[AussieBoo]

Hello everyone.

So I decided to post my progress on my theme this year. First year I'll be using a room in my house which will have a different theme each year. I've seen others thread on their themes and am amazed at the amount of props available to purchase and how great they look. I hope I can do my theme justice and really impress the neighbourhood.

Firstly here are some pics of my lounge room that will be used for themes.

First pic is the entrance from the front door. Straight ahead leads you to the other rooms in the house but I will be closing that section off with some hanging black plastic tablecloths I will buy from our party store Lombard. The drapes will be hung behind the doorway as I will be hanging a curtain drape in the doorway (door open of course) and projecting the ghostly figures from the Atmosfear Dvd.

To the left of the pic is the lounge room and to the right is the hallway wall that I will be using for portraits.

This pic shows the lounge room. I will be removing the furniture (except the buffet). The reception desk will be set up to the back of the wall with the back wall decorated accordingly. The mirror will remain on the wall to the right and i will place a ghostly figure on it. The buffet will be decorated accordingly. And the rest of the room will be set up as a lobby with suitcases, possibly a grandfather clock, seated area on the left etc.

This is the hallway wall. This will be completely covered in portraits and vintage creepy/spooky pics. I will also be projecting the Portrait Atmosfear DVD on this wall.

And finally the hotel name (title of this thread). Our house has a plaque on the front and was there when we moved in a few years ago. The plaque says Edenhope. It's not our estate name…perhaps it's the name of the released stage at the time of sale or title name…who knows but it's there, therefore, I have decided to call the Hotel the Edenhope Hotel. I will use this name for future themes if it suits. I made up a sign that will go at the front possibly hanging off our letterbox (see below). It's just printed on A4 at the moment just to get an idea.

As I progress, I will post more pics

 

[Hilda]

Oh how wonderful!!

I have been working on a haunted hotel theme for a while now. I am happy to follow your thread.

Your space is FANTASTIC! I adore your wallpaper! Perfect for your theme!

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

Have to agree with Hilda on the wallpaper. Looks perfect. I did a haunted hotel outside a few years back. Had fun with it. I think you are off to a great start and will enjoy seeing what you do.

Whether Edenhope was the model name or not I like the backstory to it and actually liked the name from the moment I read your thread title. Eden = first, rare, primitive, relaxing, special place; Hope = you might hope for a beautiful, restful place like Eden to stay at but it's most likely whistful thinking for what you get in a haunted hotel!

Great high ceilings BTW. Do you guys have those 3M removable hooks and such down your way? If so you could easily suspend some lightweight things (like cobwebbing) from your ceiling and kind of out of immediate view of your hotel guests.

 

[AussieBoo]

Thanks Hilda & GoS. My wallpaper is perhaps the reason why I chose Hotel for my first theme. lol.

GoS I love your explanation of Edenhope...it's perfect. I'm not sure what 3M removable hooks are but we do have removable hooks here which will probably be similar to what you've mentioned. You've given me a great idea to expand the decorations to the ceiling so thanks heaps for that

 

[AussieBoo]

Here are some more signs I made up.

This is the welcome sign that will be placed in a frame and on the reception desk. I copied the wording off someone (I'm sorry I don't remember the name to credit). It was a printable on Pinterest so I changed the look of the original sign and also created a Logo for it to suit my theme.

Next is the Guest Book. I created a front cover which I will use an old book to stick it on.

And the pages that will be inside...I'm hoping ToTers who enter the hotel will leave some feedback for me.

And the mail drop letter. This will be dropped in my neighbours letterboxes and some other homes in the area that I know get involved in Halloween. I'll be distributing them the week of Halloween.

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

Wow you are off to a great start! I love everything you have done. Nice font choices and graphics. I'll have to remember your sign if I do my hotel again. It was a fun read. Too bad you are an ocean away otherwise I could lend you my haunted vacuum cleaner and haunted feather duster from my hotel that is now defunct for the time being. I think the City condemned it, but we're keeping that under wraps in case the owners return and reopen it, so everything is in storage at the moment.

 

[AussieBoo]

Lol GoS the one thing that's crap is that I can't purchase most overseas items because of the ridiculous postage costs, and the fact that I can't get involved with reaping and borrowing props the way you all do. Even the Atmosfear dvd's I purchased were quite expensive to have delivered but I really wanted them. lol.

 

[AussieBoo]

Received these in the mail yesterday. I was so excited, I tried them out as soon as I got home.

 

[AussieBoo]

I've printed some vintage/creepy photos. These are what I have so far. I'm going to be printing more as I want the whole wall around the atmosfear dvd to be covered by these photos.

