Thread: Underwater bathroom theme ideas?

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I am thinking of doing a spooky underwater theme for a bathroom this year. My inspiration was Bioshock so I am looking for that sort of feel (but not necessarily a straight take off of the game.) I was wondering if anyone has ideas on what to add to make this theme?
I am also looking for some good audio files to play in the room (anything that sounds like the atmospheric audio from Bioshock or things like muffled ocean sounds, deep space sounds, slow dripping, echoing noises...)

So far I only have a few ideas.. I was thinking of hanging seaweed around the mirror and maybe seaweed/netting on the window curtains and shower curtain. The bathroom has a light fixture above the mirror with 4-5 bulbs so I though I'd put green and/or blue lights there.
I was also trying to figure out how to give the effect of undulating underwater light. It's difficult because it is a small space so it would be tough to add some big contraption without it being obvious. The only thing I could think of was to fill the tub with water, have some sort of aquarium bubbler in it and aim a spotlight at the water so the light reflects off.
My main problem is the bathroom walls are pale pink tile with white paint above, totally NOT spooky. I'm not sure how to cover them without messing them up.

I don't know if this will help at all, but when my son was a baby we had something in his crib that made underwater noise and had a light that went on a wall with underwater effect. Its been 9 years so i don't if they make that all anymore and I don't know how you could cover it for Halloween.

For the sound, what about the white noice machines or sounds of the ocean cd .

It is a really cool idea, good luck!

What about a slow turning wide-bladed fan to filter the light? If you've played Limbo, that's what I'm thinking I tried to find a screenshot, but no luck...

Anyway, since the setting for Bioshock is a man-made world, it could be the fan that is part of the circulation system or something like that, so you don't need to hide the noise or the fact that the shadows are being caused by a fan - they should look like fan blades. The important thing is that they be slow-moving enough that it looks like a big 'ol industrial fan that would be powering the filter or air system of this big world. You'd hide the fan in the bathtub and backlight it from there with a blue floodlight and maybe a green film to make it underwatery looking (what do blue and green make anyway? lol), and either a dropcloth or the shower curtain to hide it behind. You could maybe even do the bathroom like a boiler/maintenance room? Boiler rooms are terrifying IMO lol

Those are great ideas! I'll have to look for that underwater crib thing, it sounds like it would be perfect. I'm also going to check the thrift stores for old fans, I'm thinking an old-fashioned metal fan would be good.

I just remembered last night that I have a "Light and Sound Soother" I might be able to adapt for this. It's this thing from Sharper Image that plays sounds like ocean, rain, heartbeat, etc and it also has LEDs that light up a glass globe in different patterns/colors depending on which sound is playing.
I tried it last night and it does a pretty good job at imitating the flickering and colors of oceanic light (plus the sound). The only problem is the light doesn't undulate like it would on moving water. I tried just putting a water bottle on top of the device where the glass ball normally goes, and sloshing it a bit and the effect was really good but I am not sure how I could get the water to keep moving. It also is pretty small so I'm not sure if it would give a big enough effect, the base only has 4 LEDs on it...

I don't know if what you are looking for is here or not, but try these files. Look at the first page of the forum post as well. If not, you could try extracting files from the PC version of the game.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/sho...t=13783&page=6

For the moving water, maybe a lava lamp to move in front of the LED's? I don't know what the item is that has the lights so take that with a grain of salt.

I've also seen night lights at Home Depot that change slowly from one color to the next. My wife bought them a while back but I don't know what happened to them. They were actually pretty cool. This does the same thing:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...44&marketID=21

EDIT: How about some of these in the tub? A number of them flashing might give you the effect you want:

http://www.party-lights.com/party-light.html


Imagine how you could freak your guests out with this:




Let me know how this goes! I'm thinking of doing a Bioshock theme for my party. I'd love to trade ideas!

Well if the room is dark enough or you have a way to hide it, you can try this:

You'll create a budget FCG(search props section) rig for the ceiling

But instead of using the ghost, you'll use fishing string(non fluorescent) to hang a plunger, a toilet scrubber, and a bottle of hand soap..

That would give an floating effect or atmosphere as if underwater! Just a thought!

For the lighting effect you're after, one of these ocean projector pots might work:
LED Ocean Projector Pot. I bought one and it works pretty well, as long as you use it in a small space (like your bathroom) and there's not a lot of ambient light. The combination of 1-2 blue or green bulbs in your light fixture and this projector should wash your pink and white walls with enough color to get the effect you want.

Plus, the unit is very small and unobtrusive (about 4" x 5" x 4"), unlike the bigger DJ projectors you might be accustomed to. The projector also includes a small speaker if you want to hook up an MP3 player, but the sound quality is pretty poor.

Originally Posted by goombah

I don't know if what you are looking for is here or not, but try these files. Look at the first page of the forum post as well. If not, you could try extracting files from the PC version of the game.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/sho...t=13783&page=6

For the moving water, maybe a lava lamp to move in front of the LED's? I don't know what the item is that has the lights so take that with a grain of salt.

I've also seen night lights at Home Depot that change slowly from one color to the next. My wife bought them a while back but I don't know what happened to them. They were actually pretty cool. This does the same thing:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...44&marketID=21

EDIT: How about some of these in the tub? A number of them flashing might give you the effect you want:

http://www.party-lights.com/party-light.html

Thanks for the link! I was looking for somewhere to download more Bioshock sounds and those are perfect. I'm going to string together some of the ambiance tracks to add to my background 'music'.
The party lights look good also, I was thinking I might try putting lights under a large bowl of water and those look like they'd work pretty well for that.

I love that creepy statue from the game! That would be so cool if I could replicate it...too bad my bathroom is small!

Originally Posted by MassMax

For the lighting effect you're after, one of these ocean projector pots might work:
LED Ocean Projector Pot. I bought one and it works pretty well, as long as you use it in a small space (like your bathroom) and there's not a lot of ambient light. The combination of 1-2 blue or green bulbs in your light fixture and this projector should wash your pink and white walls with enough color to get the effect you want.

That looks good also, and not expensive, but I'm wondering if the light would show up enough.

I was thinking it would be cool if I could mix together some sort of scent (using oils in a diffuser or oil warmer) to go with the room... I want it to smell like a place that has been sitting in seawater for years. I'm thinking of a sort of dank rotted-wood-and-saltwater smell, a little fishy maybe? I am trying to see if I can find any place that sells oils that would go with those scents and I could mix together...