paint color for auditorium

[NHStech]

We will be making some small upgrades in our 1200-seat auditorium and my operations manager was asking me about painting the cinder-block walls. They are presently an off-white color (I will get pictures loaded). He wondered about painting the walls white to brighten it up in there. I like the idea, but for those of you who have managed auditoriums, if you have a lot of wall space to be painted, is it better to paint with a lighter or darker color and why? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[dbaxter]

Seems to me you would lose focus of your stage with white walls. You're going to get light reflections and your 'blackouts' will be more like 'greyouts'. Artistic people I've worked with (a techie, myself) like to see something like a dark, dark green. But not black.

 

[bdkdesigns]

Seems to me you would lose focus of your stage with white walls. You're going to get light reflections and your 'blackouts' will be more like 'greyouts'. Artistic people I've worked with (a techie, myself) like to see something like a dark, dark green. But not black.

This just happened at a venue I design at, only they went with a burgundy color. It was sure better than the old raw cinderblock and looked nice with the house lights up and disappeared during the show. Now....about that glossy wood proscenium arch that they installed at the same time.......

 

[JChenault]

Part of the answer depends on what the space is used for - but keep this in mind. The human eye is drawn to light. There is always some ambient light in any auditorium. If you have a dark scene on stage ( ie doing anything other than lectures ) you want to reflect as little light as possible. Since all black are a bit hard to live with ( until the house lights go out, and the stage light go on ) one normal compromise is to get darker as you move toward the stage ( assuming of course that you are not in an elaborate house with an ornate gold leaf proscenium )

IE I would fight against white ( unless it is solely for lectures ) as hard as I could. If it seems dark, perhaps additional house lights are in order.

 

[Colin]

I would want something more neutral in value regardless of the use of the space. Unless the stage, any scenery, and any people on it are as white as the white walls, the ambient light will be tough to deal with, house lights on or off. Unlike in other spaces and any number of home decorating shows and magazines, in an auditorium or theater "brightening it up in there" is done with light only, not paint, or you immediately limit your capabilities. For a multi-use performance/presentation room, you need neutrality.

 

[NHStech]

Thank you all for your posts. By "neutrality," what sort of colors are you thinking? The school colors we use are navy blue, vegas gold, white and grey. Obviously there are different shades of grey, but do any of those stand out as either do use, or don't use? It is a high school auditorium, built in the 50s. So, it is multi use. I have included a few pix, one of the main floor, the other of the balcony. I am open to suggestions. Thanks again.

 

[Colin]

Thank you all for your posts. By "neutrality," what sort of colors are you thinking? The school colors we use are navy blue, vegas gold, white and grey. Obviously there are different shades of grey, but do any of those stand out as either do use, or don't use? It is a high school auditorium, built in the 50s. So, it is multi use. I have included a few pix, one of the main floor, the other of the balcony. I am open to suggestions. Thanks again.

I would go for navy walls, but you might have compromises to make since controlling ambient light during performance is not the top priority for everyone at a high school (as evidenced by your operations manager wanting to "brighten it up" like it's a classroom). Maybe just navy on the walls that are perpendicular to the stage edge, and a lighter grey on those sections that angle away from the stage. Also, it's hard to see the front half of the house from the pictures, but if that is all cinder block then you'd probably benefit from some well-designed acoustic treatments, which can spiff up the walls with a more light-absorbent color at the same time, while perhaps being something more attractive to parties who don't understand why making everything dark is desirable.

That low ceiling could stay white to keep it from getting any more oppressive in that short space. At front of house lighting positions, though, carrying the darker wall color onto the ceiling and any acoustic panels is a big plus to suck up the ambient light before it gets to bouncing all over the room. I can't see your lighting positions from the pictures, but just turn some stage lights on and see how bright the ceiling glows. Might be an issue, might not. My current space is all dark navy walls and ceiling, and is a pleasure to light in compared to the last place I was, which was beautiful but had off-white acoustic panels on the ceiling.

If it were my space, my first priority would be to black out that light wood stage. But again, in a multi-use high school space some people might not want to do that.

 

[AlexDonkle]

Just to add, cinder block walls are naturally porous so painting them with anything thick may reduce some of the sound absorption in the room, and you may get some new flutter echo between the walls. Hard to predict how noticeable this will be considering the total wall area appears to be fairly small, but adding a few acoustical panels along the walls may be helpful.