Kerborus

All -

After 8 years of intense labor and money scrounging, my home theatre is nearly complete. I have a few questions, I was looking for help on:

Carpet - Ceiling and projector screen wall are black and the rest of the walls are dark grey. What color carpet should I get? I want it to be plush carpet, not industrial type. I was thinking a charcoal?

Light Fixtures - I put in recessed can lights, but they are white. Forgot about the whole black ceiling thing, now they stand out like a sore thumb. Can I replace the fixtures with black ones? If so, where can I get them? Can you paint them? If so, what kind of paint?

HVAC Registers - Again, installed white. Can you purchase these somewhere? Paint?

Electrical Duplex Wall Plates - Due to a few sloppy dry wall cuts, I need jumbo duplex covers. However, I can't find them in black and jumbo. I was using a Leviton brand one from Home Depot, but cannot find jumbo size online. I need square, not rounded corners. Is there a place to go? Again, paint?

Screen - I am currently projecting on the black wall, but want a screen (about 110"). I don't have much money - what do you think of this: http://www.amazon.com/Elite-Screens-...=1XPZYRCVU5FV7

If you can answer even one question, I'd be grateful. Thanks all.

chipmac

Carpet - I normally like the look of maroon or red carpet but with black walls that may be too dark when the lights are on. Charcoal is a good choice but again could be too dark. A dark grey might be a better choice depending on the shade of grey on the walls. Remember you don't want the room to look too dark during non viewing times with the lights turned on.

The fixtures and registers can be painted. My only concern for the light fixtures and painting them is how hot the bulbs get and if that would require a special paint.

I have a Mits HC1500 PJ and that screen works great for me at a 13 foot seating distance in a fully light controlled room. Depending on your PJ you might want a higher gain screen. Also some people prefer a grey screen rather than white for deeper blacks.

Sdallnct

I wouldn't go with wall to wall carpet. I changed out my wall to wall and went with Commercial Carpet squares. It is rubber backed so easy to clean. Or if it really stains you can take out the square and replace it. There are tons of colors and patterns. You can see mine in my link.

You should be able to replace the trim rings on the recessed lights.

Plugs and registers you should be able to rough up and paint.

You can make your own screen. Again, see my link. I bought screen material for roughly $50 and then spent about $50-$70 on wood and hardware and built my own. Works great!! This can get you started and give you ideas.
http://www.projectorcentral.com/diy_screen.htm

Numanoid

I've mentioned it before, but I project onto nothing but a white painted screen-shaped area (about 125.5" diagonal), that's just a couple coats of Kilz primer. The rest of the wall is a dark charcoal, almost black. I've had several different types of screen material to test back when I was planning on covering my temporary "Kilz screen", but found that in a side-by-side comparison, the material offered no significant improvement over the simple painted wall. If you have a nice even wall, and get equal focus across the width and height, I say why bother with the expense and effort of putting up a screen. Plus you never have to worry about rips, smears, or ripples.

Numanoid

Oh yeah, the rest of that stuff can be painted. I painted over all my outlet and register covers. You can replace the actual outlets with black ones for about a buck a piece, if painting so close to the electrical openings worries you.

How big is your theater room? I ended up going with an area rug made from a carpet remnant (black). A lot cheaper than carpeting the room.

Spiky

Good Rustoleum or similar spray paint for the registers and other metal, I would say. Matte black. Take them off the wall/ceiling first if possible. Should also work on your white plastic Leviton plates. Although, you may want some of this to stand out just a little bit so you can find it.

For a simple painted screen, check this AVS post/thread out.

I also would like a darker red carpet, even if it makes the room dark. I like dark.

barndoor67

I bought a 100" from here looks great for just over 200 bucks. my projector is a infocus in76. remember do lots of research.

http://jamestownhometheaterscreen.com/


Barndoor67

Kerborus

Well, after re-measuring and adjusting everything, the diagonal measurement is now 146". This is a lot bigger than I had previously anticipated. I guess for the screen, I will be using the paint and frame method. Anyone ever used the special 'screen paint'?

Also, looks like I will be spray painting outlet and register covers.

Ordered carpet yesterday and i went with a kind of dark, two tone gray.

Thanks for all the help people!

Spiky

Which one do you mean? There are tons.

I actually haven't used paint, I have a different cheap DIY screen, but if you start with one of the simple formulas, it's cheap and you can always change later. I'm guessing you should start with white as the size keeps growing and your lamp is not.

Sdallnct

I don't paint either. Unless your experienced, it can be tough to paint perfectly smooth. But as Spiky mentions, paint is cheap so certainly worth a try.