bpratt Posted January 13, 2012 Posted January 13, 2012 I know it is an ancient thread, but no one has mentioned using Suede Effects yet. I did my HT ceiling in Suede Effects Charcoal Mist, which is not black as such, but works very well in my HT room.... almost gives you a night sky view. This is with all the lights on in the room. The only problem is that you need to brush on the final coat, if not the first coat as well.
SDL Posted January 13, 2012 Posted January 13, 2012 (edited) My ceiling is matt black. Took 3 goes to get as much of the roller strokes out as we possibly could, but looks good now. The trick seemed to be not letting it dry to fast, so no hot bright lights on it while you painted and no heater on. Edited January 13, 2012 by SDL
709er Posted January 13, 2012 Author Posted January 13, 2012 My ceiling is matt black. Took 3 goes to get as much of the roller strokes out as we possibly could, but looks good now. The trick seemed to be not letting it dry to fast, so no hot bright lights on it while you painted and no heater on. Mine is matt black too, but I must admit, that after having it for over a year now, there are aspects I am not happy with. As you said....coverage. Difficult to achieve as the paint is very viscous to start with. We live in the sticks, and I find that spiders particularly like the matt finish for attaching their webs.. especially with the star ceiling! Areas where we have a satin finish do not attract arachnids and their webs! I am considerind recoating in satin black and "wearing" the reflectivity that comes with it
CAVX Posted January 13, 2012 Posted January 13, 2012 My first dedicated room was all matt black and i swore I'd never do that again. Sure it gave awesome light control, but it also showed settled dust and everytime I wiped it, it seemed to mark and then when I went to touch up, the paint didn't match and I would have paint the entire surface again. Flat black paint? Never again? In my latest (current) room, I wanted black around the screen, so instead of paint, I applied black car carpet. This is a light sponge for ambient light, can be vacuumed easily should dust settle and has an acoustic benefit as well.
bpratt Posted January 13, 2012 Posted January 13, 2012 I wouldn't have matt black walls either, and for pretty much the same reasons as you mentioned. The black car carpet around the screen is an interesting idea, and something I'll keep in mind for when I have to build my next HT room.
oztheatre Posted January 13, 2012 Posted January 13, 2012 I wouldn't have matt black walls either, and for pretty much the same reasons as you mentioned. The black car carpet around the screen is an interesting idea, and something I'll keep in mind for when I have to build my next HT room. Brendon, I assume you've finished painting by now? You should swing by again some day and check out my new room. It's painted in roscos black velvet scenic paint. It's really really matte, feels like chalkboard. Marks very easily but is a real light sponge. I did the walls and ceiling in this stuff and the results were sensational.
bpratt Posted January 13, 2012 Posted January 13, 2012 Brendon, I assume you've finished painting by now? You should swing by again some day and check out my new room. It's painted in roscos black velvet scenic paint. It's really really matte, feels like chalkboard. Marks very easily but is a real light sponge. I did the walls and ceiling in this stuff and the results were sensational. Yes, I'd like to check it out at some stage to see how it. That photo is a really old photo, but the only one I could find at the time that showed the ceiling that I painted with suede effects paint. We're looking at moving, hence the future planning of a new HT room. Whilst that's going to be a bit of pain, it's likely to mean buying some new gear like projector and screen too.
CAVX Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 The black car carpet around the screen is an interesting idea, and something I'll keep in mind for when I have to build my next HT room. An alternative to paint. Not to take this too far off topic, but when people think about light control, it usually means paint because it can be dark (black if need be), is easy to apply and is generally cost effective. Any surface material that does not reflect light will work so the finish need not be paint, it could be black velet or carpet. Because HT is about both sound and image, I needed to not only control light, but control slap echeos as well. If you stand in front of my screen and clap your hands loudly, you only hear the clap. There is no reflected or ambient sound and it actually sounds weird because our brains know what a clap (normally) sounds like in a normal envirnment with reflections and ambience. The key point here and why I have kept it in place is that the ONLY echoes I hear from that end of the room (LCR) are recorded into the sound mix. Given how well the black carpet has worked on the sides (my carpet goes all the way around the back of the screen as well) of the room, I am considering a "cloud" to run over head as well. My screen is about 300mm lower than the ceiling, so I don't get the same amount of reflected light that I would if my screen was closer to the ceilinng as has happened in rooms of the past. But I think the "cloud" will make a nice addition.
