Painted Home Projection Screen

Painted and framed Home Theater Screen

Total Cost $40.00

 

I bought my husband a projector for our anniversary this year and it has been a huge hit.  Movie nights are a big thing at our house.  When we first got the projector it was to play with and watch a movie on the wall in our living room until we got around to finishing the bonus room upstairs into a home theater, which is something he wants to do eventually.  It is low priority on the to do list right now.

The more we played with the more we talked about getting a screen. While the picture looked ok on the pale yellow walls it was not a great image for movie watching.  We looked at many options for a screen and decided a painted one on the wall would work best for our living room and budget. 

First was to decide on the exact location of the projector and equipment and get it all set up.  Next we decided on the height of the screen, because the screen was going on the wall with a TV under it, it was important we got the exact placement right. Once that was done with the location of the projector in place we had a 100” diagonal screen.  We decided to paint and frame in only the 16:9 screen, while our projector will do both 4:3 and 16:9 we knew we would only use the 16:9 and frankly the 4:3 looked huge and square on the wall. 

TIP If working in a bright room like we are doing this after dark makes taping off the screen much easier.

Deciding on the placement of the screen, not a bad picture on a yellow wall.

Next we marked the four corners of the 16:9 screen and then used a laser level to get straight edges from corner to corner and then taped them off with painters tape.

                                     

 

TIP – for a crisp edge after putting up painters tape, paint a border over lapping the painters tape in the same color as the wall color. Any bleed through will not show since it is the same as the wall color and it will seal the tape down. 

Hard to see but you can tell where we overlapped the painters tape with the same wall color in order to seal the edges of the tape.

 

After making sure any nail holes were filled and sanded we applied 2 coats of Kilz primer.

Next we used 3 coats of Behr Premium Plus Interior Enamel in Eggshell Ultra Pure White.  I choose an eggshell finish because I have a son with nerf guns, balls etc. and I wanted something I could wash a smudge off with because I am sure at some point there will be one. Flat would work just fine I think.

We purchased a new quality roller for a smooth finish. 

After 2 coats the paint looked a little splotchy in a few places so we did a 3rd coat for a even smooth finish.

 

After 2 coats of Kilz and 3 coats of paint.

 

Taped removed and ready for a frame. Total screen size in 100” diagonal.

 

View during the day with all the lights off,  no frame yet.

We used plain 1x4s for the frame.  It took two 1x4x10 and 2 1x4x6  We cut them with a miter saw and painted flat black.  We just tacked them on the wall with a nail gun.

Screen with frame. You can see the TV below it.

 

My next project is to build a new cabinet that runs the length of the wall for the TV, equipment, dvd’s and gaming stuff. I will ad a picture of the whole wall once I get that done.

Movie Time!

 

Overall this was a super easy project and not expensive.  It took 2 days to allow for the drying time between coats and a bit of patience when taping of the edges.  Total cost was $40.00.  We already had Kilz primer, flat black paint and the painters tape.

 

I like that it will be easy to remove the wood and paint over the screen when we finally get a chance to finish the bonus room, until then we are enjoying our little home theater. 

Rope Planter

I almost feel silly putting this on the blog it is such an easy thing to do.  I have been shopping for planters for the patio we are sprucing up this spring.  Planters are expensive or at least around here they are.  I saw a beautiful ceramic planter from Pottery Barn. It is very pretty and $159.00. It gave me the idea to try and make one.

 

 

It was so easy and took about 30 minutes.  I bought a cheap plastic pot at Dollar General and a package of natural rope at Home Depot.  They sell white nylon rope and I thought about getting it to try since it would look more like the Pottery Barn planter but I liked the natural rope.  I might try a smaller planter with the white nylon.

The rope was $8.00 for 50 feet. The pot was $5.00 and is 16” wide.  One package of rope was not quite enough, I needed about 12 more feet. I had to go buy another package of rope but I have oodles left for another project.  I used hot glue to start the rope and then switched to Gorilla Glue.  Since the Gorilla Glue foams as it cures I use hot glue on the top of the planter so I wouldn’t have to worry about foaming showing through.  You could use hot glue for the whole thing but it will take a lot of glue.

 

So here is my super easy and fast project.

 

 

Old Desk Project

This blog has been silent for way too long. Due to some medical issues crafting and woodworking has been the last thing on my to do list for a long while but I am getting back to it with a list a mile long of projects.

First up is this old desk, it has been painted, varnished, painted and painted some more. I am trying to decide what to do with it. I thought of stripping it but it would have to be dipped there are way too many grooves etc. for me to do properly. So I am thinking a good sanding and repainting.

I have thought about a pale robin egg blue or a creamy white? Not sure, I think I will stare at it for a few days until I decide.

Any ideas?

I have found knobs for the desk I love at Anthropologie.com. There is a pale blue glass bubble knob I like and my favorite is the clock knobs and those would be easy to make.

