I can't use my basement (set up as studio apartment and rented out), so the home theater with front projector is in the living room, and I'm trying to figure out how to deal with ambient light. To the right of the viewer is an 8ft sliding door, to the left of the viewer is an open doorway to the kitchen and dining room. I've painted the room a tan color to try and cut down on brightness a little without turnign the place into a cave. (It's a small townhouse to begin with)
I've got darkening vertical blinds on the slider door which helps some, but I've only had the projector since October and haven't seen summer affects yet. I havent' seen anything other than vertical blinds for slider doors, so don't know if there are curtains that would do a better job, which would also be easy enough to open/close that I'm not seperated from the balcony by an heavy overbearing curtain or mechanism. The walkthrough side of the slider is closer to the screen.
I'm not sure what to do with the kitchen doorway. Kitchen has fluorescent dual-tube lighting, and opens to dining room on the other end for light from there to get through. Living room ceiling is 7.5ft high, and drops to abotu 6.5ft high in ceiling. I thought about a pull-down or motorized shade to drop and cover the kitchen doorway, but I'm 6'2 tall and don't want to hit my head on a mechanism when its retracted. I could mount something on the LR wall above the doorway, but light is more likely to get through this way than if it's mounted on the kitchen side of the opening, yes? I also saw something at the hardware store that seems intended for external doors, it's a rollup screen door sort of thing that pulls from the side. That could be interesting if you could swap the screen for something more opaque on the kitchen doorway. I don't really want a traditional wood door with a knob there, the kitchen is so freakin tiny I don't want it to feel closed off, and a pull-down or side screen would be out of the way better than a wood door would be when I don' t need its darkening powers in effect.
I did get a dimmable light switch for the living room itself so I don't have bright lights in the same room nor do I wobble blindly through a dark room at night to get a refill.
I do not yet have a screen, image currently projects onto the tan wall. Yea, yuck, I know, but I'm working on that and have asked for screen advice in another thread.
I appreciate any advice for dealing with this stuff.
