Depth of Design

Justin Waters from Sonora Baptist Church brings us this retooling of their rather traditional church stage.

Justin brought about the change in two stages to keep from freaking people out. Having a guest choir gave him the perfect opportunity to add the stage elements, then after that he changed the beige walls to black walls with colored lights.

He made 2 frames that were 3’x7′ (inside measurements) and attached crumpled aluminum screening inside. Instead of landscape fabric he just painted the frames black. He used a textured paint on the wood surface to hide the possible wood grain look, then painted over with a flat black spray paint.

They sheet rocked over the very back wall (behind the projection screen) and painted that wall black. (They took down a 4’x8′ landscape painting just above the baptismal.) Then they hung the 2 aluminum screen frames on the wall and were ready for the guest choir.

Justin then made a cross out of 1″x8″ pine, with 1″x4″ pine turned on its side to create a “box”. The cross was 8′ tall and 4′ 7″ wide. He painted it black as well, then stapled more aluminum screening to the inside.

Finally he made 2 light boxes. He framed up 1′ square x 4′ tall frames and painted them white. Then he attached a piece of 3/4″ plywood on the bottom for some weight and to have a solid surface on the bottom. 1/4″ ply was on the back and he added 5″x9″ access panels at the bottom to allow him to take the lights in and out as needed. He wrapped the outside in white spandex fabric and then attached 1/4″x1″ trim pieces that he painted black to hide the staples. He then installed a flat LED par in each light that has Red, Green, Blue, Amber, and White LED’s (Blizzard Puck).

Two weeks later, phase two started when they painted the entire back wall black after church on Sunday. They hung the cross about 2′ off the back wall using 3/8″ wire rope to give it some dimension. Then they moved the framed panels to the walls on the sides of the cross and put the light boxes in front. The left over palms from Palm Sunday finished off the look.

In all this was around the $600 mark in supplies, including the two new LED lights.