You know how your eyes are supposed to be the window to your soul? Well, that wall behind you that people see in a Zoom call is the world’s window to your home.

That may be an exaggeration, but it contains a grain of truth. The background in your video conferencing calls can help impress on others your personality, taste, and lifestyle.

Isn’t it for this reason that bookshelves and paintings make such popular Zoom backgrounds?

Even the color of your wall coating says something about you.

The following interior paint finishes for walls make excellent backgrounds for video conference calls. Check them out if you need inspiration to make your Zoom background pop.

1. Smart and Functional Wall Paint

How about a functional Zoom background? You can accomplish this by painting your video conferencing backdrop wall with innovative concrete wall coating paint.

You can turn your Zoom background wall into a dry-erase board by painting it with markerboard wall paint. Are you working on an engineering problem or lecturing on a mathematical equation? This should be perfect. You can also use it as a whiteboard for those intricate work discussions and presentations.

Tip: You can train a separate camera on the board behind you, have that camera join the meeting as another participant, and spotlight it during your discussion.

Instead of whiteboard paint, how about using chalkboard paint? A chalkboard wall functions the same way as a dry-erase board. You can also use it to showcase your impressive calligraphy or chalkboard art.

You can create a magnet board background wall by applying a wall coating paint that will turn it into a magnetic surface. Use your magnetic wall to visualize project progress. You can also make it your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tasks board.

Finally, you can create a projection surface with a coat of projection screen paint. Then, get creative and project a solid color, an artwork, a presentation, or a video (including your favorite video clips) on it. You can change your background at will, and when you’re not in a meeting, you can use it to watch a movie or a football match.

Caveat: Make sure your markerboard, chalkboard, or magnet board wall does not show information you’d rather not make public when you go on your Zoom meeting.

2. Textured Surfaces

Why not go beyond plain, painted surfaces and opt for textured surfaces and turn your Zoom wall into a wall of art? Using a sculpting putty, you can add a shallow sculpture or an embossed pattern on your wall.

You can also use paste and paste-based fillers to hand-craft stencil wall art.

After creating your unique bas-relief art, stencil, pattern, or design, you can use decorative paint to highlight it. For instance, you can paint your stencils with a metallic color. You can also apply decorative paint made especially to go over decorative paste patterns.

3. Decorative Paint

You can paint your walls without adding bespoke textures or patterns. However, don’t settle for the all-too-common solid color concrete paint when you can apply decorative paint instead.

You can use two shades of a metallic, pearlescent shade and achieve a dynamically textured paint finish.

You can create unique designs using various paint application techniques — e.g., combing, ragging on and off, sponging on or off, and dragging.

Then there are decorative paints you just need to apply to create eye-catching accent walls. Depending on your choice, this will give your wall an antique, metallic, marble, granite, stone, or leather finish.

4. Wall Art

Instead of painting your wall, you can create a big mural.

Use canvas as your medium, pour various shades of acrylic pouring paint on it, and tilt it in different directions to make patterns. Once the paint has dried, you can frame your artwork and affix it to your Zoom backdrop wall.

Important Wall Painting Reminders

To get optimum results, apply your wall coating paint on smooth, clean, and properly prepared surfaces. You may have to remove the old paint. We recommend you consult a professional on how to strip off wall coating for the best outcome.

You must also apply paint primer before applying your base coat of paint.

What is a paint primer that applying it is a crucial step to achieving your desired result? Paint primer is a preparatory wall coating that helps paint adhere better to the surface of the substrate.

There are primers for interior and exterior walls, primers for wood, concrete, and metals, and the best paint primer depends on the substrate you’re treating. However, primers may be classified into three primary types: oil-based, latex, and shellac. How long you should let primer dry before paint depends on the primer type.

Oil-based primers are the slowest to dry. They can take six to eight hours to cure but, for good measure, give it 24 hours before applying the base coat.

Other primers can dry to the touch in as quickly as 30 minutes; even so, wait at least three hours before applying paint. Whichever type of primer you use, give it a longer curing period in wet or humid weather conditions.

You may eliminate the priming step if you use a self-priming paint, which is a primer and paint in one product.

Time to Get Creative

Your video conferencing background wall is that little bit of your home (or home office) you show to the rest of the world.

Instead of slapping just any paint onto it, get creative. You can turn it into a smart and functional wall, transform it into a textured work of art, give it a decorative finish, or hang a large piece of painted wall art on it.

Equipaint is the authorized distributor of COLORTEK in Dubai and a choice provider of premium paint solutions for architectural, commercial, industrial, and residential applications.

Contact us to learn how our products can help you bring your design vision to life.