# Covering Walls Ideas?



## kallie (Dec 4, 2007)

Anyone have any ideas for covering walls?

My plan this year is to have my living room be an abandoned haunted house theme, like throwing white sheets over the furniture and such because it's simple and my mood lighting/decorations will make it look super spooky.

My issue is the walls. In particular I have one wall that's covered in 20 pictures in frames and I really don't want to have to take all those down.

Any ideas as to what I could drape on the walls to still give it that spooky effect? Fabric? or Should I just not be lazy and take all those pictures down? The pictures are a kitschy collage of sketches, paintings, and musicians/artists I like. I could definitely leave Tom Waits and Francesca Woodman on the wall


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## LadySherry (Oct 4, 2011)

my first thought is hang drapery to make it look like a parlor or even a theater stage.
I will keep thinking on this one.


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## kallie (Dec 4, 2007)

Do you have a picture or link of what you mean? I think I know, but just to make sure I'm seeing the same vision...
Thanks for the reply



LadySherry said:


> my first thought is hang drapery to make it look like a parlor or even a theater stage.
> I will keep thinking on this one.


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## pumpkinpie (Jul 9, 2011)

There is a tutorial somewhere for damaged plaster walls (u take black poster board and wood grain contact paper {you can find both at Dollar Tree} what you do is cut the contact paper into strips to look like wood lathing then affix it to the poster board. The poster board should be torn to creat a jagged edge and simulate the appearance of the wood lathing behind fallen plaster). As for your pictures just leave them in the room, add dust and some webs, maybe tilt one or two...you could even print off some old black and white photos that are kind of creepy to replace the photos with.


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## pumpkinpie (Jul 9, 2011)

Here's a pic


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## Jules17 (Aug 31, 2010)

A couple years ago I bought 6 of the patterned plastic tablecloths from Target and put them on the wall to look like wallpaper. See link below from my 2011 party album. It turned out pretty good and wasn't expensive. You could also use black tablecloths or fabric, just depends on the look you're going for.

http://www.halloweenforum.com/membe...-pics-2011-picture120155-dining-room-wall.jpg


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## kallie (Dec 4, 2007)

-Wow, Jules, that looks amazing!!! But so time consuming! How long did that take you?

-Pumpkin, I just might try that!

My problem is I have no patience for time consuming endeavors lol but I definitely like the looks!


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## Jules17 (Aug 31, 2010)

It didn't really take me that long. I have 3 full-length tablecloths (going vertically down) across the top and then I taped the next three below those and just cut where the floor molding began (about 1/2 of the tablecloth) and used the rest to go over the door. I used double-stick tape as that seemed to hold best.


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## seattlerags (Aug 15, 2013)

If you were doing a Dexter theme you could cover the walls with plastic sheeting - right over the pictures. I don't think that would work for a haunted mansion look though. I am doing haunted mansion this year as well, and plan to drape black tulle across the ceiling in all different directions, tying it onto our center chandelier. Also throwing in some purple for effect. Maybe you could drape tulle over or around the photos as well...

For your sheets covering your furniture, don't forget to stain them with tea to give it an aged look. You can either soak the whole thing, or put some in a spray bottle and spray them.


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## witchy poo (Jul 24, 2012)

Wow great ideas, you guys are so creative.


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## marigolddesigns (Sep 5, 2010)

I take down everything such as family pictures, and even framed art, wreaths...anything except permanant fixtures. It's like moving once a year!....Gives me lots of room to really knock out the theme! 
Covering walls...I've used plastic table cloths from DT to completely black out a smaller room....we use black tarps to black out the walls in the garage.
Creepy fabric cover the curtains.


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## RedSonja (Sep 18, 2004)

Well, when I've kept some of my artwork up, I've done several different things...covered the artwork w/ white sheets or spooky cloth, covered it in webs, or just taped poster over it, or some picture I found online. Dollar Tree and 99cent stores used to carry some vintage looking horror movie posters and those are what I have used on the past to cover my art. Worked out great and quick to do!


