Bob's Bloggers
A community of bloggers who live and die to DIY
diy
DIY Tales: Custom Built Projector Screen
By Quirky Cool... on Oct 07, 2013
Hey Guys! I have a cool DIY for you this week. It's like none other I have posted. In fact I owe most of the credit to my husband. We bought our first home and that means we get to finally make it our own. We can do whatever we want. As we remodel, we decided to make the basement a "movie room" because my husband's always wanted one but it can get expensive for a big screen. Instead of forking out all that money we made our own home theater system for under $1,000.00 which is VERY affordable. I looked up the cost of a 90 inch screen and they run between $7,000 and $10,000. It takes patience and a handyman but we were able to customize our own big screen. Check out how we did it...
Sneak Peek...
Materials:
-2 x 2 Redwood...amount depends on size of screen you are custom building.
-Staple Gun
-2 1/2 yards of blackout cloth in Matte white for our 100 inch. You can get this at Jo-Ann's fabric store. (amount of yards you will need depends on the size of your custom built frame)
-L brackets (Again, amount depends on size of your frame) we used 12 in both large and small sizes around the frame.
-Projector.
This entire project depends on your projector placement. We bought an Epson 710 HD for $600. My husband measured and placed the projector on the ceiling and wired it all in. So, if you don't have a handyman you may need to hire an electrician for this part.
Here is what the frame looks like... Remember... the size of frame is custom to each person because of the layout of your home,type of projector and where you place it. Once you have gotten the projector settings, placement and wiring figured out in your home you can build the screen of your dreams. The wall we had to use has a small door that enters under our stairs and a light switch so our options were limited on wall selection but I think 100 inches is plenty big enough. Although my husband dreams of bigger. LOL.
Once you have your frame built, you must stretch the fabric as tight as you can get it so that there are no imperfections on the canvas. This takes clean hands and 2 people. I suggest doing it in sections at a time when pulling fabric over frame and stapling. Be sure you are pulling tight so that there are no wrinkles as you go along. When you've finished you can cut off excess fabric.
After all this is done you want to hang it over screws so it won't slip. Be careful when hanging, you don't want any imperfections. It sounds tough to do but if you have a handyman or if in fact you are handy yourself with these kinds of projects you can easily make your own custom built big screen for a fraction of what it would cost to buy one. Not to mention this baby is so much more lighter than a television.
FYI...We also bought blackout curtains for our windows in the basement. If you don't know what they are they are curtains designed to block out light. We use them so that if we watch television during the day the screen isn't washed out and hard to see.
Hope you enjoyed this MASSIVE diy! My husband is loving Monday Night Football and I'm enjoying my late night girly movies.
Until Next Time...
Peace In Love Always,
