I may mix it down to approximately the following tint:

Gallon Custom Tint
Behr UPW #4850
0 24 0 Lamp Black
0 04 1 Brown Oxide
0 01 1 Medium Yellow

That means mixing 3 part of the tinted paint I already have with 1 part untinted UPW #4850.

Decisions decisions!

[tiddler]

I thought I should mention that the Behr tints I am using were based on the N7 neutral gray tint that wbassett was given by his contact at Xrite. I then calculated the lighter tints based on diluting the N7 with untinted Behr UPW. The Behr UPW 1050 has an RGB of 248 248 241, and I would assume the Behr ULTRA UPW #4850 is similar. Therefore as you dilute the N7 it will go from a neutral RGB of 175 175 175 to 248 248 241. Knowing that the blue is actually dropping off I did division of the tint formula and then round up with the Lamp Black while rounding down with the blue balancing colorants. Therefore the ratio of Lamp Black to Brown Oxide is increasing as the tint is reduced.

The Behr 4850 with my custom tint appears to be slightly bluer than the CIL "Universal Gray". In fact I think there is a slight deficiency of red. This is similar to the Sherwin Williams "Gray Screen". Wbassett had speculated that a slight deficiency of red would improve ambient light tolerance if the ambient light source was incandescent lighting. I do beleive I have now witnessed this first hand when comparing the Universal Gray to the Behr DIY Tint.

I have decided what to do about the shade of gray to paint the practice screen. Using 3 parts of the initial tinted Behr 4850 and 1 part untinted 4850 I will make a quart of:

Quart Custom Tint
Behr Ext. ULTRA UPW #4850
0 6 0 Lamp Black
0 1 0 Brown Oxide
0 0 1 Medium Yellow

I will then paint the practice screen with this shade. The practice screen will get installed in the living room once it has dried for a week or so. I will then get an idea of how much ambient light tolerance I have lost. Based on that I will be able to decide which shade to paint the final screen.

In a way I am hedging my bets here. I know I like the darker shade right now. So I suspect the final screen will get the darker shade. In a year or so, if the bulb dims significantly I can always switch back to the lighter shade.

The bulb has about 700 hrs on it now so I don't know how much more it will dim down the road.

Friday night I will tape up the screen area and seal the edge. Saturday it will get two coats of the tinted Behr 4850. Then we wait for at least a week or two if possible to allow the paint to dry and cure. At that time I will swap out the screen that is in the living room now. My greatest anticipation is to see what the screen looks like with the wider black border. Anyone want to start a pool on whether I manage to wait the full two weeks or give in after a week?

[tiddler]

Tonight I masked off the screen area.



This time I did not make the mistake of rolling the screen up to work on the lower parts.

I then took some of the screen paint and a small brush and went along the edge of the tape to seal it.



I will allow this to dry overnight. I have found it is not a good idea to start painting a screen when you are tired or when you are in a hurry.

Tomorrow when I get up the screen will get two coats about 4 hrs apart.


Hot Spotting Demonstration

I had also picked up some fresh sample panels today. These are white with what I would call a semi-gloss sheen. I cleaned then and hung them up to see if they would demonstrate hot spotting. Here are the photos from various angles:



You can see that the hot spot follows as I move from side to side.

If I stand on the couch and get as high and close to the projector as possible, I can almost make the hot spot move off the top of the screen. You can see how a table mounted projector might not have a problem with a screen that has hot spotting issues. If the screen is high enough then the hot spot would be off the bottom of the screen.

[tiddler]

The screen paint is applied and now the waiting starts.



Here is a photo of the darker tint card and the screen:



The screen is lighter but not by a lot.

The roller texture is starting to build up a lot. Way too many coats of paint on this screen.

I did paint up a sample panel with the same paint as the screen so I can take a look and see how much difference the lighter shade will make. I will let it dry until sometime tomorrow at least.

[tiddler]

While I am waiting for the practice screen to cure, I will be making up some sample panels of mixtures of polyurethane and paint. I may also investigating ways to make the black border paint flatter. I won't know if the border paint has too much sheen until I try it out in a week or two.

The reason I am making samples of mixtures of polyurethane and paint is to determine if and how much it changes the color of the paint. Bud16415 uses the addition of satin polyurethane to a flat paint to control the gain. So this is of interest to him. I also want to prevent us throwing out the baby with the bath water.

One thing I notice with the RS-MaxxMudd and Silver Fire screen paint mixes was just how smooth a finish was attained. These mixes had large portions of polyurethane and water in them. The result was a very thin paint that was fairly transparent. The large amount of polyurethane also made this paint level out extremely well. When I look at my sample panels of RS-MaxxMudd there is no perceptible roller texture or Orange Peel texture.

While the matte finish paints I typically recommend do not have a tendency to reveal the texture in the image there are some extreme conditions where it is visible. Very occasionally I can detect the texture in very bright panning images. It's not immediately apparent and you really have to be looking for it but it is there.

