Making the "Bacon Race" Theater - Page 20

Wow, I'm exhausted. There will be a lot of great details probably in the next 24 hours about our progress this weekend. As you saw earlier last week, BIG spent a lot of time pre-fabbing the "Red" panel frames and baseboards.

On saturday we went to dry fit most of them with success, though there was a measurement error that caused BIG to have to re-size and bevel the three center rear panels by 1/4" each.

As soon as the first panel was done on Saturday, and we had it on the wall, we knew we had a problem. The light is totally different in the movie room, as well as in that orientation on the wall. In any case... the paint was just not right. It had an orange tint to it while the fabric has a purple tint to it. Instead of an apple colored red we are needing to move more toward a ruby color. That is work I'm going to have to do during the week.

We did a lot of tests with things like the doorknob to make sure it works with the panels as well as some fitting with the panels and doors. BIG took some great photos showing how well they will fit. With a slight notch against the hinges of the door, the panels fit perfectly.

I'll post more tomorrow, I'm so tired. BIG will probably post all of the details tomorrow so I won't need to, plus he has all of the pictures!

Excellent write up Big. I have to emphasize that the paint color looks even more off in person. Some of the pics show the orange tint to the paint more than others. But the moment we put up those panels we know it clashed. We had originally matched the paint to the panels based off of the light color the fabric reflected in direct light. Unfortunately, that is when the light was perpendicular to the fabric, which does not occur in the movie room. It does not point right at the panel, it comes from above. So the purple in the panels ends up getting highlighted (Although they look just maroon in the pictures here) the orange also gets highlighted from the trim. The new trim looks much better.

I do agree CAK, the engineer in me wants to center the trim on the middle piece of trim, but it won't bug me that much. I can't say enough though how happy I am with how the door section turned out. BIG and I were worried about how much work it would cause, but the panels fit beautifully. Two of them were a little tight, but BIG pulled out the multipurpose Jigsaw and routed a small indentation where the hinges were on the side of the panels. We then just stapled the fabric down in that indentation after wrapping to make sure it didn't rub. Then the panels fit exactly. That's how they could stay on the wall on their own.

The reason we did not mount the panels yet is because of the ribbing. One unfortunate side effect of our column design is that the triple trim sections stick out on the sides of the column. So the bevelled edge of the column slides underneath against the wall behind them. But this causes a problem. Since the top black panels also fit behind that section, they would not be able to be placed above the red panels once the red panels were in place. So the top panels will have to be installed first, followed by the trim, followed by the red panels. Then the bottom trim & black panels, and last the baseboard. If there are any 1/8" measurements, or issues with a non-level floor, this difference will be made at the baseboard and the carpet will slide under it in any case.

So this week I will have to put two coats of the ruby paint on everything. BIG will have to make some extra trim pieces for me, and then I can give those the two-coats as well. So one day of work I'll take off to do the painting. BIG will stop by and work on the door area (The MDF trim outside as well as the fill-in foam and caulk)

The fabric pulls better on a homemade panel and will never come loose. If you look at SMX/Sandman's thread, he actually tested the track out first, and had issues making proper corners and the look just wasn't what he wanted. It will be a better looking more stable panel this way.

The drawbacks are what you would expect. Time, and Money. It's much more expensive and time consuming to build these panels. Not to mention you have to have the tools to do it. Air tools & the proper table saws to do the edging. vs getting fabric track, which is very easy. If you do it right you can make it look really good, and a lot of people have done it with success. We're just old school I guess.

A BIG thing I think I would point out about fabric in general... DIRT! That fabric, or painted trim, or anything, will pick up any and every piece of dirt they come into contact with... cotton insulation, sawdust, 703, etc. So it has become a real pain since our movie room is also our only available workspace. If you have another space you can do all of your work in, then DO IT. I'm going to finish clearing out my storage space this week and move our work there so I can clean out the movie room and mop it.

News Updates:

Screen Arrives 10/19!
OPPO BDP-93 Ships tomorrow

BIG coming 10/19 to drop off all of the wall chair trim and work on the door, while I will paint all of the trim pieces (And columns/light tray if they aren't already painted by then)

People have started receiving the Sony VPL-VW95ES direct from Sony so hopefully I'll be able to read a few user reviews on it in the next week. This may very well be my theater's projector!

Returned my carpet samples today and took the new paint swatch to a few carpet stores. So far most of the red "patterned" carpets aren't even close. There is a normal red carpet that is pretty close, but I think I may be back to a black patterned carpet. Mohawk had a few I liked. I'll try to post some pics of samples later.

I like the idea of magnets myself. Though the counter-sinking would be a pain with the panels we have made already. You could even put magnets in the strips of wood trim and then the entire wall could be adjusted as we see fit.

EDIT: Looking at places like K&J magnetics, countersunk 1/8" magnets look pretty intriguing.... especially some with a LOT of pull force. I DO wonder if that would work. A LOT less messy and future adjustable.

I think the glue is going to be even more of pain. To be honest the first few "quick nail it" tests we ran didn't even go through the frame... no idea what happened to the nail. I liked the original "Industrial Velcro" thought Sandman had, but that gives 0 wiggle room. Once the velcro touches you can't really adjust, and we WILL need to adjust. All of the other methods allow adjustment (Glue, Magnets, etc). With the baseboard and the trim nailed firmly in place though, I dont think it will take much at all to get them right. Every fabric panel will have a piece of nailed trim below it to support the vertical force.

As far as the carpet goes, here are a few more dark ones I saw today:

East Village - Tuxedo


Greenhurst - Ebony