Watching movies with your family can be as easy as arranging an intimate birthday dinner! No need to cram your kids in the car and travel miles only to wait in queues. Now, you can customize your movie experience in the comfort of your backyard.
You can put your creativity to good use and create a DIY cinema for outdoor family movie nights. Here are some of the ideas to set up a stellar backyard cinema. You can also accustom these ideas to your budget and to the things available at home.
1. DIY Your Outdoor Cinema Screen
The big screen is the primary perk of cinema. What if we told you you could create your own personalized screen with a bedsheet and ribbons? Yes! That’s true, and you can DIY your cinema screen at home using ordinary tools.
Here’s how:
- Take a piece of bedsheet with dimensions that suit your needs. Fold the upper and lower margins for up to 2.5 inches.
- Sew the folded part to make a loop for the dowels. Pass the dowels through the loops.
- Now you have the screen to project your favorite movie!
But before you start watching the movie, you need to fix this screen. To do so, take 2 ribbons. Fold them, and stitch the grommet in both the ribbons. Tie these ribbons with the dowels and hang the screen through the grommet.
You can fix the screen on a fence or anything that can support the screen. Now you have your own cinema screen!
2. Portable PVC Screen Frame
If watching movies with your friends and family is your favorite hobby, you can DIY a long-lasting movie screen. You will need to invest $20 for a reusable and better cinema screen.
Get yourself a PVC frame and a piece of bedsheet, and you are good to go! This mobile screen is easy to use; you can move it from your backyard to a park or any other location you want!
Project the movie on your PVC-framed screen and enjoy your jitter-free movie screening. Remember! For the projector, you will need a power source. For the power source, you can try the BLUETTI EB3A Portable Power Station, which is a great portal power station for outdoor cinema.
This portable power capacity is 268Wh, and it can provide a steady power of 600W and 1200W for power surges. Plus, you can control the power station via the BLUETTI mobile app - it’s as simple as turning on the TV.
3. Movie Night Popcorn Bar
Movie nights are nothing without popcorn! The experience of the thrill, the suspense, and the movies you can't help but binge-watch aren’t complete without some crunchy popcorn.
Pop your corn and season the popcorn with salt and melted butter. You can also consider cinnamon sugar or cheese powder. Adding other easily available mix-ins will be the cherry on top!
4. Outdoor Tent Setup
Season your outdoor movie night with a little dose of aesthetics! Find a plain surface in your backyard and set up your tent there. For a hassle-free evening, you can also go with camping tents.
You can spruce up your outdoor cinema with fairy lights and other decorative items. Bring pillows, bean bags, and blankets for comfortable and relaxing seats.
Adding the aesthetics to your setup with fairy lights? A great idea! You can also transform this cozy vibe into a more intimate ambiance by lighting candles or lanterns. Don’t forget to add flavor to your movie night with snacks.
5. Outdoor Pizza Ovens
You must try this comparatively unpopular yet great idea on your movie night. Serve your guests fresh and delicious alongside the thrilling movie.
You can find portable wood-fired and permanent brick ovens anywhere in the market, both online and on-site. You can buy one for yourself and serve your guests a homemade pizza.
Prepare your dough before the guest arrives and cook the pizza in the oven later. You can set up a DIY station to provide your guests with multiple pizza-topping options.
Want to add flavor to your outdoor movie night? But stuck on how to supply your electric outdoor oven? Don’t worry.
6. Movie Night with Backyard BBQ
You can add BBQ to your plan for a more formal and budgeted outdoor family movie night. The evening BBQ movie party will allow the guests to mingle and chatter before the movie starts.
That way, you will be able to meddle in the thrill of a family meetup and a movie night together. However, make sure to provide all the side dishes like potato salad and coleslaw to your guests. You can partition your backyard to create a separate space for BBQ.
7. Poolside Movie Night
If your backyard contains a swimming pool and is jam-packed, arrange a poolside movie night! It will be an unforgettable outdoor family movie night experience for your loved ones.
