Blackout


My den / home theater has a front projection system. The ambient light is fairly well controlled, but there is one glaring deficiency. There is an 8' by 12' entryway to the breakfast room / kitchen. Normal daylight and light from the light fixture over the breakfast table interferes with the picture on the screen. Short of closing it off entirely, I've been looking at creative ways to better control the light coming in to the den.

Any suggestions?
kinsekd
I'd simply adress the door like you would a large window, and have curtains made from dark and heavy fabric, and hang them from a rod above the door, on the inside of the theater room. If you tack sashes to either side of the entrway, then the curtains can be tied off discretely when you're not watching. I did this at my old apartment to solve an acoustic problem and it was a good enough solution, with minimal investment. The lazy man's version would be to afix velcro above the door and then the velcro backing onto a piece of fabric, so you can simply put up the "door" when you watch, but it's not in the way when you're not watching.
If you have the money - they aren't cheap, there's the Mirage screen that rejects light other than projector light; i.e.: you can watch in a bright room! Hard to believe!

See my site at

http://www.www.greathometheater.com/newsletters.html - then go to the bottom of the August newsletter.

I have no association with the company, btw. Just trying to help.

Best of luck!

Bob Wood
How about a heavy black curtain like you would find in a movie house, hung on the den side of the entry way, perhaps
with a center split for easy pass thru?