How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

This post is sponsored by ao.com

When you’ve spent the last two months solidly working on creating your dream garden space, the last thing you want to do on date night is leave the house. So we decided to bring date night to us. Plus if there’s anything this heat wave has taught us with impending storms forecast over the next week, it’s to make the absolute most of this weather while it lasts, TV doesn’t have to be watched inside after all… so today I’m sharing the 5 simple things you need to create your very own outdoor cinema!

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

INVEST IN A PROJECTOR

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

Firstly and most importantly, you don’t want to disappoint your guests with a poor picture do you? So invest in a quality projector – remember that you can use this indoors even when Winter arrives! Perfect for any evening of entertaining or party. We went with the Optoma ML330 Projector WXGA from ao.com (lots more projector options available here though) and this baby be small (miniature in fact) but she is mighty. Yes, she is obviously is a she because she’s gold (obviously I went with a gold projector). She’s so small and light that it makes the perfect portable projector, so wether you’re headed to your own garden or elsewhere, pop her i her carry case and off you go. The picture quality is insane for such a small thing – honestly technology baffles me sometimes – it gives a max picture of up to 100inches – which if you can’t quite grasp and work better in metres like me, that’s over 2.5m! It certainly ticks all the boxes so it’s a big thumbs up from us, and as you can probably imagine, it’s going to get a lot of use, and indoors too in the colder months for sure!

Of course you are going to need some kind of source to connect to the projector in order to play something. We just hooked our projector up to the laptop but you could connect a DVD/Blue Ray player/ Amazon Fire Stick or Apple TV if you have one! Plenty of options – it will come down to what you are wanting to watch too! Don’t forget sound too, we have a portable speaker so we just use that and connect it via the laptop!

 

BACKDROP SCREEN

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

You don’t necessarily need to buy a screen – if you happen to have a plain white wall you could use this, or make your own out of white bed sheets – but depending on your space and what’s behind your screen you may be better using a screen made from blackout lining for a better picture. Because I wanted to be able to leave the festoon and fairy lights on under the pergola, I bought this Outdoor Projector Screen – which is only £19.99, no light goes through it, it’s suitable for outdoors and rolls up neat for when we store it away. It’s 100inch too to match our projector. We just tied it to the pergola posts with rope through the metal holes but in the long run I may get some bungee cables for it which will make putting it up and taking it down a quicker job. You could easily use this screen on a wall too though – just tack some nails in the corner metal holes and away you go!

 

LIGHT IT UP

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

Set the mood with festoon lights, fairy lights, tealights, lanterns, basically all the lights. Twinkly lights will give you the best atmosphere late at night when the sun has gone down.

 

COMFORT IS KEY

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

If you’re creating an outdoor cinema, the chances are that it’s not just to enjoy all by yourself, you probably intend on inviting friends over to enjoy it together – so you need to be comfy, no one wants to come to an outdoor cinema party and be sat on the patio floor with a numb bum. So make sure you have plenty of cushions, hell – why not bring the duvet out? And because you know it’s gonna get a little bit chilly later on in the evening be prepared with plenty of blankets to hand out! You can find my abstract outdoor cushions here, Mongolian cushions here and the softest blankets ever here. Oh and I’ve had so many questions already about where our corner sofa is from so incase you were wondering, you can find it here – currently on sale!

 

LATE NIGHT FEAST

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

What’s a movie night without popcorn and whatever other sweet treats your heart desires? Chilled drinks on tap will go down a treat… although personally when it’s a little chilly later on in the evening and I’m snuggled under that blanket, I’m definitely partial to a hot chocolate topped with marshmallows, cocoa and sprinkles!

Disclaimer: ao.com very kindly gifted me this projector to try out but as always I only ever work with brands I love and will only ever recommend products that I have tried, tested and that I love.

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

How To Create Your Own Outdoor Cinema

 

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5 Comments

  1. Jenny

    Love this idea Olivia! My husband has been saying he’d like a projector for ages, so I don’t dare show him this post or we’ll be knee deep in another project before we’ve finished the others we’re currently working our way through! I bet you’ll be having so many great evenings sat outside watching films with all of this amazing weather we’re having this summer x

    Reply
  2. Rachel

    OMG I adore everything about this from the popcorn bowls to the projector! Such an amazing job!

    Reply

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