 

[AussieBoo]

I've also thought about including characters to interact with ToT's. I work at a high school and thought about hiring some students who are studying Theatre. I could get them to write up a script for their character they'll be playing and using that on the day as well as improvising. I thought that, not only will it be awesome for me, but it will be a great opportunity for them to add to their portfolios as experience. It will give them experience in working with scripts as well as the opportunity to use improv and improve their skills. As usual, hubby thinks I'm nuts...lol...but when I told his sister and my mum, they thought it was a wonderful idea so I say to hubby

 

[Hilda]

Your plans are coming along beautifully.

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

I think you're probably set for projections but if you are looking for a vintage maid projection, I bought and downloaded one done by DMinor, a member here on the forum. Very reasonable and no shipping involved.

 

[AussieBoo]

Thanks GoS I'm definitely interested in checking out different types of projections available. I tried out the ghostly apparitions one on my doorway last night and it looked amazing! 6 months is just too far away. I might just freak out the neighbours every now and then in the lead up to Halloween and play it on my window.

 

[AussieBoo]

I came across a Halloween treasure today...I stopped by my dad's factory and remembered a section above the kitchen roof has been used for storage since I was a kid so I checked it out and found HEAPS of left over wrought iron balustrade fence pieces stored back from when dad used to sell them in the 80's and a box of the points that go on top of it (similar to attached photo but more detailed and 80's styled)...OMG CEMETERY FENCING!!! Most exciting find so far and to think I have another large storage area at the factory that I haven't searched through yet...goosebumps!

 

[Mogwai]

Love your ideas so far! I've always wanted to use those AtmosFear projections but I wasn't sure if I actually could over here. I'm guessing they're universal? Might have to get one for myself Can't wait to see what you come up with next. It's looking great so far.

 

[AussieBoo]

Another find from was this spoon holder. I saw this from another thread and thought it was an amazing idea to use as a key holder. It was someone on here that made one and it had their hotel logo printed on the background?? I think s/he received it as a reaper gift? Whoever you are, please let me know so I can thank you for the idea.

I found this one on ebay and purchased it straight away. I love the red material as the background so I'll most likely keep it and put my logo on it.

 

[AussieBoo]

Love your ideas so far! I've always wanted to use those AtmosFear projections but I wasn't sure if I actually could over here. I'm guessing they're universal? Might have to get one for myself Can't wait to see what you come up with next. It's looking great so far.

Yes they work beautifully I was worried too. lol. I think you can also copy the dvd onto a usb so you don't have to plug the dvd player into the projector. Anyway I had so much fun with it last night. And because you live in the west...far far away from me...I'll let you know where I got them from. Haha. You'll be able to get them from ebay (see link)...this guy sells pretty much all of them...and yep that's the cost for us Aussies. lol.

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/bosterbiz/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

If you do purchase any, get onto their youtube vids "atmosfx" where you can find tips and ideas on how to use them to get the best out of them.

 

[Mogwai]

Haha, thanks for the link They are pretty expensive but I think it's worth it because they look amazing. How are you planning to set yours up? I've seen tips for projecting onto a sort of clear material in a doorway or arch before. Looks very convincing

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

Last year I ordered the Bone Chillers AtmosFear DVD and really love it. Can be somewhat scary and/or fun too. I don't do gory with all the little kids we get each year. I plan to have a vampire bar scene one year and wanted a "band" to play to pack them in. Love their band on the DVD.


Here BTW is a link to DMinor's Rona The Ghost Maid projection. Sorry I forgot to provide a link earlier. It fit in well with our theme. http://www.halloweenforum.com/for-s...d-projection-fx-10-a.html?highlight=Rona+maid

The second video of his on this thread shows how it looked at his house near sundown (thought of you since it doesn't get dark until later) : http://www.halloweenforum.com/hallo...loadable-projections.html?highlight=rona+maid I'm thinking he used a black scrim to project it on since it was so light outside and the windows looked blacked out but ask him to be sure if you decide to add it to your projection images.

This was what it looked like in one of our upstairs bedroom windows when we did our hotel theme. I loved how her passing image would trail off into nothingness.

 

[AussieBoo]

Haha, thanks for the link They are pretty expensive but I think it's worth it because they look amazing. How are you planning to set yours up? I've seen tips for projecting onto a sort of clear material in a doorway or arch before. Looks very convincing

Definitely worth it You can use curtain material for the projection. My curtains at the front of the house are perfect for it. i'll just unhook one and hang it in my doorway but stretched out so there's no drooping or folds. I tested it out the other night and roughly hung them up and even with a couple of folds in it, the projection still looked amazing. Here's a pic of my curtain…