Well it's been quite a change in a year of living in this apartment. The "home theatre" is not an actual seperate room its a section of the open plan downstairs area containing dining, kitchen, and lounge areas. When I first moved in it was all painted stark white, and the home theatre area has an entire wall of glass windows and french doors, read nightmare projector setup 
Initially I painted the wall behind the projector screen a dark red called "capsicum red" this made the room look better and helped the image look better because there was no white wall to distract from the on screen image.
After a while I noticed that a "lot" of light was bouncing off the screen and onto the white roof, also some of that light was bouncing onto the side walls, but most of the side wall issue was caused by the wall of glass. Sure I closed the vertical blinds but we know how average they are at blocking light. (they will be removed and swapped with curtains in 07).
So I decided that with the help of my father I would spend a couple of days of my holiday time to paint the side walls the same capsicum red as the rear wall, and paint 90% of the roof a very dark grey (called mojo. Yes I got my mojo back ;P). Leaving an 11cm border of white around the edge as well as the cornice to help break up the colours, and also because one side wall is longer then the other so to paint the entire roof would of meant the colour would of gone on a strange angle and look odd.
After two coats of the capsicum red and mojo grey the home theatre area feels a lot cosier, and looks dare I say, a bit like a 19th century stately home
![]()
BUT the biggest effect and the one I was trying to achieve is a noticeable boost to constrast levels. Even during the day with the vertical blinds closed, quite a bit of light gets in, and with the new paint, the quality on the screen is about as good as when it was nighttime with the old paint scheme. But when it is night time now the image looks brilliant! Nice dark greys (its an AE700 projector, so calling it black is a bit rich), better colours, and the dreaded light reflections on the roof and walls have been massively diminsihed.
For the sake of $200 and a couple of days work, it has made me a very happy camper! And will delay my next projector upgrade urges
I've attached some photos, it's my 1st attempt to attach so bare with me.
Initially I painted the wall behind the projector screen a dark red called "capsicum red" this made the room look better and helped the image look better because there was no white wall to distract from the on screen image.
After a while I noticed that a "lot" of light was bouncing off the screen and onto the white roof, also some of that light was bouncing onto the side walls, but most of the side wall issue was caused by the wall of glass. Sure I closed the vertical blinds but we know how average they are at blocking light. (they will be removed and swapped with curtains in 07).
So I decided that with the help of my father I would spend a couple of days of my holiday time to paint the side walls the same capsicum red as the rear wall, and paint 90% of the roof a very dark grey (called mojo. Yes I got my mojo back ;P). Leaving an 11cm border of white around the edge as well as the cornice to help break up the colours, and also because one side wall is longer then the other so to paint the entire roof would of meant the colour would of gone on a strange angle and look odd.
After two coats of the capsicum red and mojo grey the home theatre area feels a lot cosier, and looks dare I say, a bit like a 19th century stately home
For the sake of $200 and a couple of days work, it has made me a very happy camper! And will delay my next projector upgrade urges
I've attached some photos, it's my 1st attempt to attach so bare with me.
