[autumnghost]

We bought a 10x20' party tent for me to use for my booth for outdoor craft shows. So the idea now is to also use it for our Halloween party and for Halloween night.

The thing is stark white with "windows" on all sides and you can open it up completely or just open one side.

How do you haunt a white party tent and still be able to use it as a craft booth in the summer (i.e. I can't change the color)

Our theme for this year is classic Hollywood horror - Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, etc.

I'm drawing a blank. Thanks!

 

[Hairazor]

Since it is all white you could go with a black and white setting

 

[Bone Dancer]

Colored lighting should help widen your range of possibilities. A couple of red flood lights, some demons and devil an some fake fire and coals and you could have hell under the tent.

 

[Dark Star]

I agree, up lighting all around will give you the look you want. I think for classic monsters perhaps blues and greens.

 

[fontgeek]

How about using ash gray bed sheets with shower curtain rings instead of the original white walls?
Of course you could use other colors too, but the gray gives your walls more of a stone look that still lets the interior be light enough to let you do your thing.
I have several of the industrial/swap meet canopies, and the change of the wall's colors is easy, and fairly inexpensive. If you airbrush or are very good with a traditional brush, you can "sculpt" stone facades very easily on the gray sheets.

 

[Lunatic]

What Hairazor posted....Black silhouettes against the white tent. Will the tent glow under black light? If so, use it to your advantage.

Perhaps use it as a crypt with maybe an FCG inside with black lights??

Photo Opp with backgorund scene??

 

[oilkann]

or tape on various colored cloth for a insain clown room

 

[autumnghost]

Cool ideas. I do use an airbrush so I might try the sheets idea.

Clowns - nope - no - uh uh - can't do clowns. I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life. Call me a wimp - can't help it.

 

[craigfly06]

how about useing the scene setters on the walls? Like the brick wall pattren.

 

[Pumpkin5]

:jol:Hey AutumnG, one of my tricks for covering a stark area are cheap rolls of plastic table cloths...they can be rolled out, and then rolled back after the holiday. I do like Bone Dancer's idea of lighting, that could change it to whatever color you want, but if you need to change it up without the lighting, I like the plastic rolled tablecloths and Shindigz is a great website for cheap and any color you want!

 

[fontgeek]

The issues I see with scene setters is the width of the rolls of material and the fragility if you have poor weather to deal with.
The size issue holds true for the table cloth/plastic, most of the canopies sit with the roof at least 7' high, wider than even the large table cloths.

If you want black or dark walls, you might look at using rolls of that black weed blocker cloth. You could use the shower curtain rings or even zip ties to suspend it.

By sculpting, I meant using white and black paint to add mortar lines, highlights and shadows/shading to give depth and shape to the stones. Have the stones bigger at the bottom than at the top, you can also add "boarded up" windows (all painted on, you can also add pairs of eyes peeping out from some of the wider gaps in the mortar lines.

 

[Headless]

Cheap plain black trash bags taped to your white walls could be OK. You can buy them cheap and just take them down when you are done.

 

[autumnghost]

Thanks for all of the ideas. You've definitely given me something to think about. I'm leaning towards buying canvas drop cloths from Harbor Freight and painting them to look like haunted house walls. If I grommet the tops I can use shower curtain rings or zip ties. Over the past few years we've had problems with the wind so I have to make sure everything is going to stay where I put it.

Last year I found 3 of my Styro tombstones in the street. UGH!

 

[Warrant2000]

I say don't cover it, use it!

White walls are perfect for a laboratory, hospital, meat locker, or sterile environment gone bad.

With a roll of CLEAR painters plastic ($20 for 400 feet) and a gallon of red paint, you can create as many bloody splatter see-through sheets as you want, then hang them from the overhead.

White is also great as a surface for projections. There are many fantastic DVD's for sale, made by haunters, with a large variety of themes. Last year I picked up a used projector on eBay for $70, then used it for my front window for the "spider laboratory with escaped giant arachnid terror". *cough*only-one-on-the-block*cough*

 

[fontgeek]

There's a bit of a challenge to make stark white walls fall into the theme of the classic movie monsters, and in a space that small, you really don't get a whole lot of room to project images if you plan on using the interior as part of your haunt or for the party.

The only reason I suggested the ash colored sheets is that they give you a base color to work from, If you want more of a wood look then you might consider using tan or brown sheets instead. Using painters tape you can easily mask off the walls for shingled or clap board looks to "cast shadows" using an airbrush, especially if your airbrush has a preset handle. Canvas is great, but it tends to be a bit bulky, and it may not hold the paint if you try to run it through the washing machine.

 

[Headless]

My concern with canvas would also be the weight. Your average "party tent" has fairly light weight frame material. Start hanging heavy material off that and you may compromise the sturdiness of the entire structure.

 

[ramath]

I noticed this was posted back in 2009 so im a bit late to be offering advise lol but its pretty easy these style of tents work perfect for haunting.. my home haunt is called the Haunted tents. and it basically consist of 6 tent, 5 10 X 10 tents and a 20 x 20 tent that I set up in my front yard. my haunt runs through and around them and they work great,, for the rest of the year the tents are used for my small business... ill include a day time vid of my haunt from last year so you can see how we used them. the tents allow you many different ways of doing your haunt past what I use them for ,, hope this helps.