LESLIE: Gary in North Carolina is working on a home theatre. What can we do for you today?
GARY: I’m trying to find out what’s the best color to paint it.
TOM: Ah.
LESLIE: Oh, goodness gracious. That’s like asking me to read your mind. (Gary and Tom chuckle) But with home theatres, generally the thoughts are you want to choose a color that’s fairly neutral so that it doesn’t compete with what you’re viewing or your décor. You also want to make sure that you do not paint the ceiling white because it reflects a lot. I mean how big of a screen are we talking?
GARY: Sixty-five-inch.
LESLIE: OK, that’s a pretty big TV.
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: Yeah, I would definitely – I did a home theatre in a brownstone in Manhattan and I used a Benjamin Moore color called Stardust which was like a taupey-gray but really warm and very neutral. And then I stepped it up to do one lighter than that color and I painted the ceiling in that tone; because first we started off white and that was just way too bright and they had a huge screen in this house and you know, you’re dealing with a fairly large screen there, too. So I would paint the ceiling a similar tone to the wall color but lighter. And you know, the darker the better for the walls, I feel, just so that you’re not reflecting that color from the screen all around the room.
GARY: And what about the trim? Does the trim make any difference or should I leave that flat, too? They say either flat or satin and that’s not too bad.
LESLIE: Right, you don’t want to do anything glossy. Do the trim also in satin and don’t do the trim in white or doors in white. Stick with that same color that you might do the ceiling.
GARY: OK. Yeah, because I read just a little bit on Google; they’re saying that the browns and the grays were the best color for that room.
LESLIE: If you go to – if you happen to be by a store that carries Benjamin Moore, it’s in the color preview booklet. There’s a card; it’s Stardust/Silver Fox/Brown Horse. Those are all sort of really warm grays that have like a brown quality to them that I found worked really nicely.
TOM: Those are very trendy right now, if you look at the data that comes in from the paint color institute.
GARY: Yeah.
TOM: They talk a lot about those warm grays and browns just being very hot right now.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Mm-hmm, I love clay, putty.
TOM: Putty, yes.
GARY: I’m partial to gray because I’m an old man and they call me a silver fox. (Tom laughs)
LESLIE: And that’s actually the color I used on the trim, so go check it out.
TOM: See that. (Gary chuckles) So it’s meant to be; meant to be, Gary.
GARY: (chuckling) Yeah, right.
TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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