Stage Designs

Throwback: The App Wall

Van Metschke at South Hills Church in Corona, California loosely based this design on a stage he saw at Mariners church in Irvine, CA. The “App Wall” as it was dubbed, is made up of multiple 2′ x 2′ squares of 1/8″ Luan plywood. Each corner was rounded with a jig-saw. The majority of the “apps” are painted flat white, others are painted flat grey or left natural wood. They were then attached to the wall with drywall screws.

The train mural was painted by Annie Phipps for their series “Derailed”. The stage is lit with a combination of Mega-Light LED washes and Elation Design Spots.

Originally posted: Dec 1, 2010

Throwback: Light Pillars String Pyramids

30 responses to “Throwback: The App Wall”

  1. jthtiger says:

    That would be a great projection surface!!!

    This is pretty awesome! I think I'm going to incorporate this into my next design!

    -Tyler Herron

  2. Erik says:

    Hey Van- what genius designed that???

  3. Kim Russell says:

    My Son James helped paint those squares!!

  4. Donnie says:

    have you thought of an alternative way to mount them other than actually drilling into the wall?

  5. jimmy says:

    So if you had to do it again would you leave some of them grey and natural or paint them all white? I am thinking about doing this tomorrow. Just wondering if I should paint some grey or just do them all white?

  6. jimmy says:

    We just did this in our youth room and got a great review from our students and adults. We just did the rounded squares. I am looking for something to add to it to top it off. Open to suggestions…

  7. Stacy Bonet says:

    are the walls just black all around the rest of the room? do you have any suggestions for the walls other then just black to make the room flow? (not talking about the stage) we like the look of the stage, we just dont know what to do with the rest of the walls.

    • jimmy says:

      I think I would try to “frame” out the stage. Put something like truss at the edge of your black stage. I think that would give a visual that the stage is ending. It would force the focus on the stage and people wouldn’t really notice that the black ends on the stage.

  8. Phil M. says:

    Hey how far do the squares stick off the wall? 3inches? 5inches? We are looking to incorporate this look into our new church campus in CT. Thanks!

  9. Ty Stewart says:

    can you tell me exactly how large your stage is? and how many of each light you’re using? thanks!

    • Van Metschke says:

      Our stage is 35′ wide and it is 14′ to the sofit above the stage.
      We used 13 LED bricks, 4 on each of the side walls and 5 on the center.

    • Phil M. says:

      We went ahead and used 18″x18″ routed squares. We used industrial velcro to adhere them to the wall and it worked perfect!

      Pictures coming soon! Thanks!

  10. Alan says:

    Phil – would love to see your pics too.

    Jimmy – what did you do to top it off? Anything yet?

    • Jimmy says:

      We ended up leaving it. I guess the lesson learned is if you are going to do something do it all at once. You just never have time to get back to it and when you do you are ready for a new look.

  11. joseph says:

    thank u for all the design advice

  12. Can anyone tell me how the apps are lighted? it looks like it’s coming from the bottom but I could be wrong… Thanks

    • Phil says:

      Hey Andrew, we lit our app wall from 3 different directions. We have 4 LEDs uplighting it, 2 Intelligent lights that hang from a center truss point down at it, and 2 additional LEDs posted at the front corners of the stage point back at the app wall. This gives us the best spread.

  13. Okay sweet thanks! Looks good

  14. Phil B says:

    If you didn’t want to adhere this to the back wall of the stage you can use aircraft cable and fasteners from the ceiling to the floor, however far from the back wall as needed. The graphic panels can be placed at desired heights, but can be moved if desired, or changed if needed. A site for this is wwww.griplocksystems.com.
    Hope this helps, God Bless

  15. Ashton Davis says:

    Hey Van! My name is Ashton and I am in charge of redoing our Youth Ministry stage!! I really like your design! A few questions:
    How did you keep the Apps on the wall?

  16. KERMIT says:

    THANKS FOR THIS. I’M GOING TO USE THIS APP WALL IDEA IN AUGUST WHEN I REDO ME STAGE SET FOR STUDENT MINISTRIES.

  17. Megan says:

    Crazy that this design is still super popular. Looks awesome!

  18. Modern churches use modern designs. I really like this concept. Thank you so much for sharing!

Leave a Reply to Jonathan Malm Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.