So I will be doing a few trials with the basic Behr UPW #1050 and the Minnwax Clear Satin Polycrylic that was a mainstay of many screen paint mixes. In addition to the polyurethane and water being added I had also developed a two roller techniques to apply and smooth these thin paint mixes.

The resulting rolled finish is extremely smooth. I am told that the spray painting rigs like the Wagner Control Spray are able to produce very smooth finishes. I do not dispute that and indeed if your situation will accommodate spray painting then I would recommend you look into that. My only goal here is to determine what ill effect adding polyurethane may have on the neutrality of a gray paint and to demonstrate just how smooth a finish is possible using a 1/4" fuzzy roller in partnership with a 6" hard foam trim (hot dog) roller.

Over the weekend I applied 8 coats of a thinned paint using this two roller approach. I will post some photos this evening showing a macro photo of the surface texture. This will be in comparison to the Behr ULTRA 4850 as shown bellow:


Click image to enlarge.

As you can see the Behr 4850 levels out pretty well when applied with a 1/4" fuzzy roller.

[tiddler]

Here are the results of my Behr 1050 + Poly 780 + Water trials. There are 8 coats applied to two separate sample panels. These were applied using the two roller technique.


Click images to enlarge.

Remember there are "8" coats applied to these panels. The finish remain very smooth with very little orange peel texture. After 2 to 4 coats there is no perceptible texture at all. Since this is a one to one mix of paint and polyurethane it is fairly transluscent, therefore 4 coats would usually be applied where 2 coats of unthinned paint would be adequate.

Here is a sample panel with 2 coats of the Behr 4850 (nothing added) over at least 2 previous coats of paint. These coats were applied with the 1/4" fuzzy roller only. Unthinned paint does not work well with the two roller method.



This still quite good but not as smooth as the thinned two roller results. In addition the texture gets progressively worse with additional coats.

Here is a sample of the Behr Flat Enamel 1850. IIRC, this is 2 or 3 coats on a fresh panel. This was applied with just a fuzzy 1/4" nap roller also.




If someone has a sample of a screen painted with the Wagner Control Spray, it would be really interesting to see similar photos. I'll start a thread asking for that.

Now I decided to see what would happen if I simply added 10-15% water to the Behr Ext. ULTRA 4850 and tried the two roller technique. The first coat went on quite well and also covered quite well. I will apply two coats and see how the color compares.

[tiddler]

Last evening I tried something I did not expect to work. I took some of the Behr Ext. ULTRA UPW #4850 and thinned it down with 1oz. of water to 8oz. of paint, so that is about a 12.5% addition of water.

Much to my surprise and delight, it rolled on even easier than the un-thinned paint using a 1/4" nap fuzzy roller. I then found it would allow the use of the 6" hard foam trim roller to smooth and spread the paint. The first coat was thin enough to still see the texture of the white coating on the 1/8 whiteboard. The second coat seemed to have covered uniformly and was quite smooth. I was late getting up this morning so I don't know how good the third coat looks, but is expect it is still very smooth.

I always assumed the polyurethane was necessary to get this type of smooth finish but I guess I was wrong. However I have not tried this with the old UPW #1050. It may also be that the finish is slightly flatter than when only applied with the fuzzy roller. I will try to determine that this evening.

This is very good news! Adding water to the paint will have no effect on the color balance, or neutrality of the gray. Adding polyurethane does however have some effect, due to the fact that it is not completely clear. Hmmm . . . price wise there is no difference between buying a quart of Behr 4850 + a quart of Minnwax Satin Polycrylic, and buying a quart of Behr 4850 + a quart of Behr 9850 (satin). I will be making up some samples of tinted Behr 1050 and various ratios of Minnwax satin polycrylic. we will see if there is a significant color shift penalty. Aside from adding sheen, the addition of polycrylic also makes the paint more translucent. This may be of benefit if you are adding reflective metal particles to the paint to increase gain.

[tiddler]

We will start with an interesting little experiment. Seeing the little particles on the surface of the Behr 4850, I got to wondering what happens when the surface is wipped with a damp cloth:


Click image to enlarge.

Can you tell what color the cloth was?

[tiddler]

Now for the important stuff. Here is a side-by-side of the Behr 4850 rolled on with the 1/4" fuzzy roller, over other coats of paint vs the Behr 4850 thinned with water and applied using the two roller method:


Click images to enlarge.

The thinned 4850 has no real texture to speak of. The only texture I can see, and only barely, is that of the underlying white surface of the white hardboard. Keep in mind that these samples are lighted from directly above with the panel standing vertically. This way the texture is shown at it's worst.

The color is the same as the other 4850 sample panels so I know the coverage was good. he next thing to do will be to compare the two sample panels under the light of the projector.