The main purpose of every home theater is to have the big movie experience in the comfort of your own home. Since much of your viewing will be with the lights dimmed or off, you may ask yourself why the rooms color scheme is considered to be so important. There are basically two aspects of wall paint that we must consider; the paints finish and its color.

When painting your home theater, you should use good quality paint with a flat finish from a reputable manufacturer. Paints are available in a few different finishes; flat, satin (or egg-shell), semi-gloss, and gloss. These determine the paints level of light reflectivity. Flat and satin finishes don’t wear quite as easily as gloss but they’re the best choices for home theaters because they don’t reflect much light.

Never use gloss or semi-gloss paint anywhere in your home theater. Not on the walls, not on the doors, not even the trim. Why? Because glossy paint reflects light. Lots of it. When you’re looking at dry paint near a source of light, if you can see a brighter area that’s shiny, then that’s already too much light reflection. But what does it matter if the lights are out? With the lights out, the light coming from the television or projector screen will bounce off the walls and light up your room like crazy.

An overly bright room will adversely affect the performance of a rear-projection television, and absolutely kill the performance of even the most expensive consumer front-projectors. Light from a brightly lit scene will spill into the room, bounce off any lightly colored or glossy walls, and then back onto the screen reducing the screens contrast. The result is less detail for you and your audience.