

For the best picture possible, accentuate your painted surface with a black border-it’ll enhance the contrast you see in your projector’s picture. Mark the edges with a light pencil or use painter’s tape to tape it off before you paint. Use that picture as a guide for painting your projection square. Before painting your wall, cycle through your cable channels to find the largest high-definition image. Math-phobic? Use this online projection calculator. You’re looking to establish a screen size that is about 2/3 of your viewing distance. You’ll want to make sure your projector has already been installed, hooked up and aimed at your projection wall. Painting the screen on your wall should be the finishing touch to the home theater. Use a drywall compound to even out any of your found flaws. Mark any surface flaws, like a raised bump of paint or a minor dip in the wall surface. Before you paint, turn off all the lights in your theater room and have a friend shine a flashlight sideways onto your projection wall. You can enter details about your projector and the site will help you choose the best one from their eight gradual gray paint options.

A general rule of thumb is that you should go gray if your projector’s specs say it produces more than 3,500 lumens. Depending on how many lumens your projector produces, you may want to grab a paint that’s closer to gray than white. If your wall isn’t already white, you should prep it with a regular white wall primer before you apply any projection paint. But this high-science stuff is going to cost you: You can grab a projector screen paint kit for just under $200, which will cover up to a 90-square-foot projection area.

It’s designed to be reflective or translucent in all the right places (and lights!). To get the high-def out of high-def projectors, you’ll want to invest in digital projector screen paint.
