color considerations

[KennyG]

This is the place to talk about the "beauty" and interior decor of our HT's...so let's go!!!

I recently painted my HT room 18% gray...I went to my local camera shop a got the gray card at a cost of $2.50 then took this to Home Depot for a custom mix.
My first impression was "oh shit"...my wife is going to KILL me! (she was gone on vacation when I did this) but, the more I live with this, the more I really like this color.
While it is very dark, the beauty of it is that it make everything in the room pop out! You are immediately drawn right to anything with color in it, and the colors seem more vibrant.
When I want to be alone, or read, I find this has become a very relaxing place to be.
What color scheme are you presently using? and how many of you actually have a room that is your own, and you can do as you please to it?

[Susan]

I have done mine in a very quiet medium-dark taupe (for those of you that "taupe" is an elusive term..it is a mix of brown and gray..not to the reddish or yellowish side, but more gray-ish). It is a very "quiet" and sophisticated color, as can be the greys. It does not make for a light & airy look, so I have good lighting near sofa ends and chairs for reading, but the room is primarily a Home Theater. I like a flat or velour mid-tone for HT...easier to darken the room down.
SS

[Susan]

I got to thinking about my post above and realized that a lot of you might think that because I chose taupe for the walls that that dooms me to neutrals or browns...wrong...taupe is considered in the decorating field to be a very neutral background..not as cold as grey and not as yellow and dreary as brown. In my case my color scheme is the traditional red/navy/green that you so often find in your traditional oriental rugs. I put a border up at the crown molding in a really rich, deep red..the border looks like a Moorish pattern with small touches of gold. The floors have the aformentioned orientals and the sofa is predominantly a rich navy background with an indian-blanket pattern in red and green. Leather chair is in a very dark burgandy brown...like the old cordovan men's shoes (do you guys still buy that color??)Drapery is deep-red pebbled cotton lined in thermasuede (not quite blackout, but close.

I can see now that this line will necessitate lots of sketches and pictures...I have a difficult room layout and want improvement there, and on the weekend hope to get some time to upload a sketch, etc. MY room is the pits, with doorways on 3 of the 4 corners, a fireplace eating up one end,and not a huge room to begin with...but at least it is designated for only Home Theater...while i am an interior designer by trade and have absolutely no problem picking colors and fabrics and seating ,etc, the room layouts when you have huge speakers (mine are about 28" wide by 40" high) can be really tricky.
SS

[Lex]

Nice posts Susan. U2 Kenny.

I would love to see everyone's room that posts to the Spaced Out area. So, we encourage you to display pictures.

Susan, it is my dream to find a woman that likes big, um speakers. LOL. Your one in a million for sure.

Lex

[George Bellefontaine]

I have a dedicated room and have lived with neutral grey walls and a matt black front wall,where the screen is located, for several years now. Before I painted the walls, light was bouncing all over the place from my first (a crt ) projector. After reading an article by Joe Kane ( of VE fame) I proceeded to paint the walls. As far as the seating goes, the two main chairs, for my love and me, are a very light brown and two other chairs are somewhat brownish. The entrance to the stairway from the theater to the living area upstairs has burgundy drapes, and the same color curtains frame my screen.
My wife is not all that keen on grey, but she realizes there is reason to the madness and accepts that. Susan's use of taupe is interesting and perhaps a good compromise if your loved one shudders at grey.




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[Markj]

Oh great, not only do I have a little TV but my walls are the wrong color! So I can assume that white is not the preferred color for HT. Unfortunately that is what I have to live with being that my HT is in the family room and my wife likes the white to contrast the furniture and the art on the walls.

Susan: that was an interesting post thanks for sharing.

Kenny, George: you are lucky you can do things like that.

Lex I would post picture but don’t have a digital camera.

[George Bellefontaine]

Mark-
I wouldn't even dare to suggest grey / black walls for a room that is multi-functional. Since my HT is dedicated to the theater period, my wife doesn't mind.What the hey, white walls or whatever, as long as you enjoy your set up is all that matters.




