Thread: Idea for making a creepy door on an interior hallway.

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Hey all! This is my first post and I look forward to getting some great feedback from all of you out there!

Unfortunately we don't have a large house and a yard to decorate, (someday!) but for now I haunt the hell out of our apartment! Every year we have a Halloween party for our friends and part of that is the "Haunted Hallway". (People have to go through it to get to the bathroo! I'm evil I know! LOL) We always hang a curtain from a suspension rod in the doorway and then divide the hallway up with some different scares, lighting, ect. This year I thought it would be cool to make a fake door that people would actually have to open in order to go in. But the how is the question here... I don't want to actually secure a door to the walls for fear of a lot of damage to our apartment, I think a frame would work, but again we would need it to be secured well!

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!!

Welcome to the site. I have an idea for your door. It's actual covered in a thread about making fake walls. You could use the same technique to get the job done.
Use a 1 1/2" PVC pipe inside of a 2" pvc pipe. Then extend to reach the top of your ceiling, then screw the two piece of pvc to each other. Like a shower curtain rod, but vertical. Then attach your hinges to the PVC and your Door to the hinge. I would suggest using a piece of foam board to make a door so it's nice and light. And you can modify it to make it a creepy as you want without destroying a new door. You can do the same thing on the other side of the door to create a door catch if you want. (I don't think it would be needed.)
This is just an idea feel free to do your own thing.

1" thick pink insulation foam from Home Depot. Carve vertical lines into it to make it look like wooden boards, then add "iron" bars to attach the boards together. Usually plastic from milk jugs can be used for thin flat material.

Is the hallway carpeted?

Ok, cool idea! Thanks Bryan316.

And yes Ghosttown, it's carpeted.

Thanks Octoberdream! That does give me a lot to think about!

Do you have any sort of simple wood working tools? A circular saw? In other words, can you cut small boards? 1x4's?

I have access to one should I need it.

Originally Posted by skullandbones

I have access to one should I need it.

Ok, then my idea goes like this.....

Get some 1x4x8's from Home Dumpo or sLowes or where ever you like to buy lumber and build a light, easy frame work for a door.

You can keep it simple and light, build it just the width of your hallway, and support it with 45 degree angled boards down along the wall (but NOT attached to the the wall) and connect them to boards running along the floor wall area. Like seen below (one wall is missing here to show you better).


This thing could slide right into place, or build it into place. It would probably be best to put something between the boards and the wall to protect the wall paint. Foam rubber, cloth, what ever.

Then, since it's carpeted you could use some dry wall screws to attach the floor piece to the floor (assuming you have a wooden sub-floor and not concrete). Screw them straight down to the floor. This would not damage the carpet at all. When you're done, unscrew them and there would be no trace. Nothing.


Then, build a door how ever you want (lighter the better, but you could get away with quite a bit probably), use some simple hinges and attach it to the frame.




That's what I'd do. The frame would stand on its own without being fixed to anything. But, I'd still put four or so screws into the floor to "tack" it down so it doesn't move when people mess with it.

@ghosttown: great plan. I may use this in my apartment too! BTW, what program did you use to make the illustrations?