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Ideas on how to make my theater room more dark? (pics included)

511 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  butie120 
#1 ·
I'm using the Benq 1080ST for my theater room and I have to say that it looks mighty impressive. It's such a nice experience to have a 120" screen while watching a movie. We had water in our basement so I put new carpet down there and painted the walls. We like the color the way it is because A. It's not a dedicated theater room as it's also our "basement", and B. I've already painted this thing three times and I'm not willing to do it again.

What I've noticed is that once the projector is going the room really does light up. It's not terrible on real dark scenes, but I can easily see throughout the room and can see the light on the walls. I didn't notice it at first, but once I started reading threads, watching youtube videos and such, I realized that, "Holy crap....they can't even see their own hand in front of them!"

I put up a piece of black velvet against the side of the screen to cover up the wall, and holy damn....it's like the screen was floating. The picture improved and it made a HUGE difference. So now I'm trying to figure out a way to make this happen.

There isn't much wall coverage I need where the screen is, so I figured I could use black velvet against that wall. Tacks, velcro...ideas?

The big kicker is what to do with the side walls and ceiling. I thought I could install a curtain track on the side walls and when wanting to watch a movie I could just slide the curtain down, and when not in use, pull it back so you can see the walls. The ceiling is a big issue because I only have 7 foot ceilings so the projector is very close to the ceiling.

Any other ideas or things I should think about when tackling this issue? I would really appreciate it!
 

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#2 ·
IMO, you have a clear break point between the theater area and the rest of the basement. The left hand wall has a clear break point at the bottom of the stairs, or at the column. I would possibly add a matching column to the right, and I would paint.

Curtains, while they work, are not inexpensive to do well, and make 'setting up' the theater a true hassle, and not something anyone else but you is likely to do.

But, because the ceiling has the soffit breaking up the screen area from the rest of the room, and you do have clear breaks, I would paint and just go much darker in that area. Call it an 'accent room' instead of an accent wall. Then put down a very dark area rug around the screen area.

I'm working on the design for my basement area, and that's a big thing for me is to find a way to separate my open rec room/basement design to allow for a much darker painted area around the screen, while having it much brighter throughout the rest of the basement.

While you can do what you would like, it can't be argued that your local movie theater doesn't go to a medium/dark brown color. They go with very dark colors. There's a reason for this, and it remains the same that the single biggest improvement anyone can make to a home theater comes from $100 in paint.

Certainly curtains and the rest can work as well. I would probably go to ceiling hung curtain rods with floor to ceiling curtains that can slide into the corners when not in use if I were going that route. Definitely paint the ceiling in the one small theater section (most wont' notice) and the area rug. That would be the 'least' imposing setup. But, not inexpensive to accomplish properly.

Looking at it again, I think I would go with framing the wall out to cover the support column completely, and add a matching one on the right. This fully separates the screen area from the rest of the basement, and allows you to paint very dark in that one space without impacting the rest of the basement.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for your feedback on this. I really appreciate it. I know there's absolutely no way I will be able to frame the wall out and put in another beam. I just refinished the drywall down there after water damage and my wife would probably disown me if I did anything structurally to it. She already is in over her head with me and that basement, so I have to tread these waters carefully...:)

I like your idea with separating the room in half, but since I'm not going to put in an additional beam to separate the other side of that room I think that idea is out. I think painting the ceiling a darker color would definitely help, but I wonder by how much? I've read that even flat black paint can have reflection on it and probably even more so in my situation considering my projector's lens is about 8 inches away from the ceiling. I think the rug is a great idea.

So you think curtains would be a hassle, huh? I was thinking your same thought about being able to slide them in the corner when not in use. I know Ikea has some pretty inexpensive stuff. What I could do is have the curtain track go from the screen up to where the soffit hits on both sides of the wall. Paint the ceiling and the wall where the screen sits a flat black (or a complementary color of my other walls). Like you said, and I never thought about it until you mentioned it, the soffit can be the "break point", so the curtains could go up to it. I think this would allow plenty of space for darkness.

The front wall to the soffit is 98". A 55" track rail is $5.99 from Ikea. It's $2.50 for a ceiling fixture to mount it and you need two of these for each rail. $5.00 for a curtain rod that extends up to the length I would need. So, around $55 for the rail system before getting the curtains.

How does this sound? Seem doable?
 
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