Thread: Facade walls to cover the front of the house

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I have a pretty good graveyard theme going on now that gets bigger and better every Halloween. This season the entrance pillars were actually on each side of the driveway and the TOTs actually got to walk into the graveyard. I added the garage to the haunt where my two electric chairs sat.

One thing I don't like is that my normal, modern looking house is the backdrop for a large portion of the graveyard and kinda takes away from some of the effect. I control it a little bit by not lighting it up at night but you can still see it pretty clear.

I was wondering if any of my fellow yard haunters have ever built fake walls to cover their house up and add to the effect by creating a better backdrop for their haunt. I'm also looking for any ideas on what I could make it look like and the best way to set it up and keep it from falling over.

I'll add a pick of my haunt for ideas. I basically want to have it big enough to cover up the house from the prison prop with the grim reaper in it to the corner of the house. Blocking the two windows.

One theme I thought might be cool was making it look like an old prison. That would make the graveyard a "prison graveyard" and go real well with the two electric chairs and the haunted jail cell prop.

Any ideas and help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I like the look of your house, I don't personally (from the pic) think that it distracts from your haunt. However, if you were to add "Bars" on the windows, that would be easy. Or Boards on the windows, either way. I think the brick that you have looks great! (from the pic that you posted) as far as a Prison theme goes.

I haven't added any Facade to my house yet, but I haven't had the chance.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by theedwin

I like the look of your house, I don't personally (from the pic) think that it distracts from your haunt. However, if you were to add "Bars" on the windows, that would be easy. Or Boards on the windows, either way. I think the brick that you have looks great! (from the pic that you posted) as far as a Prison theme goes.

I haven't added any Facade to my house yet, but I haven't had the chance.

Good luck!

Ditto! If you add prison bars to the windows with the brickwork already on the house than it'll look like a prison easy.

What also helps give a spooky effect to an otherwise normal house is a lightning machine, red landscape lights and severe up-lighting from a tree branch so the shadows show on the house facade:

I will also agree that an entire wall facade seems unnecessary. The bars on the windows would be cool. I think AT MOST I would make a short brick or stone wall in front on the flower bed that comes up to the botom of the window, which would make attaching bars to pretty easy. To get technical, I might build a frame with 2 x 2s, attach foam board to the front lower section, add pvc bars to match up with the windows with 2 x 2s at the top to attach pvc to the top side. Just build some L or triangle braces for the backside. The big problem is...storage of large pieces like gates and walls. I like Terra's idea to use creepy up-lighting. Use fog too. If you really feel the need to block something out, maybe hang heavy black fabric like velvet.

Yeah, you got good brick to work with. Prison or Asylum would work. You could even do a facade around the windows and roof line to make a castle.

Ditto on the boarded windows. Easiest and best first steps in creeping a house.

Well, let's face it, everybody's going to know that there's a house there. The truth is people don't mind (or really notice), especially if there are enough interesting props in front to keep their attention, then they are completely oblivious to the house! Maybe consider a few things behind the graveyard and near the house that you might associate with a graveyard - a few dead trees, maybe a ghost or two (old white sheets over some cheap armatures), perhaps a little backlighting behind those things and/or controlled fog and no one will remember that you had windows.

Yeah I was thinking about just doing bars on the window or boarding them up.... that would probably be good enough. A lot easier also.

Thanks for all the good tips.

Terra that haunt of yours is awesome BTW.

This guy used quarter inch plywood panels linked together and painted to create his facades. Think this works much better in sunny and windless Southern California.

Yeah- your brick will work for you. You can also hang a bunch of creepy tattered cloth down from the gutters too. I get all kinds of creepy cloth along the way. Lots of it is the halloween kind sold in the stores. It's really cheap. Also landscape fabric. But anything ripped and hanging adds to the look. I said it last year- they should really come out with some haunted house facade scene setters. I know there's some that can be useful already, like the brick wall, western barn, purple wood paneling, castle add-ons, even brick to make it look like YOUR house! But they need more traditional true haunted house facades- shingles, shutters, roofs, etc. I could actually do the whole front of my house with stuff like that. It'd be nice for people like me, who would like to hid the clean lines of siding. Terra is very right as well- shadows can do wonders. Take a look at the house in the original Halloween movie- simply bathed in purple light and shadows.

But someday I'd love to have my facade look like that pic just above ^^^

Now THAT'S awesome!

Dan