Part 2 of the Haunted Hallway book nook.
Okay, I have to be honest. I put this off for a while. I had my little model, and it sat in our spare room for a good long time. I had all the materials and I had the idea. It was just...I was nervous to finally get down to the nitty gritty of making the final product. So, like I always do when I'm nervous about something, I told myself to just jump in and get it over with. Not the best attitude toward starting this book nook that is supposed to bring me joy in creating? Probably not. It got me started, though.
Wall and Floors, Floors and Walls
First off, I made the same outer/inner wall structure I made for the model. Usually with a book nook I assemble all the walls separately and then attach them together at the end and boom, book nook. This time I had interior walls, too, and structures like doorways and stairs. Assembling one side wall, the back wall, and the floor made it so I could still reach in and position things the way I needed them.
Floors and walls pre-glue
For the floor, I glued walnut dollhouse flooring to some tagboard. Then I used a dark purpley-red peel and stick textured wallpaper for the walls. To give them a worn and old look, I sanded the floor a bit to give it scratches and then did a black wash on both the walls and floor. That gave it the perfect dark ambiance that would help create shadows and add to the dark atmosphere.
Once that was done, I had to do the woodwork. Cutting out the door frames wasn't necessarily hard because I had wiggle room (I could just shave off a bit of wall if it was a little off). The baseboard were a challenge. I had to cut them at angles to line up in the corners, and the measurements needed to be incredibly precise. After a few wrong cuts and some frustration later, I had all the trim in place and could do a fit check before I committed to gluing:
Testing the fit of the trim and baseboards
(Also, peep my headphones as clamps)
In the above picture, you'll probably notice a little door under the stairs. No, that's not where Harry Potter's room will be. That wall was very plain and I wanted to make more visual interest in the room, so I decided to do a small door there. I first wanted it to hinge open and closed so whoever was looking at it could interact with the book nook a little bit. Then I decided not to, because hands reaching in and out of the book nook might disturb other elements and potentially lead to wear and tear. I ended up gluing it permanently propped open (spooky...how is it standing open like that all on its own?), and here's the result:
Who's there?
Speaking of painting, once everything was cut it was time to paint.
Painting the Room Red
The stairs, door, and trim got a paint job using a black paint and Mod Podge mixture as the base, "Sierra Brown" mixed with a couple drops of black as the main coat, and a dry brushing of a clay color. I much preferred painting these to look like wood than actually staining the wood like I tried to do in the bakery book nook. The paint gave it more depth and looked much more interesting than what a stain would do. It also made it look more aged with the black base and the dry brushed finish. It took a while and I had to redo some of it, but I think the effort was worth it.
I also had to paint the picture frames for the walls. They came as a weathered bronze, but I felt that was too shiny and didn't go with a vibe of the nook. Instead, I had some matte black spray paint that I used as a base coat and then dry brushed them gold and silver:
Before vs. after spray painting frames
Also, in my last post I talked about how the fireplace idea wasn't going to work for the door crack into the interior room. I came up with the idea for a book shelf instead. It was pretty easy to whip one up out of balsa wood, and I printed out photos of rows of books to glue in. I painted it black with silver highlights. It ended up being the perfect size and shape for the space.
The beginnings of the bookshelf
I figured out from this build that, while I enjoy painting and find it relaxing while I'm doing it, the idea of starting to paint is a real pain. I let the items I needed to paint sit for days because I dreaded doing it. Once I buckled down and got started it went quickly.
Adding Details
The details for this were very fun to make, and probably my favorite part of this build. I added spooky art to the frames. I added "dust" by applying ash from our wood stove using a makeup brush. I added cobwebs with my hot glue gun. I hid a little bump under one of the rugs to make it look like a mouse was crawling around. I had an empty corner, so I got a dollhouse birdcage that I left open ominously, and then attached a little plastic crow to the stairs. Who lived here that let their pet crow just roam around? Why was there something living under the stairs? And who was their cleaner? That person needed to be fired immediately.
I think I achieved the look of having a lot of detail, but not the level of detail that the I Spy inspiration picture invoked. My hope is that every time someone looks at it, there is another detail they spot that they hadn't seen before.
Book nook before lighting and framing
Finishing It Up
I needed to do two more things before this book nook was finished: lighting and framing. I put a lot of work into this one, so I wanted it to look as nice and presentable as possible. For lighting, I was going to try my hand at wiring my own LEDs, but the soldering iron I bought was not working correctly. So, in a last minute attempt to get it finished, I added cheap flickering tea lights to the top. This actually ended up working out really well, because I'd made the frame to hide them from the front. And if the batteries ran out, I could easily switch them out for new ones.
3 flickering LED tea lights on top of the book nook
Speaking of framing, I decided to make a frame for the front to clean it up. I did this with my first book nook using twigs and moss, but since this was an indoor setting I couldn't do that. I took some tagboard and cut out a frame, and then dressed it up with another one of the plastic crows and some small craft jewels:
Crow emblem I made up
It looked a little silly at first, but after some black spray paint it was looking much more regal and worthy of a haunted house (and yes, I do use a tree stump in my yard as a spray painting station):
Front frame painted black
Time for the Ta Da
I used some craft glue to attach the frame to the front of the nook, flipped on the lights, and...ta da! My Haunted Hallway book nook was finally complete! Overall, I am very happy how this one turned out, and I'm excited to have it on display on my bookshelf. Just in time for Halloween! Boo!
The completed "Haunted Hallway" book nook
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