The Cinemar Home Theater Construction Thread - Page 48

Absolutely incredible!! AMAZING craftsmanship! Congrats on an amazing build!!
Any chance you have a link to a full photo gallery of the build?

You know its funny because I wanted to build a screen wall similiar to what you're almost complete with but never thought I could...but following you step by step I think I am going to give it a shot

Great work!

I know you haven't mounted the screen yet, but do you have any tricks up your sleeve for giving you the ability to take the screen on and off?

I read page 1 to see all the renderings of the theater and the last page to see where you've come and I just wanted to say that your theater's plans are absolutely stunning... one of the nicest I have ever seen, and that your craftsmanship seems top notch!

I wish you continued good luck on this monster project!

Well since you brought it up. Benjamin Moore F215 80 Flat Black is BM's Canada's line of paint under the Collection name. A similar paint would be what you might find in your local store as Regal N215. Below are some codes that might help you look in the store

Regal Flat Finish = N215
Regal Primer = N216
Regal Matte Finish = N221
Regal Pearl Finish = N310
Regal Eggshell Finish = N319
Regal Semi-Gloss Finish = N333

The Satin sheen you mentioned above is between Pearl and Semi-Gloss; looking at my sheen chart it is closer to Pearl.

If you decide you want to try Regal Select which has a lower VOC than Regal as well as a few other attributes here are the product #s

Regal Select Flat Finish = 547
Regal Select Matte Finish = 548
Regal Select Eggshell Finish = 549
Regal Select Pearl Finish = 550
Regal Select Semi-Gloss Finish = 551

Are you wanting to use paint, stain or a combination of both? The MDF would obviously be painted, but do you want the front cabinetry / moldings to have the same finished look or to highlight the real wood grain by using a black stain? If you want the absolute best, most consistent finish then I would hire it out to a professional who will spray the cabinetry in place with an enamel primer and finish coat in whatever color and gloss you would like. This is how any high-end custom built-ins are finished.

But if you want to do it yourself (which I definitely don't blame you with all of the hard work you put into the cabinetry), then I would probably stain all the wood details and paint the engineered wood products (such as the MDF). Minwax makes a very nice line of wipe-on products with built-in poly coating in the satin finish you are looking for.

Two words of caution - first, staining will take MUCH longer than simply painting everything. Second, different woods will take stain differently, so use test pieces to experiment with different grits of sandpaper and different lengths of time in letting the stain sit before wiping off. As a novice woodworker I personally found this part the biggest PITA. Hopefully there are some more knowledgeable woodworking folks here on the forum who can add their input to this step.

Theater is looking great! Doesn't seem like you are too far off from carpet, screen and electronics.

Mario,

Not sure which sheen you should go with, I'm also on the fence for that (I love planning months ahead of time)

I'll probably order a sample of the 3 lowest sheens (which would be Flat, Eggshell, and Pearl) and see what looks the best on some scrap wood with the projector on and off and see which gives me the best overall performance for aesthetics as well as not becoming annoying during bright scenes.

For the floor treads, I would recommend calling 1-888-236-6667 and ask for the product specialist department. The individuals in this department are extremely talented and will guide you to the best product

Calling or emailing Benjamin Moore may get you some information from them on what would match up, or maybe even some mix formulas.

But even without that, anyone in the paint department that really knows their way around the paint mixing machine should be able to take the basic colorants from that Benjamin Moore F215 flat black formula, and turn it into a equivalent eggshell, pearl, satin, gloss, semi gloss finish or anything else you would like. It's pretty much just a matter of how much and what type of flattening or gloss agents are added to the basic color mix. Doing stuff like that is done all the time with black automotive paints for engine compartment restorations on collectable cars.

Mario I have to say (and I am sure I said it here before) but your theater is turning out to be one of the nicest, cleanest theaters I have seen on AVS and I have been around here a while. Great work thus far, you should be very proud.

I'm not familiar with BM paint so I have no specific recommendation. Whatever you use, though, it should be made for trim and/or doors, NOT walls. Wall paint never gets hard enough to use on furniture.

I have used this product and was happy with the result:



Link: http://www.sherwin-williams.com/home...oatings/paint/

BMs most popular trim paints are Satin Impervo and Advance. However I am not in front of my product catelog and don't know if either come in a flat finish which I believe is important for a theater

You can always dull the gloss of a finish by abrading it. You could paint everything with a satin sheen, for example, and if the reflections are too distracting, you could rub the offending surfaces with a Scotchbrite-type pad to cut back the sheen. It would be time consuming to do over a large area, but you could do it if you wanted to. This would let you paint most surfaces with a single product and selectively cut back the sheen only on the surfaces that produce bad reflections.

Primer will act as a sanding sealer. I don't know why you would need to use both.

The edges of the MDF are a different matter, though. I would probably apply 2-3 coats of sanding sealer to the edges, only, and then prime & paint.

I've been thinking about this; satin and flat aren't too far apart, plus being that the flat is on a vertical surface vs. the satin being on a horizontal surface it may not be too noticable. Best is what you're doing and testing small samples.

In my case I plan on carpet on my stage so that makes my situation easy.