[Gozerhead]

I have a new home and this is my first haunt on the new premise. As a result, I am hoping to go bigger than previous years. I realized this weekend that my outdoor recessed lights are all like these:



I was going to down light a few different colors, but it appears I can't switch out bulbs on these. I thought about trying to cover them in colored cellophane. Any thoughts on that or other options to make them colored? They are pretty bright at night with the regular LEDs.



I was thinking of using a combo of blue, orange, and green? I thought it might be cool to have all the windows a ghostly blue or green and then use the recessed lights and flood lights to color the house. I REALLY wanted to do AtomsFearFx projections, but the two windows are bedrooms. So instead, I was thinking blue party lights in the garage (the door has windows) with the face front lit a different color. I was then thinking of mounting blue or green lights in the bedroom windows that would then light up the white window shades that could be kept close as to not disturb the kids.

I have some blow ups, but haven't had too many props in the yard, which I am still undecided about regarding next steps. I am a huge Ghostbusters fan and will absolutely use this Slimer, whose internal light is very faint and not bright enough to see at night.



I am open to ideas of how to front light him better. I ordered a couple of different Gemmy stake lights to see if lighting him with some green would look cool and add depth. I am not sure if I'd put him near the unlit window or a different one. I do have some other green lights that could go behind him on that window to make it look "slimed".

Any advice would be much appreciated. I am hoping to focus on some cool lighting and a cool door this year with more scenes or props for the yards in preceding years. I've been through 35 pages on this forum and have found all sorts of great ideas! Thanks!!!

 

[UnOrthodOx]

I have a new home and this is my first haunt on the new premise. As a result, I am hoping to go bigger than previous years. I realized this weekend that my outdoor recessed lights are all like these:

View attachment 249588

I was going to down light a few different colors, but it appears I can't switch out bulbs on these. I thought about trying to cover them in colored cellophane. Any thoughts on that or other options to make them colored? They are pretty bright at night with the regular LEDs.

In your case, I'd go with theatrical gels.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=light+gels+sheets&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=27052979523&hvpos=1t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10994293784833337808&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_4v6s0olnrk_b

 

[Gozerhead]

In your case, I'd go with theatrical gels.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=light+gels+sheets&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=27052979523&hvpos=1t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10994293784833337808&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_4v6s0olnrk_b

That was my first thought. Then I couldn't figure out a way to attach them that didn't require something like glue that might be hard to clean off. I live in the midwest and we will probably have a fair amount of low temps, rain, and possible snow. The cellophane would, in theory, cover the whole face and tuck in between the housing and house, if that makes sense. I figured I could pop the lights down a few inches, tuck, and push back into the siding.

There is enough room if I could find a non-damaging adhesive to cut the gels to fit and glue them on the plastic and not get anything on the lens.

 

[UnOrthodOx]

The 3m stuff that they use for those command strips would work. Just a couple spots, and it comes off clean.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=command+strip+refills&tag=mh0b-20&index=aps&hvadid=3482920439&hvqmt=b&hvbmt=bb&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_9oexc2onk9_b

I'd suggest getting gel frames, and using them to hold the gels, then tacking the frames up.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=command+strip+refills&tag=mh0b-20&index=aps&hvadid=3482920439&hvqmt=b&hvbmt=bb&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_9oexc2onk9_b#/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=gel+frames&rh=i:aps,k:gel+frames

 

[mamadada]

I researched the same issue a few years ago with trying to find gels that I needed. I was trying to find some for my landscape lights which are hard wired and 75 watts, so they get very hot! Then a lightbulb went off (in my head) and I went to a stained glass shop, which did beautiful work by the way, and had her cut 2” glass circles for me in orange, green and blue. Attached is the look I was going for. Hilarious right? Just wanted to go for something similar. Anyway, it worked great. I walk out of my house, drop the circles into my lights and Voila! I have a Halloween house. The blue was too faint. I am going to get another Blue circle and double up this year. It wasn’t intense like the orange and green.

I used cheap colored report covers cut into circles for my son’s ceiling fan lights upstairs which are cool led. That works great. If you have recessed lights in your soffit area, maybe you can do the stained glass and clamp them some way.

I only had one green circle break, I guess because of the heat. It cracked in two pieces with a perfectly clean zig zag break. I still use the circle in two pieces. You can’t tell the difference in the light at all.

She only charged me $8 each for the circles. Worth every penny!!!!

 

[Gozerhead]

Oh, I LOVE the blue with the orange windows!!! That might be the look I end up with. I love green, but that looks SO sharp!

I had thought of having 3-4 colors to highlight different sections of the house, but this is making me rethink. I think I like the orange accents better than I would green. I don't have the trees and such to get the shadows, but I did think of using floods of some sort instead of the recessed lights and uplighting. The con of that is my garage lamps are on the same switch as the recessed.

Who knows, the colored recessed might not even look cool.

 

[mamadada]

I think a down light would look way cool! Maybe consider one area with a black light in the recessed area? How high are the lights. If 2nd floor that would be a pain.

Someone told me the tree shadows are projection.

 

[Gozerhead]

I am hesitant to start another thread, but curious as to what is advised to light a window orange like the above pic with the following caveat...

My two windows are bedrooms. Back lighting with a spot light or light bulb switch is not a good options. I am hoping a rope light or LED tape would work either around the interior or exterior? I found this pic, which is also great with the red. I feel like with the posts above, thanks again, I have a better picture in my head of what I am after. The blue/red/blue would fit my house perfectly for a similar effect. I'd still like the windows to be a color other than blue like the blue/orange house above.

It might work for me to have silhouettes in those two windows. I would leave the blinds closed, which would be white, so the kids can sleep still, lol.



Thanks!

 

[mamadada]

Is that a blue flood? That looks good. I like the red idea better than orange. Creepier!!! For DS first party I did that orange bulletin board paper on a tub window that faces my patio and left the bathroom light on for backlighting. Hard to put up without wrinkling. If I do again I am going to try the 100 foot plastic tablecloth on a roll frim Party city. I think it will have less wrinkles and let more light through.

 

[Gozerhead]

I started testing lights. That is not where Slime will though, but the yard was too muddy to do a real mock up. Thoughts? Any suggestions for additional lighting, especially windows?

I have other blow ups that will be in the front and Slimer would be centered with the house under the winfo on the left. I will add more purple/orange fire and ice for the other corner of the house. The ghosts are from tje gemmy ligjt ghat lools surprisingly good against the white garage door. Thanks.



I tried the red and yellow fi, but prefer the purple orange. Would be cool to do something to brighten up just the door for the little kids.

 

[Gozerhead]

So in prepping for this year, I am still wanting to find some color changing recessed cans. It was impossible to find any that connected like the ones in my OP. I ended up looking like this last year.

If anyone has some easy/good looking thoughts, let me know. I'd like to downlight in blue for a haunted house look. Otherwise, I will add a few more of the spots I used from Gemmy last year.



We added landscaping and a storm door, so I have some more options for lights without getting on the roof, lol. I successfully had Slimer in a window.



I plan on either adding a second projection, or doing a scene in the middle window and moving Slimer to the other. Thanks for any feedback or tips on possible recessed lighting. Ideally, I'd want the cans to all be like those Hue lights where I could program them by remote for difference seasons.

Finally, with our edging, I am thinking of running rope lights along our edging like this: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/230387337157331923/

If I get one I can program, that would be cool for holidays too!