Picking paint colors for your dedicated home theater should be an enjoyable part of your construction experience. I mean, think about it, you can actually paint your walls black. How many people can say they painted walls in their house black? Not many.
When picking paint colors, you should understand that bright colors reflect more light than dark colors. Since your main goal is to choose paint colors that minimize light reflections, stick to the darker colors. When you turn off the lights to watch a movie, the last thing you want is the light from your video source to reflect off your ceiling and walls. There is nothing more distracting than a reflection out of the corner of your eye when you’re trying to enjoy a movie.
If you go into a real movie theater, you’ll notice that there are a few basic dark colors they used to minimize light reflections. The theater walls and ceiling are usually painted black, gray and dark red. When used properly, these colors will minimize the light reflections in your home theater too.
In my most recent installation, the colors that were chosen were black and gray. The walls were painted flat gray and the ceiling was painted flat black. The carpet had a combination of gray and black specks in it and everything matched perfectly. When we ran through our video tests, we were pleased to see that the black ceiling not only looked good but the reflection from the HDTV was almost absent.
Don’t be afraid to experiment when it comes to the colors in your dedicated home theater. You’re building this room as a theater, so make it look like a theater. The first thing your visitors will see when they walk into your room is the paint color, so “wow” them.
After you’ve chosen your colors, here are some things to consider when painting:
Before you paint, make sure you use primer on the walls. In fact, use a tinted primer that is the same color as the paint you chose. This will minimize the number of coats you will need and will hide any drywall patching that you might have done during wall repairs. Use a good paint. Don’t use cheap paint because it will discolor when you try to clean it. Cheaper paints have larger spaces between the pigment and won’t adhere to the wall properly. Use flat paint. Gloss and semi gloss paint will reflect a lot more light. Flat paints are also better at hiding minor wall imperfections. If you have to paint plastic ceiling tiles, make sure you sand them first. Paint will not stick to a plastic ceiling tile, nor will primer. Don’t worry if the paint job on your walls isn’t perfect. Remember that the walls in your home theater can be covered with movie “things” such as movie posters, pictures, props and other objects that will hide your paint job.
Ultimately, you have to be happy with the way your home theater looks with the lights on, or off… so if you don’t want to use darker colors, that’s up to you. It’s not essential that every home theater is painted using black and gray, but when you do pick your lighter colors, understand how they may cause light reflections in your room.