Home studio - garage conversion

[davys]

Hello folks,

Looking for a wee bit of advice - I'm in the fortunate position of very soon starting the conversion of my garage into a small home studio/sitting room (the sitting room part is a peace offering to The Long Haired General...as I'm paying for this conversion, once I'm in it's 80% small studio!). It's a standard size single garage 18ft x 11ft, height c.9ft, so I'm well aware that it's on the small side. However it's all I have, I will just have to adapt to the size.

To start off I'm planning on buying either the Bowens RX400 kit or the Lencarta Smartflash 200 kit and a small selection of soft boxes to go with them. However I'm struggling with how to paint the walls. I totally understand that, yes, they should be dark along with the ceiling, but I'll have to meet the LHG half way with regard to colour since it is meant to be partly a sitting/rec room as well. I'll obviously go with a matt colour, was thinking light grey for the ceiling, but I'm at a loss for the colour to use on the four walls. I'm thinking of going down the route of a darkish matt peach colour, but rigging a thin curtain rail that will run at the very top of the wall so that I can have black curtains to pull across when the room is in studio mode. If anyone has any suggestions with regard to wall colour/tactics for overcoming non black walls, I'd be very interested in hearing them.

Just to emphasise, this will be very much an amateur set-up to start with, so that I can build on and practice what I've been learning at my college evening courses on studio and portrait photography. If all goes well, the plan is to migrate to setting up a small part-time portrait business next summer. Between now and then it will be lots and lots of portrait practice on family, friends and neighbours with small children to see if I have any chance of doing portraits for real!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[Pookeyhead]

Ideally... any studio I built would be black... but I appreciate the need for dual use. However... no "colours" should be used... light grey or something could still look nice for domestic use, but will not introduce colour casts due to reflection. Keep it utterly neutral.

 

[Garry Edwards]

The smaller the space, the more important it becomes to control light pollution really well, and that means black or very dark ceiling and walls. A good compromise would be a black ceiling with black drapes covering light walls.
Avoid coloured paint or furnishings, those colours often reflect onto the subject

 

[PaulButler]

Be aware you are most likely to need change of use permission too (local council will advise) as you are converting a non living space into one. It will be under building regs http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/garageconversion/

 

[Matt9581]

I am in process of doing the same. Although my general is not wanting a piece of the space!!!
Think I am going for grey all around

 

[davys]

Many thanks to all for taking the time to give your hints and advice, it's greatly appreciated. I can just imagine the Long Haired General's response when I tell her the colour choice must include grey ceiling. To be fair she will agree to a matt neutral colour on the walls, so this in combination with a black curtain will hopefully be the way to go. Will post some pictures once it's set up. Good luck with your own conversion Matt!