Dark red walls bad for viewing? (1 Viewer)

I'm currently painting my soon-to-be home theater room. The ceiling is done; it's a dark gray, almost black. The walls are next; they'll be a dark, deep red:

http://www.nineshadoweyes.com/images/HT_plan_1.gif

I'm starting to get paranoid and worried that the wall color will adversely affect the colors on the TV (Samsung DLP, 2003 model). Will it?

Shane...take a look at my room and you'll see we're twins! And the myth about wall colors affecting your screen is just that...a myth....I've had numerous over for theater nights and I'm happy to report noone said the images looked red! LOL...

Enjoy buddy!

E

Just a heads up.....red hughes take MANY coats to look right. I did not use any red in my HT, but my experience elsewhere in the house was red took 8 - 9 coats before it was the true red we imagined.

Your deeper red may be easier, but ask at the paint store. If they tell you it is a hard color to get coverage for.......believe them!
Jon

Jon is right...my Cranberry Zing took 3 coats! But that's not bad since it was only the upper 4' of the wall!

BTW...if red affected the screen...then why the heck do most theaters have red curtains on the wall! LOL...I love these myths...I had a few e-mails during my construction process asking this very question. I'll be honest...it got me at first but then I researched a bit and then proceeded to laugh!

E

Erik, I actually got the color scheme idea from your theater; I just wanted it a bit darker.

I laid down a pretty thick coat of primer so I'm expecting I'll only have to do the red three times.

Glad it's a myth. I really like the color.

Oh my gosh...I was totally joking on the 'twins' comment...but I guess I was not! LOL...it is amazing what a camera does to color...cause the red on my website comes out much Lighter than it really is...so you should be set if you're going darker than me! Have fun and do share pics!

E

I agree with Jon as well.
The color I have is called "deep amethyst" from Behr and it took four heavy coats to get the right look. The salesperson at the paint department told me it would only take "one" coat . At first my room looked like barney the dinosaur!
Now I absolutely love it!

It might take "One" coat for someone with a $700 spray gun . The rest of us have to trudge along with our 18th century brushes!

Sean.

I'm using a medium gray primer so I'm expecting to do only two coats for the red. Maybe three. I've done red before without any primer and it took 6 coats to get right.

I painted my room a deep red as well. Canton Red from Benjamin Moore. I used 4 coats (that includes a deep base primer) of the Superpaint (one down from the top of the line paint).

I would highly recommend that for a red, which doesn't cover very well, that you use a quality paint, like Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, or Pratt and Lambert. Stay far away from Behr (good rule of thumb anyway) and Glidden quality paints. You will end up doing 8 coats to cover.

Take care.

Why stay away from Behr? What's wrong with it?

With paints generally you get what you pay for. The cheaper it is the less solids content it will have. I have seen more complaints over Behr paint than any other out there. If you go with a paint from a big box store, use the American Tradition from Lowe's. Consumer Reports really likes that paint.

When I did my basement for the light colors in the other room I used American Tradition. For my media room, which I knew was a tough color, I made sure to use a paint that would cover well, thus the Superpaint from BM. It was only $25 a gallon, not a huge difference to Behr. To me it wasn't worth the risk of having a crappy paint job in a room that I had slaved over for a $20 difference in paint between BM and something else.

Oh, and when you paint your walls the dark red, don't make a judgement on the color until you get a couple/few coats on. The first coat I did was a nice fucia (ack!). ;-) Subsequent coats got progressively darker.

Take care.

heh heh... looks like Jacques beat me to a post re: Consumer Reports. Interestingly enough, I do recall a CR from years ago that rated one of the Wal-Mart "house" brands highly (I believe it's actually manufactured by Sherwin-Williams). I'd be interested to see that 7/02 CR test.

Erik i saw your HT today, oh my god is so cool, i dont know what word describe better

congrats for a good place to watch movies

I agree on Glidden but disagree on Behr.
I use Behr Premium Plus and American Tradition paint only.
I have never had a problem or any complaints with Behr.

One nice thing to try is to have your primer tinted. This really helps when doing dark colours. BTW I totally agree about the quality of paint. Do the best that you can afford.

Well, I didn't really think about the quality of the paint when I got it, just the color. Got the Behr premium stuff from Home Depot and it seems to work fine, though, in truth, all I'm really thinking when I'm painting is how much I hate painting. I did notice that the paint was kinda thick.

Shane, I used the EXACT same paint you have and had no problems...how's this...I didn't even prime and only needed three coats!

E

I was going to offer the same advice about having your primer tinted. I too used Behr Premium, Currant Jam a dark red , and liked the results. When shopping for paint I had a Sherwin Williams store tell me that the high ends paints aren't very different, even between Sherwin Williams and Behr premium. I was shocked to hear this from him.