Family Friendly Halloween Display

Myself, I love Halloween. From the time I was 12 and scared a group of college kids off my grandparents porch, I have loved the season. I worked in a Professional Haunted House for 4 years and created every room from the butchers rooms, to Jeepers Creepers, and the Ring. I have been to Transworld (biggest Halloween tradeshow in the US) and I have seen it all.

Halloween when I was younger was about going around the block on Trick or Treat and getting scared by the spooky homes. It has turned into a sort of compilation of who can put the most blood and gore on display without being reported to the police by concerned neighbors. So, seeing what could be done and what should be done, I set out to create the spooky Halloween feel without any of the gore and blood, yet still be the best house in the city. I mean really, do you think i looks scary to see an arm and leg stuck in a spiderweb, or guts hanging out of every prop with blood all over?

I created a few steps here to try for to make your home flow with the theme in place and things to avoid making it look cheesy and fake.

I hope you enjoy the season and get a few helpful hints on how to create your own unique spooky atmosphere.

Step 1: Picture of the finished product

Step one is always on the title page so here is short and sweet step including just the final picture of the Home.

Comments

[SeaWingedSiren]

Wow your very creative. I really like the look of everything, especially once it's all put together. You did an amazing job.

[CatTrampoline]

The boarded-up windows are a perfect touch! Thank you for sharing how to do that without poking dozens of holes in my cement-fiber-board siding.

[l8nite]

Great look! Be careful home haunting can be addicting, I know this from experience. Did you make the coffin cooler ? I'd really like more pics or an "ible" of that... Thank you for sharing

[Haunted Spider]

I did indeed make the coffin cooler. It is pretty well buried in the garage at the moment but I will try to get some pics up of it when the snow clears a bit. It was plywood framed with 1 inch foam board on the inside to line it. Leaks miserably as I guess liquid nails is not a good sealer which I used on the inside corners of the foam. If I did it again, I would seal it with silicone. But since it is outside, it can leak all it wants.

[l8nite]

I like the lid shape. I can probably figure out how you made it, I think something similar will be a great addition to our Haunt and it would double as storage, of course, I'd probably use it year round... One of the props I built for the 2010 haunt was a baby ghoul swing with toe pincher coffin sides ( http://www.instructables.com/id/short-toepincher-casket/ )
You can see in the "ible" that I used foam board, hotglue and gorilla tape, it worked well for the 4 nights we were open but fell apart soon afterwards. I don't do a lot of research or planning, I started out building a fog machine cover, had an inspiration and went with it.
Thinking on this cooler project I wonder if spray foam at the seams would do dual purpose of securing the styro and preventing leaks... hmmmmm

[Haunted Spider]

You could always try the foam. Although closed cell foam is supposed to be waterproof, it doesn't always work that way or seal well enough to truly make it waterproof. The first year I used the cooler, I lined in with black plastic before throwing in the ice. It seemed to work until the plastic got pushed down but I didn't like the look. I then decided it was outside and a leaking coffin was kind of creepy so I never fixed it. The top was done with 45 degree cuts for the short pieces running length wise. The top was square and the ends cut to match. I used some screws and parachute cord to make the hinge stops so it would only open so far. The back was hinged with a piano hinge cut in the center to allow either end to open individually. From what I remember, that hinge was the biggest pain of the project.