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## B Scary (Sep 8, 2007)

I too have a lot of artwork and photos -- I print out art work to go with the theme I am doing and put them over the pictures I have on the wall. I do not take the existing pictures out of the frame. I use glue dots to attach the "halloween" pictures directly on the glass of the artwork/picture frames. I drape creepy cloth over artwork with canvas and tilt the pictures to make them look out old. I also use the creepy cloth to cover alcoves, niches and my window treatments. I drape tulle on the ceiling and use creepy cloth or cheese cloth on my chandeliers. Check out the corrugated card board and background papers from Stumps Party they have several different patterns. http://www.stumpsparty.com/event-supplies/background-materials/corrugated-paper/47445


http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd208/kimb1023/Famous%20Hollywood%20Monstars/Once%20Upon%20A%20Nightmare/DSC_0309.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd208/kimb1023/Famous%20Hollywood%20Monstars/Once%20Upon%20A%20Nightmare/DSC_0133.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd208/kimb1023/Famous%20Hollywood%20Monstars/Once%20Upon%20A%20Nightmare/DSC_0084.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd208/kimb1023/Famous%20Hollywood%20Monstars/Once%20Upon%20A%20Nightmare/DSC_0016.jpg


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## magen16 (Oct 10, 2006)

Use black landscape fabric, that's what I do. I get the big rolls from Big lots for like $3.50.


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## Bella Betty (Sep 24, 2010)

In the past I've used scene setter on the ceiling and the walls, but it is a huge project, takes me about 800 push pins and several days................the effect is outstanding but it's really a lot of work. So, I have also used creepy cloth, tulle and sheets, all which work great. Don't be afraid to use other colors of sheets like black, burgundy, red or gray---they are great for draping and can be arrange to look like curtains or drapes. I find mine at the thrift store. If they fit my bed, I can use them later, but most of them get saved to reuse year after year--I always drape my furniture regardless of the theme of the party.

I really love the idea of printing out pics and placing them right over the glass. You can change all or just a few to create and "odd" family setting if you want.


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## selinamb (Sep 13, 2010)

magen16 said:


> Use black landscape fabric, that's what I do. I get the big rolls from Big lots for like $3.50.


What is landscape fabric? That sounds ideal for our garage.


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## clowns_eat_people (Jun 21, 2010)

If you really dont want to take everything down I would go with covering the wall with black sheets or landscape fabric, it makes the area darker and creepier. If you REALLY want the abandon feel take it down and do the wall covers. I needed the same thing last year and there were a TON of ideas on here how to do it. I just ended up covering my house in butcher paper then taking those sticky mats that you roll in your cabinets...I covered the house in that and peeled. So it really looked like the "wallpaper" was peeling backing showing the walls. We used the boarded up window idea (which is also on here) its looked pretty cool to me. (Im a noob to such things so I was excited lol)
Good Luck and let us know what you decide to do.


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## dawnski (Jun 16, 2012)

I agree with B Scary. I would just put pictures on top of your picture frames. I've been hoarding, I mean collecting a bunch of horror art pins on Pinterest. You could just print out a bunch that you like.
http://www.pinterest.com/zim2/halloween-horror-art/
http://www.pinterest.com/zim2/halloween-zombie-art/


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## Jenn&MattFromPA (Sep 4, 2013)

Hi! Another suggestion for you - Ikea sells a product called Dignitet curtain wire, and it's pretty inexpensive. If you have an Ikea near you, here's what it looks like:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60075295/

You can even turn corners with it by buying an additional support piece. This is also something you could do yourself with some really strong fishing line & hooks. You could then hang fabric, tablecloths, sheets, etc from the wire with minimal work or wall damage. Something that could even be fun would be to dangle purple lights from the curtain wire and then hang a more sheer-type cloth in front of it for an eerie glow. 

Hope you'll find a plan that works for you!


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## jenfour6 (Apr 24, 2014)

Hey there, maybe in the future holloweens you could hang up some sort of plastic sheeting or even regular material sheets. If you wanted, you could even hang the two pictures (the Tom Waits and Francesca Woodman) over the sheeting by just marking the area the nail was embedded onto the sheeting and once the sheeting is hung up you could nail the pictures to the spots without leaving new holes. That way you could have an easy look that has some decorations on it. I hope that made sense! Good luck!


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Wow, love that lathe/plasterboard look. Anyone have a link to more detail/tutorial on it??


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## texaslucky (Feb 25, 2014)

We are remodeling---slowly. BF bought the house and decided to go ahead and move in and fix up as we go. I have a few walls that are what most are going for! lol


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## BekkiM (Sep 3, 2008)

In my dining room, I have used the scene setters, but I agree that it's pretty time-consuming. To do a completely black room (which I did for a seven deadly sins dinner), I bought black plastic tablecloth in rolls from Party City and draped the room (by pinning up with black thumbtacks), including the ceiling. The nice thing is that it's lightweight and can be draped over your existing pictures. I've used it for creating curtains on the windows too - in a candlelit room, it looks like black fabric and it has a cool effect when you shred it with scissors.


