[Grave Grabbers]

I just saw a post in a thread by Nightfisher. He made a custom foam door skin that looked awesome... a lot more detailed than my stuff. Hopefully he'll share that with us here. Anyway, that inspired me to start a thread soliciting custom house/door/whatever skins. So please post away!

For our display last year we covered the entire front of our house with a custom carved foam skin. Our theme was "Swamp Zombie Cemetery" so we were going for that old Swamp Shack on the bog look. Then we used some blue fire and ice lights to downlight it giving the appearance of being on the water. It took so long to carve all the panels I'm thinking we'll probably be a swamp shack for at least a few more years.

http://s1262.photobucket.com/user/GraveGrabbers/slideshow/House Skin

 

[theundeadofnight]

View attachment 405978

Hi Grave Grabbers ,

Your swamp facade looks great . Nice detailing with the slanted window framing and your moss work on the fence .

Tom

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

WOW! I've thought about doing something like that, but have nowhere to store the panels. It will be a small miracle if the door I made survives storage to make another appearance this year. lol How did you attach the panels? I just used 3M fastener tabs to secure the door panel, then peeled them off the door after Halloween. I wouldn't even know where to begin securing something on that scale!

Here is the door panel Grave Grabbers referred to. It was a quick, last minute build to hide our storm door...

 

[Grave Grabbers]

WOW! I've thought about doing something like that, but have nowhere to store the panels. It will be a small miracle if the door I made survives storage to make another appearance this year. lol How did you attach the panels? I just used 3M fastener tabs to secure the door panel, then peeled them off the door after Halloween. I wouldn't even know where to begin securing something on that scale!

Here is the door panel Grave Grabbers referred to. It was a quick, last minute build to hide our storm door...

Awesome door... it's so realistic. Thanks for posting. I would have loved to put such great detail in all my panels but it would have taken me forever and honestly I'm not sure I have the skills. As they are, I'm guessing I put a couple hundred hours into them.

Storage is indeed a problem and they are a bit delicate so I don't expect them to last but a few years. Currently they are stacked neatly on top of my old car in the garage.


Concerning attaching them to the house, fortunately we have wood siding so I actually used long screws with fender washers and drilled into it. I probably put about 50 holes in the house but hey can all be patched. There was some black duct tape involved as well. I didn't picture the garage door as I never did find a good solution to cover that other than a cheap, plastic, faux stone sheet of plastic. If anyone has any good ideas to cover that I'm all ears.

 

[thehoghunter]

My HOA would shut me down if I went this far...pretty sure my wife would have a few choice words about it too. Great set up and look to it.

 

[nosefuratyou]

Grave Grabber
Awesome job on the facade and all the supporting elements. The blue lighting really sets it off well. Bet you got a lot of lookers with that setup.

 

[DaveintheGrave]

That's so cool looking! I never thought about making a fake front door. Your swamp façade looks amazing, Grave Grabbers!
And your front door looks awesome too, Nightfisher!
Are these all made out of foamboard?

 

[Grave Grabbers]

That's so cool looking! I never thought about making a fake front door. Your swamp façade looks amazing, Grave Grabbers!
And your front door looks awesome too, Nightfisher!
Are these all made out of foamboard?

Thanks much. Yep, all my stuff is made from foamboard. I'm working on a video about the skin but not quite done yet.

 

[Grave Grabbers]

Grave Grabber
Awesome job on the facade and all the supporting elements. The blue lighting really sets it off well. Bet you got a lot of lookers with that setup.

Thanks. We do get a lot of traffic starting about mid October. It's a lot of fun. For sure good lighting is always key... an it's so affordable these days.

 

[PirateDex]

Wow, that is amazing and totally awesome at night. I am hoping to one day go that far; but I fear my neighbors and wife might decide that was the final straw. As for storage I keep my light foam panels and some ship (Pirates!!!) pieces in two racks over my garage door.

 

[Grave Grabbers]

Wow, that is amazing and totally awesome at night. I am hoping to one day go that far; but I fear my neighbors and wife might decide that was the final straw. As for storage I keep my light foam panels and some ship (Pirates!!!) pieces in two racks over my garage door.

That's a good storage solution. I may have to give that a shot.

 

[Grave Grabbers]

Wow, that is amazing and totally awesome at night. I am hoping to one day go that far; but I fear my neighbors and wife might decide that was the final straw. As for storage I keep my light foam panels and some ship (Pirates!!!) pieces in two racks over my garage door.

Thanks. That's an excellent storage solution. I may have to do that.

 

[wickedbeernut]

Excellent, Grave Grabbers. Looking forward to the how-to video.

wbn

 

[stick]

What great looking house panels that you created Grave Grabbers.

 

[Bethany]

LOVE LOVE LOVE what you did. And great idea for a thread.

I had planned to do our garage doors as crypts. Was going to cut the foam to fit inside the "rectangles" on the garage door & use strong magnets to hold them on. Did a test to see if we could open & close doors with them on and it worked. Unfortunately I never got around to it & now we are moving. So really glad I didn't do it. :O

I had also wanted to do arched window inserts for the 2 garage windows.

Hopefully I can do everything I want at the new house!

 

[punkineater]

I just saw a post in a thread by Nightfisher. He made a custom foam door skin that looked awesome... a lot more detailed than my stuff. Hopefully he'll share that with us here. Anyway, that inspired me to start a thread soliciting custom house/door/whatever skins. So please post away!

For our display last year we covered the entire front of our house with a custom carved foam skin. Our theme was "Swamp Zombie Cemetery" so we were going for that old Swamp Shack on the bog look. Then we used some blue fire and ice lights to downlight it giving the appearance of being on the water. It took so long to carve all the panels I'm thinking we'll probably be a swamp shack for at least a few more years.

http://s1262.photobucket.com/user/GraveGrabbers/slideshow/House Skin


View attachment 405954 View attachment 405962 View attachment 405970 View attachment 405978

Not sure how I missed THIS.....THIS looks amazing!!!

 

[Phoenix Cemetery]

Great work on the panels, your carving abilities are top notch. I am wanting to put up crypt panels around my house but I'm stumped on how to attach to brick. Anyone have ideas? I thought about just making prop walls and weighing them down with sandbags. That is just adding more money to the budget.

 

[cmerli]

Edgewater garage door skin

I had the same idea Bethany.

https://www.facebook.com/EdgewaterMortuary/photos/a.1018968971546754.1073741831.284448518332140/1018969028213415/?type=3

 

[Grave Grabbers]

Great work on the panels, your carving abilities are top notch. I am wanting to put up crypt panels around my house but I'm stumped on how to attach to brick. Anyone have ideas? I thought about just making prop walls and weighing them down with sandbags. That is just adding more money to the budget.

I use drywall anchors in the brick mortar. Easy to drill and easy to repair.

 

[margaret]

Thank you so much for this post ... incredible work on the panels and they look so awesome. Looking forward to a tutorial!