What color to paint a wall to use as a video screen?
 

We are not using the warehouse at our business so I thought I'd put it to some good use. We have some empty walls and I'd like to paint one of them to use it for showing movies/video with an overhead projector. We have a large roll up door and I'd like to set up a time that I can have someone come in to give a presentation to smaller groups on automotive related stuff.

One of our clients was an exec at Mazda, built an FFR roadster, and has a GT40. If I can get him to do it maybe some people would like to come by and hear him talk about the cars for free. Who knows, there are a lot of neat cars and car people local to Orange County. Supposedly we're going to have a wet winter so it'll be nice to be indoors.

One wall is drywall and the other is bare concrete. I'm not looking for show quality necessarily, just enough to be able to see the video. Watching Le Mans in huge screen should be pretty cool!

White or silver come to mind but I figured you guys would know.

I think they actually make a paint for this exact purpose...

Yep

Paint on Screen - Projector Screen Paint

DIY Projector Screens - Part I - Paint Your Own Projection Screen: BigPictureBigSound

This guy thinks is a load...
Mighty Brighty Projection Screen Paint is Just White Paint - Paint - Gizmodo

We used the screen paint for a home theatre. Does a great job.

I believe arctic silver will do the job.....

Wow that first one is $180 a gallon!

The second link has a lot of good info on making a home screen.

The last link is more along my line of thinking.

Reality is that this isn't going to be used for screening first run movies. Right now the drywall side is unpainted and so is the concrete. Maybe some regular white or silver paint would be adequate?

White

White should be just fine. I have projected on a white wall for an EZ-Up canopy and it looked fine.

Grand Prix or Chiffon?

Egg-shell will add just a bit of warmth to the image. ;)

Ha ha! Maybe Grand Prix white would be good for showing Le Mans?

White, and use ceiling - not sealing white. It's dull and non-reflective, just like a real projector screen :)

And have fun, what a good idea.

I put up a 96 inch screen a year ago on fresh drywall. I bought a pint of white primer and some white. The primer worked so well I didn't even use the white.

Here's the poop. Projection screen paints are great and contain additional reflective ingredients, but they can be VERY expensive, like $500 expensive sometimes. Also, if you have a good "light controlled" room, eg, very few, or no windows, you will never need the added reflective ingredients.

BEHR has a color code called "Silver Screen", it's not fancy or pricey, BUT it DOES contain the proper combination and proportion of pigments to get the correct color reflectivity that a projection system requires.

Example, even though the color looks like a very light grey, it has a fair amount of reds and yellows in it. You can't see it in the paint once it's mixed, but, when the projected image reflects off the wall, a person's face, for instance, will possess the proper skin tones as reflected by the pigments in the paint.

The cost of video projectors has tumbled in recent years. Use plain white paint (flat) and apply the cost difference toward a hi-wattage, 3500 lumen lcd projector. In a darkened room/warehouse, the image will dazzle your eyes. Some projectors are equipped with very serviceable audio speakers as well for large groups.

Sherwood

The low buck guys over in the AVSForum were using Sherwin Williams "Brilliant White" with a nice matte black painted surround to heighten the contrast. I'd probably try to do the sheetrock unless the concrete is really smooth.

That's what I used pre-screen & it worked fine. 3 or 4 coats of undercoat & 3 coats of the SW.

Just a note on projectors: they are not all the same. A presentation projector (the cheaper brighter ones) are great for PowerPoint presentations where there is ambient light & people have to make notes etc. Home theater projectors have better contrast ratio so blacks are black & you have great color depth. Both will work for movies, but the HT one will do it so much better. I have been selling HT projectors for 10 years . . .

Ian

Oh damn, something else I now want for the garage ;)

Clear ;)