The Von Spüken Hotel, The Front Desk

The Front Desk ... 

Welcome to the Von Spüken Hotel ... 
I'm sure you'll have a hauntingly good time.

This is our front desk, complete with sign-in ledger, feather pen, shelf and bell.

We got this buffet table and valence at a Thrift store, it was perfect :)

This is a vintage-looking bell that I got on Amazon.com

and I got this pair of happy metal pumpkins at Ross.

Here's our shelf to hold room keys and mail.

My mom made it our of cardboard and we spray painted it brown.

I love how she made it look old.

Valence with the Von Spüken Hotel logo.

To the left of the front desk we have our elevator

which will "take" our guests to the party.

Visit all our rooms
The Haunted Elevator
The Sitting Room
The Game Room

The Von Spüken Hotel, The Elevator

The Haunted Elevator!
Welcome ... will you be joining the party on the 9th floor?

With the door open

The inside

Here, you see the elevator buttons

and a moving brick wall through the window.

The elevator floor vibrates giving the feeling that it's actually moving.

MANY THANKS to my brother Joseph for rigging this up!

This is the view from the elevator before the door closes

and you're "taken" to the 9th floor for the party.

And this is the view from the elevator after the door closes

you arrive at your destination.  We really worked hard to

give our guests the feeling that they were actually moving to another floor.

This is the view from the Front Desk after you're taken to the 9th floor.

Visit all our rooms
The Front Desk
The Game Room
The Sitting Room

The Von Spüken Hotel, The Sitting Room

The Sitting Room ... 

a room of memories since forgotten.

Once you exit the elevator, you enter the sitting room.

Complete with a fireplace, old pictures, phonograph ...

a dusty piano ... 

and a game of chess.  

I bought this "haunted portrait" at Target, used an old

lamp shade, vintage looking record player, 

and cane with air-dry clay to create the phonograph.

We used an economy size of baking soda to create the dust.

The mantle is adorned with candelabras I bought several

years ago at Target, the Von Spüken Hotel logo and a portrait of Mr. Von Spüken himself.

I followed a project tutorial found in the Better Homes and Gardens

Halloween special.  It was titled "Mount a ghoulish stairway exhibit".

Of course I modified it to suit my needs and taste.

Visit all our rooms
The Front Desk
The Haunted Elevator
The Game Room

The Von Spüken Hotel, The Game Room

The Game Room ... 

Hunting tales and trophies fill the room.

The Haunted Grandfather Clock.
We made a cd with ghost sounds and whispers and
placed speakers inside it to make guests think it really
is haunted.  Also, we made it so there will be a spooky
Grandfather clock sound every 30 minutes.

Our Hunter trophies.
We were so excited when we saw these 3 animal masks
at a party store back in August.  We bought them and
never looked back.  I think they add a creepy vibe to the game room.

Well that's all for now.  I will be posting more photos of the complete Game room,

the kitchen, our Singing Ghost, and our dance room.  

I'm also planning on making a video walk through of the whole house.

Happy October!!

The Von Spüken Hotel

It took a while but finally some progress. The Von Spüken Hotel is finally open, beware of ghosts ;)

The Elevator, work in progress

Work ... Work ... Work but it's all worth it because our Halloween decor is coming along nicely. Here's a picture of our elevator, not quite complete but I'm really happy with how it's turning out. I think we should be done by tomorrow and hopefully a majority of our decor should be finished this weekend. I'll post pics when everything is finished, until then, Happy October.

Not your typical Halloween shopping

Well we are finally doing some Halloween shopping ... at Lowes. Yup we finally bought the supplies to start working on our haunted elevator. I'm really excited because this will definitely bring the lobby to life. Okay I better help tie the plywood to the car. Happy October!

Happy October 1st!

Happy October fellow Halloween lovers!!

And what better way to celebrate than by watching a good movie or two,

mine will be The Burbs and Clue, and some pumpkin icecream!  

I was so surprised because this little guy appeared overnight at the store ... 

it truly is an October miracle. 

Happy October!

Random Sugary Fun!

So last night, my sister and I decided to make a cake.  She would bake and I would sculpt the decor.  We were inspired by Pan's Labyrinth (this guy in particular)

... and away we went.  I had a few options ... but decided to sculpt him out of Tootsie Roll.

It was challenging (and sticky) but I think it turned out ok.

And here's the finished cake!  

Devil's food cake with strawberries complete with coconut grass and graham cracker dirt.

 A special thanks to my sister for getting me excited about sculpting with food :)

You can see her creations on her blog