FLOOR PLAN

This is the basic layout for my haunted house. I’m sure I’ll have to alter things a little once I start putting everything in place.

THE TOY BOX

The theme for my haunted house is “The Doll House” “THE TOY BOX”. My friend Andrea gets the credit for the idea to use a coffin as the toy box.

I started with three 8′ lengths of 1×10 pine and cut them down to 7′. The width at the top and bottom is about 13.5″. The width at the wide point is 27.5″ which is 22″ down from the top edge.

I connected the boards on the back with some scrap pieces of 2×4. This will set the whole thing out from the wall a little bit so I can have some toys sticking out around the edges.

Round 2: The letters have been painted with a hammered metalic spray paint. It’s hard to tell, but the letters are raised about 1″ above the lid using spools as spacers. I was still debating whether to use the clown head or the doll head.

Round 3: I replaced the dry-wall screws with the biggest 2″ bolts I could find. The thread on the bolts didn’t go all the way up to the head, so I had to use gorilla glue to secure the letters at the top of the bolts.

Round 4: Lights!! I had a spare string of purple icicle lights. I cut it apart and used double stick foam tape to hold the lights in place on the underside of the letters. To keep the voltage at the right level, I had to use all the lights and placed some on the back. They help cast a small glow from behind.

Round 5: Finished! After much debate, I went with the doll head instead of the clown. You can see why I wasn’t sure about using the doll at first. She was one of those hair and make-up dolls that only comes with the head and hands, and she was way too pretty for the toy box. But with a little TLC we found her inner freak. I chopped off 99% of her hair, painted her eyes all white, added some dark make-up around her eyes, and cut out her mouth. I put a plaster cast of someone’s upper teeth inside her mouth hole. (Left over from the days when I made custom vampire teeth. That’s me as the Queen’s Servant.) The finishing touch was a stretchy rubber tongue that I found at Walmart of all places. Why did Walmart have a bag of stretchy body parts in August?

ARMY OF DOLLNESS (9)

I collected a small army of dolls from places like The Salvation Army, Goodwill, and garage sales. I have about 35 so far. I even have a few clown dolls which are extra special since I have a new fondness for clowns as Halloween characters.

The dolls are stapled on the black felt walls. I painted their eyes with pink, orange, and yellow neon paint so they glow and look evil.

LASER VORTEX FOG TUNNEL (3)

SKIPPING DOLL (5)

This little cutie will be used along with my laser vortex fog tunnel to make the doll skip across in front of the guests with its head bobbing up and down through the bottom edge of the laser tunnel. It should be dark enough in the room that they don’t see any of the metal or the wheel.

The laser is mounted in place, and the doll is ready to skip across through the bottom of the laser tunnel.

OSCILLATING DOLL (4)

Another mechanical doll. I used the guts of an oscillating fan. To get the 6″ range of motion that I wanted, I had to extend the doll 24″ out on a piece of aluminum flat bar. I’ll place this doll so it oscillates in and out of the laser vortex fog tunnel about 4′ from the floor.

ASSEMBLING THE HAUNTED HOUSE

With one week to go before the big night, I started to put up the walls. It took a day just to clean out the garage and make room for the magic.

I took some time today to shop for pumpkins. The Great Pumpkin rises again!

In this set of photos: I hung “THE TOY BOX” sign at the front of the garage. I dragged my skeleton candy pedestal up from the basement. I criss-crossed various boards above my “dot-room” to suspend a ceiling made of black felt.