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[KennyG]

WOW, Susan your room sounds very colorful, yet geared toward HT very interesting. I'm very aware of Taupe, I have a leather love seat in that color.
Mark, white is not the prefered color, but for a direct view TV color selection is not as critical as with front projection or a large rear projector. The object of the flat, dark colors is to control reflected light, naturally the larger the light source the more this becomes a problem.
You can take this idea in several steps, first, notice the difference in your picture image when going from viewing your TV during the day light hours, then viewing during night hours with all the lights out, look about the room during well lit scenes, notice how the room "lights up", like I said, the bigger the display the more this comes into play...by having a darkly painted room you take the next step to improve picture image.

[Markj]

Kenny what you say makes a good deal of sense and because of the fact I will go FP it will have to be a relatively bright digital FP. Like George said, for a multi purpose room gray and black are out, at least in my house. I am hoping that by next year there will be some good FPs that are native 16:9 bright and less than 10k. That’s my pipe dream anyway.

[KennyG]

Mark, that dream is already a reality! You can get plenty of Digital projectors for under 10 grand, heck I see units with under 500 hours for under 5 grand all the time.
Lately there have been alot of those NEC LT150's (DLP) for sale brand new at under $2,500.

[Dinino]

Kenny,
When they made your colour up did they use red, blue and or green in the process? I only ask because I had heard that when making up your grey paint for HT, that it should be made from a black paint base with white added too it.

[George Bellefontaine]

Dinini,
I'm sure Kenny will answer, but I thought you should know that my grey walls are made up of a brand name and number recommended by Joe Kane of the ISF Institute. It is a neutral grey and the brand name is Benjamin Moore and the number is 1602. The BM color card can show you different levels of this neutral grey from very light to almost black.
Regards,
George




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[KennyG]

dinino, sorry, I've been so busy lately that I kinda forgot about this area.
To aswer your question, no mine started out as a white base. There were three colors added to it, but unfortunately I'm thrown the empty container out, so I can't tell you what they were.

[Burke Strickland]

My HT is also 18% neutral grey, precisely computer color matched from the Kodak card. The front wall where the projection screen is mounted is flat black. I had planned to paint the ceiling flat black, too, but for now it is also 18% neutral grey.

Our offices at work have just recently been remodeled with walls various shades of grey, and my health club went through a major renovation last year with a shade of grey pretty close to 18% neutral being the predominate color. In fact, seeing the way ot really brought out the colors of equipment and people in the workout area, I was convinced I could not only live with it in a multiple use room. but actually enjoy it. And it is TRENDY! :>)

The paint I bought was Behr, from Home Depot. It too was a white base paint and I do remeber that several colors were added. But I will have to search a storage area to find the "touch up" paint can to get the exact formula, and that won't happen tonight. Regardless of where they started, (white instead of black), the end result on the wall is a dead ringer for the Kodak card!

Burke

[Susan]

Friday I ran down to North Carolina to see 6 showhouses...a "homearama" by the exclusive builders in the Greensboro area. The homes were averaging as much as $850,000, which is a lot for that area (30 miles north of Greensboro in a little historic town called Summerfield). Four had dens set upas "HT's" with decent RPTV or wall units combined with bars and game tables, but one actually had a REAL HT setup with a projector, retractable screen, etc....it was set up nicely so the screen and window shades would descend at the touch of one button.

The thing I noticed most were the colors of the HT's..deep mossy tones (more brown but with a green tinge), deep deep black-green...from a distance you thought it was black but up close or where the lamp shines you can see it is green), deep, rich taupe...like a rich cappuchino color, and deep caramel.....very warm goldy-browns. Any and all were in a deeper tone and gave a very cosy feel to these rooms (which tend to be a bit larger and need "cosy-ing".)

In fabrics the trends are running the same...deep sage greens paired with burgundy or purple in rich, soft chenille fabrics. Pale celadon green (think pale jade) with a rosy red. Golds are back..but deeper and NOT brassy. Use these tones in a flat velour paint and find a rich chenille for the upholstery and you have a rich, rich look for HT.
SS