How to Make a Homemade Movie Screen

Putting together a home theater can be an expensive project. However, the luxury of inviting your friends over to screen some of your favorite movies makes it a rewarding project. You can save money by giving the project a do-it-yourself flavor and creating the blank movie screen yourself. Making your own homemade movie screen involves either painting a panel on your wall, or tacking up a piece of background paper.

Things You'll Need

• Sandpaper
• Screen paint, white or light gray
• Black molding or dark paint
• Paint brush
• Background paper, super-white and seamless
• Wooden frame
• Wall hangers

Instructions

Painted Screen

1. Sand away any bubbles or imperfections on the desired projection wall with a piece of sandpaper. Small blemishes that are hardly apparent in dim lighting will seem enormous when the projector is focused directly on them. The most common grade of sandpaper, the "P grade," is adequate for this task.

2. Paint the wall with a white or light gray paint. In selecting the paint for your screen, you must make a decision on the overall quality of the theater. A cheap paint will mean a low picture quality. Springing for a screen paint, such as ProjectX, Mighty Brighty, Digital Theater Paint, or ScreenGoo, will give the picture good contrast and color saturation (see Resources for links). The size of the screen should be appropriate to the room's dimensions. For example, a 26-inch screen is appropriate if the viewing distance is between 3.3 feet and 6.5 feet. Use the link to the grid under Resources to figure out the right screen size.

3. Paint a dark border around the white screen. The border should fit the outside dimensions of the screen. Alternately, you can tack pieces of black molding around the painted screen. This non-reflective border will help with color contrast and give shape to the image.

Non-Painted Screen

1. Buy super-white, seamless background paper at a photography store, if you choose not to paint your walls. This is also a nice fallback, if cracks or blemishes on your wall are affecting the quality of the picture. A screen made of background paper is a good alternative for renters and can also be portable.

2. Buy a wooden frame and attach the background paper to the frame.

3. Hang the framed background paper with heavy-duty wall hangers.

References

• Big Picture, Big Sound: DIY Projector Screens
• CNET: Size Up Your Screen

Resources

• Mighty Brighty: Turn your wall into a Home Cinema screen
• ProjectX: Projector Screen Paint Solution
• Goo Systems: Invisible Theater
• Paint on Screen: Digital Theater Paint