900Newton Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 How did you mount the carpet to the wall Mark? Do you have any photos? I have little bit of slap echo so would like to investigate the carpet option a bit further.
blybo Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 (edited) Along the lines what Mark T said it might not even be necessary to paint the entire ceiling dark. We were concerned about our room feeling a bit too closed in so have only painted the front 1.8m of the ceiling and side walls to match the screen wall. https://plus.google.com/photos/110643625121640151712/albums/5683603925546980577/5695761154678684002?banner=pwa . Sorry posting from a iPad so embeding is impossible. We still have to use the lighter wall colour @ 50% strength for the remainder of the ceiling but we like the feel of the room so far and it will only get better. We didn't want a complete batcave and when watching a movie it is hard to notice the differences in wall colour so obviously not too much light is reflecting to them. I plant to also use the room as a music room and reading room so wanted warm colours and it also keeps SWMBO happy Edited January 14, 2012 by blybo
SDL Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 My first dedicated room was all matt black and i swore I'd never do that again. Sure it gave awesome light control, but it also showed settled dust and everytime I wiped it, it seemed to mark and then when I went to touch up, the paint didn't match and I would have paint the entire surface again. Flat black paint? Never again? In my latest (current) room, I wanted black around the screen, so instead of paint, I applied black car carpet. This is a light sponge for ambient light, can be vacuumed easily should dust settle and has an acoustic benefit as well. You need to do vacuuming more often lol I have black speaker type material all around my screen, black felt panels coming away from my screen, black carpet with a small grey pattern, Matt black ceiling and blue walls. Works very well for me, the black felt is also a sound panel.
CAVX Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 How did you mount the carpet to the wall Mark? Do you have any photos? I have little bit of slap echo so would like to investigate the carpet option a bit further. I stapled it. I blogged about it HERE. Apparently to make this work you need an air gap (not glued down) between the carpet and the wall/ceiling. From what I understand, sound waves hit the surface and because the carpets has "weave" absorbs some higher frequenies down to the upper mids (2.5K?). Bass and lower mids essentially pass through. The upper mids and highs that do pass are now attenuated. They still hit the wall and reflect back, but have lost much of their original energy. The reflected waves can't pass through a second time at levels one will hear.
CAVX Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 You need to do vacuuming more often lol I have black speaker type material all around my screen, black felt panels coming away from my screen, black carpet with a small grey pattern, Matt black ceiling and blue walls. Works very well for me, the black felt is also a sound panel. Do you have images?
oztheatre Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 Carpet walls makes sense. The cinemas use carpet on the walls. Not sure if it's anything special.. from memory it seemed to be a loop pile nylon of some sort. Might do this in my next room, have always wanted to.
SDL Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 Do you have images? Will see if I can get a decent pic tomorrow.
Serentity Posted January 14, 2012 Posted January 14, 2012 We have Matt black ceiling and walls, and we just had charcoal carpet laid (we will finally be able to use the room yay). So apart from cleaning the walls, which is not that bad, we can't complain about going Matt black for the room.
CAVX Posted January 16, 2012 Posted January 16, 2012 We have Matt black ceiling and walls, and we just had charcoal carpet laid (we will finally be able to use the room yay). So apart from cleaning the walls, which is not that bad, we can't complain about going Matt black for the room. So no marks when cleaning?
blybo Posted January 16, 2012 Posted January 16, 2012 So no marks when cleaning? My "near black" front stage area cleans up quite well despite being flat. It's a Dulux Flat wash & wear made up to a Bristol colour called Aniseed. I smudged plaster dust all over the ceiling when cutting a larger downlight hole to fit a gimble style fitting. It washed fine just with a damp cloth but I had 1 coat still to apply so covered it all up anyway.
SDL Posted January 16, 2012 Posted January 16, 2012 You shouldn't get any marks if you clean with a duster as opposed to rubbing on the paint.
CAVX Posted January 16, 2012 Posted January 16, 2012 You shouldn't get any marks if you clean with a duster as opposed to rubbing on the paint. That was probably my issue
SDL Posted January 16, 2012 Posted January 16, 2012 (edited) get the missus in her little french maid outfit complete with feather duster. Edited January 16, 2012 by SDL
CAVX Posted January 16, 2012 Posted January 16, 2012 A maid outfit hey? I'm sure my misses Promogirl would just love that idea
Serentity Posted January 19, 2012 Posted January 19, 2012 So no marks when cleaning? If I dont use a duster, there are sometimes water marks when using a wet cloth, but overall can't really complain. plus thinking of carpeting the walls or putting sound pats on the wall.
CAVX Posted January 19, 2012 Posted January 19, 2012 thinking of carpeting the walls or putting sound pats on the wall. Please let the forum know how that works out for you. I love the results I got from something as simple and cheap as carpet.
dan76n Posted January 31, 2012 Posted January 31, 2012 What colored light fittings are those using who have painted their ceiling black? I currently have a white ceiling with four white down lights and a white air conditioning duct. Wouldn't they look silly if I painted the ceiling black and left them white?
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