July 17, 2006

I did a little work on the new panels today.  I was determined to at least finish a couple of panels so that I could take a look at them side by side and decide if they were going to look as good as I hoped that they would.

One of the quirks of using the landscape fabric is that it is translucent.  The wood frames for the panels can be seen fairly easily through the fabric, so I needed to black out the frame to make it harder to see.

I painted 2 of the frames with flat black exterior latex paint.  There may be a need for me to use the panels outdoors, so painting the frames with exterior paint should keep them from soaking up too much water if they get rained on.

After a good coat of paint and a couple of hours drying time, I stapled the painted fabric on to the frame of the panel.

It's kind of tricky to get all of the wrinkles out of the fabric.  I found it easiest to staple the top and bottom first - starting in the center and working out to the edges.  Then I staple one of the sides with only a little tension on the fabric.  The last side I pull fairly tight and watch to make sure that I pull any wrinkles out as I go along.

Once I had the first panel finished, I started wondering if I had made a mistake.  It's a lot of work to put together the panels this way, and with only 1 panel to look at I really couldn't see my original concept.

Once I had the second panel finished, I could see how well they fit together and really get a good idea for how the haunt will look once it's completed.

I still have not had the nerve to tackle distressing the upper portion of the wall.  I'm concentrating on getting the bulk of the work out of the way while I think about how best to tackle the project.  I'm starting to think my airbrush might just come in handy for making the walls look a bit more creepy.

That's about all I had time for today.  I have to get some of my other projects out of the way this week, so I'm not sure how much more time I will have to work before next weekend.

The addition of a little distressed artwork and I really helps the wall to look a bit more realistic.  I can't wait to try putting a few more walls together with a door panel to see if it looks as good as I hope it will.

If you look carefully at the image, you can see one of the older pallet board panels through the fabric.  One of the cool things about the fabric walls is that you can see through them pretty well if you are on the darker side of the wall.  The translucent fabric will come in really handy to spy on the victims...  I mean guests... on Halloween night.