Boys Garage Room with Red White and Blue

 

 

Boys Garage Style Room VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

My 7 year old son’s room needed a redo, it was between a toddler and a little boys room.  He wanted a big boy room(with no cute anything, I was told) with a garage workshop theme in red, white, and blue.  I was fine with the garage theme we already had craftsman carts for Legos but the addition of the red, white and blue threw me a little. 

He loves, Legos, Star Wars, books and working on cars. That is a lot to get in one room.

 

I don’t have a before picture because my husband got up early and cleared the room when we got ready to start on it.  I am not complaining that was great, who knew a little boy could have so much stuff in one small room.

Here are few Bad(messy) photos I found that show some of what his room looked like.  It was yellow with demin wall painting, that had begun to fade. There were stripped curtains that were see through. He still had his Wiggles toy box and the carpet had seen much better days. The room needed more storage and a serious cleaning.

He room is 10x10 so a very small room, getting the most of the space was important. 

First the wall colors, he wanted a red wall, a blue wall and a white wall.  I was not sure about that but it his room and it is just paint.  That is what I though before we painted the red wall.  After 5 coats of paint, I made a Mom decision and said no to the blue wall.  One I was not painting another wall with 5 coats of paint and the one red wall make a huge impact in the room.  I was worried if we painted the opposite wall in blue it would have shrunk the room in too much.  We painted one wall red and the others white. He is ok with it.

The paint we used:

Red – Red Rose Bouquet by Behr

Blue – Harbor by Ralph Lauren -  Providence by Behr is a very close match

White – Swiss Coffee by Behr  -  I love this white it is white with no yellow in it but it is a creamy white.

 

We did not use much of the blue. On his chest of drawers and a canvas wall hanging I made.  I may paint his book case blue.

Hard to show the white. It is white.

Chest of Drawers

We painted his chest of drawers blue with red and white drawers.  I also numbered his drawers so he will know where to put his clothes. Before I have them labeled.  This was just a old white Target chest of drawers we had.

I have cast iron star knobs I purchased from Ebay, the screws are the wrong size. Once I get the correct ones there will be star knobs on the drawers.

 

Toy Box

He still had his Wiggles toy box and it was time for it to go.  We decided to repaint it to go with the garage theme.  We painted the bottom of the toy box shiny black and the top we used a hammered steel spray paint.  The top has had hammered steel look, like the steel diamond workbenches.

Storage for Legos, hot wheel cars, and other misc. toys.

Craftsman tool carts make the best Lego storage, with the different size drawers it can hold everything from the tiny pieces you can hardly see to the large base plates.  It can hold a ton of Legos believe me, we have a ton at least.  They are all metal so they can take a beating.  It has given him a ton of storage space for his small room.  And of course what garage wouldn’t be complete without tool chests.  You can get them on sale at Sears fairly often. 

 

 

Lego Peg Board

This peg board was easy to make. You can buy a 4x4 peg board at Home Depot for about $5.00.  I then glued Duplo Legos around the edge.  I used Duplo because they are larger and show up better than using regular size Legos but regular Legos would work just fine.

Bed and Curtains

His bed is a Captain’s bed. I picked it because it gave him more storage without taking up anymore space.  I did buy a denim comforter for the bed. It is by Tommy Hilfger and is actual denim, it should last for years.

The curtains are navy blackout curtains on a pvc pipe painted to look like hammered steel. The spray paint is by Rustoleum it is call Hammered Steel.  I am going to add some car parts to the end of the pvc, spark plugs maybe. The liner is white with red and blue stars.

Flag, Posters and wall art.

The flag was made with a few 1x4s and paint.  I know it is not accurate. I had originally planned to paint it blue and white and used bottle tops for the “stars”  but Kiddo wanted it red, white and blue. I already had the size made for his wall so I took liberty.  I used the paint we bought for the wall and then chalked in the stars.  I then added a coat of stain to give it a worn look. 

 

The posters are vintage Star Wars posters I bought.  He loved Star Wars and the inner geek in me loves it too although I am more of a Star Trek fan(don’t tell).

The garage signs along the top of the wall are mostly from Hobby Lobby, and one old license plate.  He wants to go along all 4 walls with road signs. I am going to start hunting for a few vintage ones. He has one wall full and that is plenty for now.

Floor

I don’t even want to tell you how much of a pain this floor was.  We bought garage flooring tile that looks like diamond pattern flooring. He was so excited. He loves it, calls it his wrestling floor. 

This stuff was the biggest mess and so difficult to work with. If I had any idea I would have never done it. We would have had the carpet replaced.  We bought enough tile for the floor with a little extra. We thought this will be easy, it will take an hour and we will be done. WRONG!  These tiles are supposed to click together.  They don’t!  Each package was off by as much as 3/8”. It was like a horrible puzzle.  We ended up going and buying more tiles and finally got enough pieces to fit.  Instead of an hour it took 3 days!  Good thing he loves it.

Closet

I am not really happy with the closet organization right now, it has worked well so far but his needs are changing and I think I need to rethink it a bit. We have the Rubbermaid closet storage system plus his chest of drawers in there.

Please enjoy the clean room and closet because it won’t stay that way.