1960s Haunted House Set
For Halloween during our 2nd major COVID lockdown, I was keen to build a set to celebrate the holiday. I bounced between a few ideas and landed on a typical, super campy haunted house, just like something straight out of Scooby Doo. But when it came time to plan the set, I had to get creative with the materials and elements that I could use as we were in a lockdown. Since most of my collection of furniture and decor don’t really predate anything from the 1950s, I started to get the idea of creating the same kind of haunted house set, but it originally being a modern 1960s house. Enough time had past for that same amount of decay and creepiness to have set in, so I went head first into creating something super fun.
I started with a custom wallpaper-look wall treatment which I created with handmade stencils. The pattern was inspired by a wallpaper I love in my Grandparent’s house, but I took the shape and stretched it out to a more sinister point. The stacked brick fireplace was created with MDF being cut down to the correct size, and affixed to the wall. Gap filler was used as mortar, and the bricks were covered in a sand and paint finish to give the texture of brick. Once painted the correct shade of greyish beige, I went over with a dirty wash of watered down brown paint to catch on the raises and crevices, to give it a worn in and dirty look.
For the false window, I used a pair of new stock muddy green curtains that, once had a ribbon sewn down the side, looked perfectly mid century, and a pair of sheer white curtains dyed a grungy brownish white. For the hearth of the fireplace, two sheets of high density foam were glued together, weathered and painted and then put in place. For the main furniture element, I used my 1960s Kreisler Stereophonic Radiogram. I kept the record player hatch open just enough to see the record player, and a store of records, most noticeably Bobby Picket’s Monster Mash, a fun little nod to the spooky 60s.
Decor wise, I used an atomic lamp, vintage books and vases. Any glass elements such as vases and bowls were gone over with a wash of water and dirt, a method that makes them look old and dirty, but is easily reversed with a simple wash. Dried Mountain Devil plants were placed in a vase for another creepy little detail, along with dead ferns and dried leaves. An ultra creepy bust of a man was the perfect element to bring the whole look together. I had purchased this bust at an estate sale, and it was said to be a handmade bust of the late woman’s ex-husband. It was left in an unfinished terracotta, so I painted it with a mid grey and detailed/weathered it with a small amount of black.
A good amount of dust sprinkled over everything and lots and lots of spiderwebs were the finishing touches to bring the set together, and I couldn’t be more happy with how it turned out! I went into much further detail in a YouTube video I made for the set, and shot a spooky little scene taking place in the Haunted House, to show it off in action. The Youtube video is placed at the bottom of the page if you want to check it out.
