Matt M Higgins from Next Level Church in Somersworth, NH brings us this textured stage design. (originally posted November 2016)
From Matt: Here at NLC, we designed a simplistic approach to creating a dynamic color wash for video teaching and worship. We used Mio Paperform Tiles along the back to achieve a seamless, dynamic geometric wall that allowed variation of colors and intensities. Having a smaller stage, this really helped create a sense of depth in person and in video teaching. Making installation easier, we adhered the tiles in the desired pattern on nine plywood sheets using a spray adhesive. Following which, we screwed the plywood sheets to the back wall and proceeded to paint the whole piece matte black.
We created a 13:3 screen above the wall using white projector paint and a simple black molding as a frame, which gave us an illusion of a taller stage as well as giving us a more concentrated area for lyrics to be displayed behind our worship team.
Hanging from the ceiling are 40 pendant lights with assorted filament bulbs. Attached to five dimmers across the back wall, these lights give vivid light shows throughout the experience and serve well as giving more ambient light throughout our experiences. Along the bottom of the back wall are several LED bar lights creating a beautiful wash of color for the stage.
We had a budget of $6,000 and came in under budget by assembling everything in-house with the help of our awesome volunteers and staff members! If you are thinking of doing a design like this, we would love to give tips and tricks for how we achieved this stage design!
What projectors does your church have ?
What color tiles did you order? This looks great.
Hey, Josh! We used an eggshell black latex paint on white Mio paper form tiles.
Any reason why you chose black for the color? I’d be afraid of it absorbing all of the light/color (even though it doesn’t look like you are having any issues from the pictures).
Hey Matt, I was wondering what the dimensions of your Fractal wall are?
Hey, Matt! The fractal portion of the wall is 40′ wide by 8′ tall.
how to make that projector too wide?
i want to apply that on my church.
please, could you tell me? thanks
Hey, Nehemia!
The projection “screen” is 13′ wide by 3′ high. We cropped the projector screen using a mask in Propresenter (which is the program we use for our lyrics, video teaching, notes, etc.) Here’s a tutorial from Propresenter on how to achieve this: https://vimeo.com/38442329
well, thanks… Matt.. i really need this…
Can you tell me more about how you painted them? I have a ton of mio tiles that I was curious about painting black so they disappear more when light isn’t on them.
Hey, Ryland!
We ended up using a matte black latex paint that we applied with a paint gun that can be found at Lowes, Home Depot, or similar stores that sell larger tools. Make sure to apply it evenly and allow plenty of time for this. It took us several applications to cover everything. Even after the paint fries, you’ll find some pores in the tiles that weren’t hit by the paint.
Good luck!
hey! This looks great, we’re totally ripping it off! :-D
Did you fill in the gaps with putty, or did the black paint take care of that?
Black paint, my friend! Photos?!
I’m curious where you found the hanging lights, were they already set at different lengths? is each light it’s own fixture, or are they all connected?
I hand assembled each hanging light. They’re all daisy chained into one another.
Great look! What kind of adhesive did you use to attach the tiles to the board. Thinking of doing a similar design, but with foam core board.
Honestly, we tried glueing but nailing was the only thing that worked.
We are ripping this off thanks for the great idea! We found black tiles similar to this on Home Depot and will be done in a day or so. We love the result already and love that we didn’t have to paint them all black!!
Hey Matt, looks great, can you tell me what LED bar lights you used on floor and where you got your pendant lights? This would be a huge help! Thank you!