You can use inflatable loungers to watch the movie surrounded by cool water on a warm night. Fix your screen outside the pool, and remember to provide your guests with some towels.
8. Picnic Style Backyard Movie Night
Delve into the serene experience of a picnic with your movie night. Theme your outdoor family movie night as a garden picnic and unwind and relax.
Replace your blankets with picnic chairs and offer your guests picnic food like sandwiches, fresh fruits, and desserts.
9. A DIY Movie Projector
With multiple DIY screen options, you can now screen your movies whenever you want. However, these screens won’t work if you don’t own a projector.
For some, the projector can be an expensive device to afford. That is why we are here with a tutorial to create your own DIY projector.
Not to mention, for a movie projector, you will need a power supply. What if we told you that BLUETTI makes it possible for its client to use a portable power station?
10. Comfortable Movie Seats
The outdoor family movie night is all about comfort and entertainment. Watching a movie means you’ll be lounging for almost 2-3 hours. Thus, you should choose seating options wisely.
Use blankets, pillows, bean bags, and comfortable chairs to make this experience pain-free.
11. DIY Your Outdoor Ticket Garland
Put your creativity to work and decorate the outdoor spot for your movie night. One way to do so is to create a ticket garland. Not only that it will enhance the scenic view, but you will also enjoy the process of making this garland.
Wondering how to make one for your outdoor movie night? Well, it is quite easy. You just need to follow a few simple steps.
To do so, you need a paper ticket roll and a jute rope. Take a certain length of ticket paper strip and glue the uppermost tick around the jute rope. Repeat the process. Congrats! You have made yourself a ticket garland for the movie night.
12. Fairy Lights for Ambiance
If you want to level up your outdoor family movie night experience, string lights should be the first to go with. These lights bolster the ambiance and uplift the mood.
If you have themed your movie night, you can go with the lights that match the theme. Yellow lights will match the classy cinema vibe, whereas the colorful lights will be fit for the 80’s theme.
You can illuminate your food zone or snack area through these fairy lights and use the BLUETTI AC300 Home Battery Backup to light up the part! It can store up to 3,072Wh of energy, which means you can run the movie three times, and there will still be some electricity left.
With a durable LiFO4 battery core, it also offers 7 charging options and can accept a 2,400W solar input max. It is an overall great option, not just for fairy lights but also for other electrical devices for your movie night, like the projector, etc.
13. Mix and Eat
We all know that snacks are a must-have thing for all sorts of meet-ups. However, you can make your movie night fun and interesting through different activities. Shift any ordinary domestic table to your backyard and cover it with a presentable sheet of cloth.
Now grab glass bowls or transparent jars and fill these containers with multiple snacks. Label the table as “mix and eat.” Now, your guests can create flavors of their choice by mixing different snacks together.
Believe me, such activities will make your parties a must-come for all guests.
14. Trivia Pre-Movie Trivia show
A pre-show can be fun for the kids and the adults as well. The guests can interact, engage with each other, and play interesting games.
This enhances the excitement and intrigues the guests. You can create trivia questions related to the movie. This will raise the excitement and mystery before the movie. You can further entertain your guests by offering prizes to those who get the right answer.
Spice up the event by offering your guests snacks like gourmet popcorn. A pre-movie show is definitely a good idea to warm up your guests for the movie.
15. DIY a Candy Booth
Candies and movies go side by side! You need a good feast for your taste buds alongside treating your mind. DIY-ing a candy booth for an outdoor family movie night is not a tough dig.
Select transparent jars and glass bowls and fill the containers with enticing candies. Do not go with a single type of candies. Instead, you can fill the jars with various candies, like chocolates, licorice, hard candies, and chewing gums. You can also add some healthier items like dried fruits and dark chocolate.
Wrapping Up
Complete your movie night experience with these great DIY outdoor family movie night ideas to make lifelong memories with your guests.
Try these hacks for an incredible experience, and find out which one of them works best for you! You can also switch things up and combine different ideas on different movie night occasions to surprise your guests each time.
