{"id":1616,"date":"2016-10-20T12:19:44","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T12:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/?p=1616"},"modified":"2017-02-07T14:02:39","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T14:02:39","slug":"mantel-prop-seance-halloween-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/mantel-prop-seance-halloween-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Mantel prop for my s\u00e9ance Halloween party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is part three of my paper mach\u00e9 furniture projects for my s\u00e9ance Halloween party; see <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/paper-mache-chairs-seance-halloween-party\/\">part one; chairs<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/paper-mache-table-seance-party\/\">part two; table<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/paper-mache-fireplace-3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/paper-mache-fireplace-3.jpg\" alt=\"Mantel and fireplace decoration for my seance Halloween party\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This mantel is possibly the biggest paper project I&#8217;ve ever made! (Well, this or the <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/giant-spider-halloween-party-decoration\/\">giant spider<\/a>.) I don&#8217;t have a ton of work-in-progress photos for the construction of the mantel &mdash; I did a tremendous amount of sketching and measuring beforehand, and a lot more along the way as the thing came together and I kept adding things. Almost all of the pieces are foam board, with a little bit of poster board, all held together with lots and lots of packing tape and masking tape. <\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n <div class=\"ad-300x250 ad-float-right\">\r\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- MMS 300x250 -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5009313124668288\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3616150394\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>I started by making the basic big box shape with the two columns on the sides and the long part across the top. After eyeballing my living room wall, I decided to make the basic box shape 44&#8243; wide by 44&#8243; tall, with the &#8220;legs&#8221; at 10&#8243; wide and the hole for the fireplace at 24&#8243; wide by 28&#8243; tall. The depth for the whole thing is 10&#8243;. I chose this depth based on the small plastic fan I bought for the fire; it&#8217;s 8&#8243; in diameter and will need to sit inside the hollow part at the base. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/paper-mache-fireplace-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/paper-mache-fireplace-1.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mache mantel\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So, just a big plain box with a hole for starters. I then added tons and tons of panels and pieces to build out the shape of the top of the mantel, and the base, and other details. I worked from some images searches and a sketch but also just made some things up as I went along. The various panels and edges were all made with foam board and\/or poster board, all taped in place.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an interesting detail if you&#8217;re ever making a large piece to sit flush against a wall. The floors of almost all houses\/apartments curve upward slightly right at the walls, so if you sit a perfectly square object at the wall, it will appear to lean away from the wall a bit. Not really noticeable for something like a dresser, but I wanted this mantel to look like it was built right into the wall (or pretty close). So, two things that helped were A) cutting a 3 1\/2&#8243;-tall piece out of the back of the side columns to fit around the baseboard of the wall, and B) laying a small strip of foam board under the front edge of the box. Foam board is 3\/16&#8243; thick, so it lifts the front of the piece by that much. That did the trick; the top back edge of the mantel sits almost flush with the wall now. I later added the wide base part around the bottom, which nicely concealed the wedges in the front. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/paper-mache-fireplace-2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/paper-mache-fireplace-2.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mache fireplace prop\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>With my mantel shape constructed, I covered the entire thing with one layer of paper mach\u00e9. The purpose of the paper mach\u00e9 on a job like this is mostly just to unify the texture, cover the tape, and fill in any gaps between imperfectly-cut pieces. So one layer is fine. If it needed to be more durable than I&#8217;d do about four layers. Of course, no need to cover the back. I also didn&#8217;t cover most of the top panel where the black surfaces of the foam board were visible; foam board is already covered with paper so a big flat area like this blends well with the paper mach\u00e9 edges I added; once the whole thing is painted it all looks fairly seamless (well, enough for a Halloween prop in a dimly-lit room).<\/p>\n<p>When the paper mach\u00e9 was dry, I spray painted the whole shape black. I intentionally did a fast and imperfect job with the spray paint to leave a slightly mottled brown\/black texture; this also really saved a ton of paint. If I wanted this thing to be 100% solid black, it would probably take four whole cans of paint. This quick dusting of paint took less than two cans. In fact, now that I&#8217;m looking at these pics, you can barely even see that the paint job isn&#8217;t perfectly solid black, and in the low light of the party it&#8217;ll definitely be fine. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/paper-mache-fireplace-4.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/paper-mache-fireplace-4.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mache mantel and nightstand\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Here&#8217;s a pic with my paper mach\u00e9 nightstand prop, for scale.)<\/p>\n<p>Okay, then it was time to make the fire! This was pretty simple; I bought a small electric fan and propped it on a small cardboard box, facing upward, and then I made these flames out of crepe paper mounted on foam board and poster board&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/fireplace-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/fireplace-1.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mache mantel and nightstand\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I cut a hole in the top panel of the fireplace and ran a clip light in there with an orange bulb, facing downward. Done!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/fireplace.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/fireplace.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mache mantel and nightstand\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The crepe paper flames didn&#8217;t move as realistically as I would&#8217;ve liked, but the end result was kind of cute and cartoony, and our guests really liked it. I wish I had a photo of this effect in the low lighting of the party! It added a neat warm glow to our haunted house. <\/p>\n<p>See more paper mach\u00e9 furniture projects: <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/paper-mache-chairs-seance-halloween-party\/\">chairs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/paper-mache-table-seance-party\/\">table<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/mantel-prop-seance-halloween-party\/\">mantel and fireplace<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/paper-mache-victorian-nightstand\/\">nightstand<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/paper-mache-spooky-lamp-prop\/\">lamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is part three of my paper mach\u00e9 furniture projects for my s\u00e9ance Halloween party; see part one; chairs and part two; table. This mantel is possibly the biggest paper project I&#8217;ve ever made! (Well, this or the giant spider.) I don&#8217;t have a ton of work-in-progress photos for the construction of the mantel &mdash; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,199,191,31,198,3,85],"class_list":["post-1616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-decoration","tag-fireplace","tag-furniture","tag-haunted-house","tag-mantel","tag-paper-mache","tag-prop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1616"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5942,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions\/5942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}