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## Stochey (Sep 22, 2009)

BekkiM said:


> In my dining room, I have used the scene setters, but I agree that it's pretty time-consuming. To do a completely black room (which I did for a seven deadly sins dinner), I bought black plastic tablecloth in rolls from Party City and draped the room (by pinning up with black thumbtacks), including the ceiling. The nice thing is that it's lightweight and can be draped over your existing pictures. I've used it for creating curtains on the windows too - in a candlelit room, it looks like black fabric and it has a cool effect when you shred it with scissors.


I would love to see pics from that!


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## PirateDex (Jun 25, 2014)

BekkiM said:


> (which I did for a seven deadly sins dinner), .


Awesome idea for a pre-Halloween party (heck any old time), I would be worried that sloth might not make it. Maybe give greed a reward if he/she brings sloth along.


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## midknightmoon (Oct 5, 2012)

You can use (curtain) tension rods to drape stuff across a hallway or up to 10' tension rods to hang stuff in a smaller rooms. There is no need to nail or pin things into the walls


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## chocolatemice (May 2, 2014)

pumpkinpie said:


> There is a tutorial somewhere for damaged plaster walls (u take black poster board and wood grain contact paper {you can find both at Dollar Tree} what you do is cut the contact paper into strips to look like wood lathing then affix it to the poster board. The poster board should be torn to creat a jagged edge and simulate the appearance of the wood lathing behind fallen plaster). As for your pictures just leave them in the room, add dust and some webs, maybe tilt one or two...you could even print off some old black and white photos that are kind of creepy to replace the photos with.


I did the black poster board and wood grain contact paper pieces for my party last year. It was really quick and easy to make them, and they went over pretty well to help with the atmosphere. You can see mine in the background of my tiny album on my profile. In hindsight, I wish I'd made a few bigger pieces of "crumbling wall" and not so many little ones. I think it would have looked better. I ran out of time with mine, but on a different thread a while ago I saw someone mention that they dry brushed some black / dark brown paint on the edges of their wall pieces to give them more depth.


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## TheMonsterSquad (Oct 8, 2012)

johnshenry said:


> Wow, love that lathe/plasterboard look. Anyone have a link to more detail/tutorial on it??


Here's a link to a tutorial. As nice as it looks its not hard to do at all:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=10217

If it were me I'd combine this fake lathing look with some cobwebs, creepy cloth, and switch a few of the pictures for the lenticular portraits you can buy at the dollar store around halloween. If you cut off the cheap plastic frame and put them into a real frame they'll blend better with the rest of the pictures you have.


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## Download (Jul 29, 2014)

Just wondering, I have the same problem and I was wondering if 100m Black 100um Extra Heavy Duty Builders Film would work rather than the garden plastic? The garden stuff is a bit expensive in comparison and I think I could do most of my walls for with that amount of plastic. At least, I'd really hope so! *chuckle*.


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## EdgarWhelp (Mar 20, 2014)

Download, I got about 40m of black material from Spotlight last year on sale for $60. It's not as cheap as that Bunnings plastic builders film you mentioned, but being cloth it doesn't reflect light like I imagine that plastic stuff would. Just a thought!


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## dawnski (Jun 16, 2012)

I pick up satin sheets when I find them at garage sales for like $2. Or I buy cheap lace curtains at Goodwill or garage sales. I use a very thin wood dowel rod to keep them straight. Then a couple push pins to hold them in place. Very cheap. They can cover an entryway or cover a wall if you have stuff you don't want seen. Here's the link to that and more ideas. http://www.halloweenforum.com/party...urtains-your-halloween-party.html#post1536138


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## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

dawnski said:


> I pick up satin sheets when I find them at garage sales for like $2. Or I buy cheap lace curtains at Goodwill or garage sales. I use a very thin wood dowel rod to keep them straight. Then a couple push pins to hold them in place. Very cheap. They can cover an entryway or cover a wall if you have stuff you don't want seen. Here's the link to that and more ideas. http://www.halloweenforum.com/party...urtains-your-halloween-party.html#post1536138


I assuming you tack the material to the wall? Not thru the dowel? Do you have a better pic of that. If someone tries to open will it work?


