When picking the right material for your indoor projector screen, you need to be extra careful. You can also come up with several creative ideas and substitutes for buying a projector screen for your projector. Usually, most homeowners just use the screen that the projector came with.
However, it doesn’t hurt to have a spare screen on hand in case you wish to watch movies in other parts of your home without moving your existing projector around.
What’s So Appealing about Watching Movies Indoors?
People have wanted to watch movies on the small screen or at the comfort of their own home as soon as VHS and home video became a thing. Before that, they made do with reruns of famous movies shown by local channels or dedicated cable movie channels at a 4:3 aspect ratio.
With the dawn of digital movie projectors become more affordable to the masses at large, now everyone can turn their living room or den into a mini movie house or cinema. However, the projector also comprises part of the equation.
Projector Screen Quality vs. What DIY Options Offer
You also need to take into consideration the quality of your projection screen. Sometimes, the screen that comes with the projector offers serviceable benefits. Other times, homeowners yearn for more. For something bigger. For something wider.
On that note, we’ve reviewed the best 7 indoor projector screen ideas to help you find the perfect one for your unique needs.
The 7 Indoor Projector Screen Ideas of Note
Here are the 7 indoor projector screen ideas of note.
1. Blank or White Wall
Many homeowners just shrug and aim their projector at the wall in order to watch The Twilight Saga, some new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, or a marathon of all the Pixar films made so far. A ghetto solution to having no screen available, to be sure.
However, for the most part you get serviceable results. You can make the image as big as you want too! Nevertheless, in order to get a somewhat decent image so as not to waste the 4K Ultra HD resolution, you have to sand down the wall to smoothness and repaint it with actual reflective screen paint.
2. Bed Sheet
Yet another ghetto solution to not having your own ready-made projector screen. Alas, the sheet offers a cheap solution that comes with caveats in regards to image quality. Even at 4K, your image will look a bit blurry or even warped if you don’t remove the folds from your bed sheet.
Pay attention to the thread count of your sheet. The lower the thread count the thinner the layer gets. This thinness affects how much light reflects back to you. You can help alleviate this by draping your sheet over something opaque but a genuine screen remains superior in reflectivity terms.
3. Wrapping Paper
Don’t limit the use of your wrapping paper to wrapping presents. This product that frequently ends up lying around your home for use during Christmastime might come in handy in terms of your projection-based home entertainment needs.
Get thick, sturdy wrapping paper with a glossy bottom and tape it unto a wooden frame or piece of cardboard. From there, project the image of your projector unto it and watch its glossiness give you a serviceable image. Keep this screen material from getting wet though!
4. Shades or Blinds
You can deploy your shades or blinds as another makeshift or alternative projection screen. Blackout screens work the best. In contrast, blackout curtains require a bit of stretching in order to keep the wrinkles from warping your screen.
Window shades offer decent picture quality but not 4K Ultra HD quality. The downgrades to the image will remind you of how low-quality monitors can drag down resolutions from 1080p to 480p and below, but this time in shades form that cost between $25 and $50.
5. Blackout Cloth or Curtains
Speaking of blackout curtains, you can also use the material for your DIY projector screen. Instead of letting it hang on the curtain rod and get all wrinkly, you should stretch the material out on a frame like you would a canvas or tarpaulin.
The beauty of blackout curtains rests on its moniker. They blackout your room and they were made to block out light. This means more of the projection light will bounce back to your eyeballs, resulting in a clearer image you’d swear came from an HDTV.
6. Photo or Picture Backdrop
In a pinch, you can use a photo or picture backdrop to project your image. Yes, absolutely the photo will distract from the image being projected. To get the best results, go for picture backgrounds composed mostly of white with finished edges. Go for a non-reflective surface as well.
A photographer backdrop, like the blackout curtains, keeps the light from shining through it. Thus the projection stays on it and reflects back to your eyes with clarity. The material is known for its sturdiness, allowing you to watch on the go.
7. Projector Screen Paint
Last but not least, you have the projector screen paint. Long story short, the paint can turn even a threadbare bed sheet with cardboard backing into something halfway serviceable. The paint can also be used on a blank wall to give it a reflectivity approaching that of the silver screen.
You can apply the paint in various materials. However, it’s for the best that you make sure the surface you’re applying it on should be sanded down to smoothness for the best results. It can even stick to plaster walls, masonry, cardboard, particleboard, or plastic to boot.
Wrapping It Up
Many people opt to use other DIY screens in order to have alternatives to the default screens that come with the projector. Or maybe they only bought the projector but it didn’t come with its own screen.
The simplest solution remains buying a projector screen or using the projector screen that likely came with your projector. In case you break that and you lack money to buy a new screen until the next payday, you can use the ideas outlined here to help you out while you’re in a pinch.