Home studio

Geoffc

Senior Member
I am in the process of making my home studio in a spare bedroom. The room is about 3.6m x 3.6m with standard height ceilings (only about 8 foot). The thing that's bugging me is what colour to paint it as it's not a huge space for a studio, therefore be more difficult to control/kill light. The technically perfect solution is probably matt black on the walls and ceiling, however this may be too depressing. I managed to convince my wife who is also a keen photog that around 18% grey would be a good compromise, but even that looked miserable when I painted a test area.

I will have large backdrops on the wall where the subject is so it's the reflecting walls and ceiling that I'm concerned about. I am wondering if I'll need a black curtain on the opposite wall to the backdrop if I don't go for a dark neutral colour.

Has anybody been through this process themselves?
 
Actually probably any color grey would work just fine. In remodeling my entire home recently I learned that grey is the new off white. We painted the bedrooms a shade of grey and have a darker grey carpet. Took me a while to convince the wife but once I got it finished she loved it.

Black would be a bear to paint over if you ever decided to not make it a studio. Check out some of the grays that are available in the paint store.
 

Mfrankfort

Senior Member
Chalkboard paint!!! I just painted my office chalkboard paint, and it's the greatest thing ever. Not sure about for a studio though.. but it's sure fun. Could use some cool tricks with it however with slow shutter speeds and a flash.
 

Mike150

Senior Member
Chalkboard paint!!! I just painted my office chalkboard paint, and it's the greatest thing ever. Not sure about for a studio though.. but it's sure fun. Could use some cool tricks with it however with slow shutter speeds and a flash.

I did something similar for my grandkids. My office has one bare wall so I painted a 4 ft by 4 ft section (very low) with multiple coats (about 8) of Magnetic paint, then covered it with two coats of chalkboard paint. They love playing with it. Only problem is they sometimes drift off the prepared surface onto the normal walls.
 
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