In true Poe fashion, when we moved to our a new home, our cat jumped behind the dry wall in the basement. Although the walls are finished, the ceiling is not, so he climbed inside the top and we bashed some holes in the wall and removed the sheet rock to free the totally nonchalant little devil!
I’ve since rearranged my Decorating Like Dark Shadows basement craft space and put metal storage shelves under this ruined soffit. Once this year’s Christmas presents started piling up there, too, I wondered if there was a better way to conceal this problem area? Instead of cropping photos or shooting around everything, why not make complete use of the odd overhang and storage inlet? Hanging curtains to hide the tucked away shelving could be expensive for the right hardware, and so much fabric near the plumbing above could be an issue. Enclosing the area entirely in some kind of sliding panels or folding door system would likewise be costly and more intensive than a simple aesthetic fix to ideally match my Gothic Cardboard Window Backdrop. Fortunately, in perusing the Dollar Tree website (as one often does once their Halloween merchandise rolls out) I discovered Halloween “wall murals” in an “eerie stone wall” design. These sheets are about three feet by six feet, similar to printed plastic tablecloths, and probably only meant for one or two brief uses. Similar castle stone scene setters online looked smaller for twice as much money with negative reviews on their poor quality.
Could decorative plastic be hung on a long-term basis? For $1 a sheet, I began hunting at several local dollar stores until I found the stone wall motif – the graveyard, cat, and cauldron, and skeleton styles also available weren’t the ones I wanted, as their designs couldn’t be taped together for one running pattern like stone could. Besides, it matched my Dark Shadows panache! To cover my problem wall, I calculated needing about six sheets, so when I finally found the stone version, I bought all nine in stock! Opening several and laying them out on the floor, I could see they had the width, but about two and a half were needed to cover the wall height. I taped them together and then taped the top across the soffit, letting the plastic drape all the way down to the floor. It looked so gosh darn spooky cute, I decide to continue with a sheet above my Cardboard Window backdrop and down over another ugly metal shelf. Here, however, there was no drywall but wood beams above, so I simply used thumb tacks and made sure there was enough slack for the slightly longer drape. I can lift up any part to access the storage, but by doing the entire area, it looks like I just happen to have a Halloween scene setter on my wall. You can’t tell there is a hidden space with tools, Christmas baking supplies, and holiday gifts – but no peeking!
It’s been over a month since putting up my “eerie stone wall” and there have been no problems yet. If the sheeting does begin to fall, fresh tape and thumbtacks should keep it secure – unless as my husband put it bluntly, the cat decides to do something about it! Thankfully, I only used five sheets, leaving four extra for any rips or replacements. Unless the camera catches a glare from the fluorescent lights, you can’t immediately tell this is just plastic. Was this $9 plus tax the absolutely cheapest way to cover a wall? Yep. Do I expect this to actually last long term? Probably not. Certainly, there are better, proper solutions for this odd soffit, but for a few months of multi-tasking decoration and secret storage, why the heck not?
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For Halloween I wanted to come up with some fun recipes for everyone’s holiday parties, whether they be Halloween or Dia de Los Muertos celebrations. However, I wanted to find new recipes beyond the old standards. So, here is my take on three new tricks to treat your guests.
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