Thread: Canvas Backdrop to hide Garage Door

Tweet

Tired of my garage door hanging out there like a sore thumb in our front yard cemetery display. I know I could use projections, but during the day....
the garage door looks like a garage door. So I thought I would try painting
a painter's canvas and hang it ( with a closet rod ) . The canvas is drying and I haven't put it up onto the garage door yet.
Here is some pics.
The first one is the canvas gesso painted the same color as the house. Kind of the dry "fitting" of everything to see if it looked bad. LOL !
( yes, that is some of the cemetery fences STILL UP. lol )
The rest of the pics are in the process of painting and the last is almost finished pic....
I was painting on a very windy day. the canvas was flapping like a sail.
But it came out pretty good for my first attempt. ( I think)
With some good lighting and some fog...I hope it will be effective!









Thanks for looking !

nifty idea! I'm sure it will look great lit up at night.

I have the same problem - I used a Scene Setters "stone wall" to cover the door. Since it's only 4' high, I had to tape two sections togther to cover the 8' X 16' door. Here's a pic:

HalloweenGallery.com - Halloween 2007/2007-1b

what a great idea !! the painting looks very cool, maybe just a dim flickering light on it at night . for a cool effect . great work

That's really cool!!
NIGHT PICS! please

MsM

Thanks for the nice comments:
I guess I should have explained that I covered my windows last year with crosses. Simple cardboard sheets painted the color of the house with black crosses. The front door and garage door I did not. So this year I am working out that plan to cover those areas. ( maybe stained glass for the windows in this shot.) and enhance the front door with something.

Our lighting was a little lacking too, so we are improving on that as well. Purchased some LED spots on ebay which are way cool.
This is a photo to kind of show the window covering. yeckkkk. on the lighting.

Otaku- I tryed the scene stealers to cover the garage door, but we do open and close the door and the scene stealers did not allow the door to roll up as necessary. This is what I came up with- Garage door can still go up and down,
you just have to pull back the background. If I was good at sewing I would have made the background like a Roman Shade. But that is out of my league.

But yes- a flickering lighting and some fog is my plan dept1031. ( We also have lightning effects and the sound of a horse running in the distance in our sound effect loop) So I am trying to tie it all together. Before I found this fourm I was happy to just set my tombstone out and throw a spot light on them. LOL. Now its year around "detail" work to keep up with the amazing displays everyone else seems to post.Will do night shots eventually and will post Ms. Meeple thanks !

I love this! What a great idea and the horse-drawn hearse is the perfect subject.

Miss Froggy'ness that is awesome!! I also have the same problem and thought of Canvas, unfortunately the garage is a double wide so I'm thinking it would take a lot of canvas.

The Scene Setter is actually hung in front of the door using two 8' lengths of 1" square wooden strip. The two pieces are supported by hooks made from clothes hanger wire. These hooks are hanging from nails under the eaves. This allows the door to go up and down if needed.

I like your idea (and picture!) better than the Scene Setters. If there's any kind of a breeze, the thin plastic flutters, killing the illusion. It's hard to keep it pulled tight enough to prevent the rippling.

That is a great idea! Plus it's much easier to store than a real hearse. Garage doors can be a detracter to an otherwise scary setting. I like the window treatments too.

Since you mentioned possibly treating the front door, have you considered cutting something out of 1/2 inch foam? You're good at painting so I'm sure you could make it look like a heavy wooden door (maybe even have a small opening "hinged" with Velcro so you can peer out). If you can remove a pane from your door, it should be easy to clip on the foam to your existing door so that it still can be used and the facade quickly changed out.