Our 2022 Haunted Mansion Halloween: FULL WALKTHROUGH REVEAL

Welcome, fooolish mortals! Our Haunted Mansion Halloween is ready for its swinging wake, and there's no turning back now. Ready to see?

(EEEEEEEEE)

Our tour begins here, with this video:

What's that? You want a few dozen more pretty photos from every conceivable angle, both day and night?

Well, I mean, if you insist...

Here's the nighttime panorama from the street, I'm in love with all the colors:

And here's the transformation from day to night:

OoooOOOooh.

To the right we have the bride and singing busts:


We added a hat stand by the bride as a nod to her dearly departed husbands.


The bride is absolutely stunning at night, especially since we added a small fan to blow her veil around.

Amazingly you can see the singing busts even while it's light out:

Though of course they stand out best after dark:



This suit of armor is easy to miss, tucked in the front bushes:



And you remember Leota's window:




Here's the front door area during the day:



... then at night:



I painted the window silhouettes on white butcher paper:



Then we propped a color-changing LED floodlight behind it for this amazing glow.

This is also the black light area, so the hitchhiking ghosts & my monster wreath fluoresce after dark.



I don't love my monster wreath - my struggle with wreaths continues - but after dark most of it fluoresces and looks hilarious from a distance, so we're calling it "good 'nuff."


Those giant muppet eyes are my favorite, heh. 

Back out to the yard for more beauty shots:



Hurricane Ian left our street lined with piles of giant dead branches... so we put those to use and made a mini hedge behind our dancers. Then we covered the hedge with Spanish Moss from a local parking lot, which looks delightfully cob-webby during the day:



Our dancers are hard to see in photos, but the moving lights at night help them stand out. I like how they seem to flicker in and out as you walk by, and how the moss catches our accent lights:


Nice and ghostly.

 Here's a reminder of what these two look like with a solid backdrop behind them:

Tho I did add a cape to the fella.

One thing that looks equally amazing day OR night is our Doom Buggy:

The sign is a late addition - another piece of insulation foam I hand-painted - and it makes the scene for me. Especially if you get the angle right so it hides the Buggy's front legs!

The nighttime view with the fog looks just as awesome, but far more eeeeeevil:

Tiny Tim the thestral is working those glowing eyes.
(We also made Tim; click that link to see how!)

One more, because I'm indecisive:

And just for fun, here's the view from INSIDE the Buggy:

It's wild watching the fog shoot out from under you. Super fun.



And that's our Haunted Mansion Halloween!

I'll end with the last thing you haven't seen: our costumes.

I originally wanted to be Hatbox, because of course I did - but with the time constraints I opted for something more simple:

I added a collar & apron to a dress I already owned to make my own version of a Mansion maid. The lovely batty headband was an unexpected gift from Elle Garrett Designs (thank you again, Elle!) and John helped me design the perfect name tag:

This is just printed card stock I doubled up for strength.

In fact it was SO perfect I asked John to make a bunch more as stickers we can give out:

We get a lot of Trick-or-Treaters without costumes, so I can offer these as a "free costume"!

(We also have glow-in-the-dark temporary tattoos for anyone who wants them - which glow EXTRA bright under our black lights.)

As for John, I bet you can guess his costume from the candy bucket:

John made the barrel from EVA foam, then I did the finishing. Here's a quick process pic, since I'm proud of my wood-graining:

As I'm sure you've guessed, John's going to be Dynamite Guy from the stretching portraits:

John sewed his own sash, painted some shorts, and assembled the rest from thrift finds:

That jacket is heavy velvet, so I expect the dynamite won't be the only thing ready to explode by the end of the night. :D (It's still sooo hot here, and every time we set up I get half a dozen more mosquito bites. FLORIDA. Bah.)

We have a few friends joining us in costume Halloween night to help give out candy and stickers and manage the photo ops, so I hope to have a few more fun photos for you next week.

Til then, that's our tour! Happy Halloween, my friends, and thanks for following along through all our batty builds and silliness.

P.S. In case you missed any, here are all the Haunted Mansion builds we posted this year:

- Ballroom Dancers

- Beating Heart Bride

- Hitchhiking Ghosts

- Victorian Doom Buggy

- Madam Leota

- Singing Busts

And here are some of the colorful lights we use and love, in case you want a head start on future holiday decorating:


Color-Changing Candelabra Bulbs, 2pk

We use these in our porch lights, love that you can set any color you want with the remotes, then back to white when the party's over.

LED Floodlight (2pk)

And we use these inside in our back room (pics here) as well as outside for some of these displays. Love them for both!