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## Weenwannabe (Oct 8, 2011)

I actually ended up cutting a piece a paper to match the frame on the wall I couldn't take down. I painted a skull on it.... Ok, time consuming. But I was also thinking about doing a collage on the other paintings I wasn't planning on taking down. I printed put creepy pictures, like bloody skulls and body parts. 









kallie said:


> Anyone have any ideas for covering walls?
> 
> My plan this year is to have my living room be an abandoned haunted house theme, like throwing white sheets over the furniture and such because it's simple and my mood lighting/decorations will make it look super spooky.
> 
> ...


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## princess denman (Sep 3, 2011)

I also print vintage scary photos and place over my pictures in frames. Also used a collage frame and cut pictures from classic scary movies.


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## princess denman (Sep 3, 2011)

Also have this one....


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## lkshop (Sep 6, 2013)

Last year I did the fake plaster thing with the black poster board and contact paper. It turned out pretty well. This year I'm going to add some moss to it to make it look a little less "flat".


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## Minshe (Jul 7, 2011)

I have used fabric (when you could but it for 99 cents a yard) or plastic tablecoths to cover all the walls--hung with tacks. Also have used creepy cloth with the hook thumb tacks. The really thin plastic sheeting for painting that you can get at dollar stores works well also and you can splash or spray paint on it for a whole different look. If you don't want to cover the whole wall you can tape or use the tack-it putty like stuff to just cover the picture with a picture of your choice. you can also take kitchen plastic cling wrap, splattered with dark paint or red and it will cling to the top of the glass covering photos--a lot of people use this on mirrors to make them look creepy.


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## HalloweenTrick (Feb 2, 2012)

Kallie, I have used many many scene setters in the past and they are always great there are a ton to choose from and easy to put up. You can put these over top of your pictures if you choose to. But just be aware that people may not know they are there and run into them and knock them down. I have a ton of them I never throw them away because they always come in handy. I have ones that look like brick walls, spiders, Dr. S laboratory, butcher shop. And people love them. You can buy them at party city, spirit, and many others. Just Google Halloween scene setters and I'm sure you will find something you like. They even have haunted house scenes. Hope this helps!


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## GiggleingGhost (Aug 10, 2014)

lkshop said:


> Last year I did the fake plaster thing with the black poster board and contact paper. It turned out pretty well. This year I'm going to add some moss to it to make it look a little less "flat".
> View attachment 211503


Wow!!! Great job on this room . . . I love the lathes showing. Wow!


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## marigolddesigns (Sep 5, 2010)

Last year I covered my bathroom walls with newspaper. Poked holes and added peepers to make it look like someone was watching you. Inexpensive and easy to do. Great effect with a blacklight.
I also was given a roll of zebra tablecloth - 100 ft long - so I used it on the walls and ceiling to make a funhouse effect. Again great with a blacklight.
I will attach a few photos.


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## lkshop (Sep 6, 2013)

GiggleingGhost said:


> Wow!!! Great job on this room . . . I love the lathes showing. Wow!


Thanks. Here's a pic of what I'm up to this year. I've started with the dining room. I used sheets of newsprint, then painted a pattern using a stencil and tempera paint with a roller. I then "ripped" the wallpaper and place the lathes I made last year behind. I think it's looking pretty good so far.


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## lkshop (Sep 6, 2013)

marigolddesigns said:


> Last year I covered my bathroom walls with newspaper. Poked holes and added peepers to make it look like someone was watching you. Inexpensive and easy to do. Great effect with a blacklight.
> I also was given a roll of zebra tablecloth - 100 ft long - so I used it on the walls and ceiling to make a funhouse effect. Again great with a blacklight.
> I will attach a few photos.
> View attachment 212662
> ...


Love this look!!!


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## castledecalderon (Sep 9, 2014)

they sell very thin light weight printed sheets, plastic stuff, but you could easily tack it up over the wall and hide the entire wall, it comes in a long roll about 3 ft wide or so. but its light and easy to hang, and take down! 
ps- put plastic sheeting over your furniture before the white sheets, then if anyone gets sloppy drunk and spills, your protected.


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## Malicious (Sep 8, 2014)

Some one may have posted this already one year I was trying to make a bat cave and used cheap plastic black tablecloths from dollar store and walmart!


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## Eviejenn (Aug 10, 2014)

Try covering the pictures with cheesecloth. Traditionally, people would cover all mirrors in a house when someone died. Plus, I like the idea of tilting some of the pics.


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