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.