How to Make a House of Mirrors
No funhouse is complete without a house of mirrors. Whether you are hosting a neighborhood carnival or are turning your home into a haunted house for Halloween, a house of mirrors is easy to install using inexpensive mirror substitutes. Mirror substitutes have more flexibility for creating distortion, are lightweight and easy to manage, and are safer because they are not easily broken like a mirror. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Carnival mirror
- Mylar
- Mirrored Plexiglass
- Drill
- Nails
- Tape or tacks
- Cardboard or plywood
- Jigsaw
- Large foam sphere
- Fishing line
- Small cardboard and foam shapes
- Audio track
Instructions
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Purchase a supply of mirror substitutes that is sufficient to cover all the walls and the ceiling of the space designated for the house of mirrors, plus a bit extra. Types of mirror substitutes include carnival mirror, a thin, plastic reflective material; Mylar, a chrome-like polyester film; and mirrored Plexiglass, a more rigid plastic reflective material.
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Hang a combination of the mirror substitutes to completely cover the walls and ceiling. Place Plexiglass mirrors facing each other on opposite walls to create an effect of endless, repeated reflections in space. Hang Plexiglass by drilling holes in the corners and nailing it to the wall. Hang Mylar and carnival mirror with tape or tacks. Bend and wrinkle the Mylar and carnival mirror to create strange and surreal distortions of reflections.
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Construct a few simple, freestanding cardboard or plywood panels. Make them freestanding by attaching cross bracing, perpendicular legs that lie flush with the floor at the bottom edge of the panels. Make the panels about the average height of a person. Cover the front of the panels with Mylar or carnival mirror and set them just in front of the walls to create a multi-dimensional effect.
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Cut several small fragments of reflective Plexiglass using a jigsaw and glue them to a large foam sphere. Hang the sphere from the ceiling with fishing line to create a bewildering diffusion of light.
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Cover other simple shapes, such as cardboard tubes, empty tissue boxes and foam cones in Mylar. Tack them randomly to the wall or hang them from the ceiling to add subtle mirrored accents to the house of mirrors.
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Play creepy audio, such as murmuring voices or a horror film-type soundtrack with suspenseful crescendos and minor chords.
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