Thimbleanna’s sister and brother-in-law recently did some remodeling and decided to include a whimsical little accent in one of the new walls.

It’s like a fairy door, but doesn’t just open to the wall. There’s a mouse in there — with his pretty wall paper and fine furnishings.

I particularly love that the space lights up–the switch is inside of a laundry chute above the door–not only because it makes it easier to see small details but also because it just makes it seem more “real” somehow. Of course such a high-living mouse would have electric lights. (Helpfully, it also doubles as a night light.)

Thimbleanna notes that she’d like to something similar in her own house, but that it’d have to be a fairy door instead. I quite agree; this would be a splendid showcase for tiny fairy furnishings.

Obviously this would take a lot more work than simply sticking a door to the wall, but if you’re planning on remodeling anyway then adding an alcove wouldn’t be much additional trouble. And of course if you’re feeling particularly ambitious–and don’t rent–you can hack one into an existing wall whenever you want (with the caveat that wiring in a light switch will be harder).

A similar, somewhat easier, mouse or fairy house could be done using a bookcase or wall unit: Cut a piece of particle board, plywood, or similar thin wood to fit across part of the bottom shelf (top to bottom). Get several hardback books from a thrift store, cut off the spines, and glue them side-by-side to the front of the board; what you’re trying to do is create the appearance of a row of books. Carefully use a small saw to cut a door through some of the spines (and the board). Place the “books” on the bookshelf, add furniture and decorations behind it so they’re visible through the door, then fill in the rest of the shelf space with real books. The finished appearance should suggest that tiny interlopers have tunneled into your bookshelf and set up residence. Perhaps not quite as impressive as an actual hole in the wall, but infinitely easier on the wallboard.

(Hat tip to Empress Pam)

(Click to embiggen)

Japanese funeral home director Nishinihon Tenrei asked ad agency I&S BBDO to create an “unconventional” ad for his business. They decided to focus on celebrating the beauty of a person’s life, which remains after death.

The result was this gorgeous life-size skeleton made of pressed flowers and ferns, titled “Life is Endless” (Spoon & Tamago has another photo of the ad here). I would dearly love a framed print of this; unfortunately, the Tenrei site doesn’t seem to mention it anywhere (although I will note that it’s the cheeriest funeral home site that I’ve ever encountered), and the ad agency site is an impenetrable mass of Flash.

I suppose if someone were particularly ambitious they could press their own flowers and create something similar. (The less-ambitious might try a dried-flower skull instead.)

(Hat tip to pdq)

BoingBoing recently posted a ridiculous picture of a monster made from a taxidermied deer butt, and my immediate thought was, “Huh; somebody had too much time on their hands.” However, the comments soon made it clear that deer butt monsters are kind of a thing.

They can also be found under the name “rearwolf,” “deer butt alien,” or–my favorite–“assquatch.” They’re periodically available on eBay or from taxidermists with a sense of whimsey. Redneck art connoisseur Don Burleson even provides general instructions for making one of your own, although you would need to already have a decent familiarity with taxidermy to make much use of them.

Still, if you ever find yourself in possession of a deer butt that you don’t know what to do with, this would certainly be an interesting project. (Or you could make the “doe bell” deer-butt doorbell, also showcased on Burleson’s site, instead.)

If you’re less ambitious, you could also follow the general guidelines and use faux fur instead. The taxidermy fangs and eyes look pretty neat, and a fake-monster “trophy” would be an arresting addition to a wall or bookcase.

This is pretty much the ultimate in “committing to the bit.”

Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum own an old Victorian home near Boston, and a few years ago they decided to modernize their kitchen whilst retaining the original antique vibe: In other words, they steampunked it. And they liked the result so much that they: a) Went on to do the rest of the house in the same style; b) Bought a nearby house to steampunk and resell; c) Launched a business devoted to steampunk interior decorating.

Their stuff is simply gorgeous, and makes one long for enough cash to attempt something similar. Sadly, I seem to have a dearth of rich relatives who are likely to mention me in their will, so the best I can do is drool over the Rosenbaums’ house.

There are lots of photos of the house at Apartment Therapy, Steampunk Workshop, and Houzz, plus a short article about their renovation efforts here. There’s also a video tour:

The company they launched is ModVic, and the site’s gallery has photos of several of their commissions (including a tattoo station made out of an antique gas pump).

A couple of references on other sites are more puzzling: Trial by Steam reported that the Rosenbaums had signed a book deal with a working title of Steampunk Art, Fashion & Design, to be published in Summer/Fall of 2012. However, I can’t seem to find any other information about it, so I’m not sure if the book was scrapped or just delayed. Additionally, Wicked Local’s 2010 article about the Rosenbaums noted that they had launched a site called steampuffin.com, “offering Steampunk appliances, gadgets and fixtures to online shoppers.” Unfortunately, that URL goes nowhere. (There’s a link for “Steampuffin Exhibitions” on the ModVic site, but that goes to a “Coming Soon” page, which I roundly loathe.)

Steampunk fits nicely into the Victorian milieu, but is somewhat less daunting to outsiders (and rather more landlord-friendly) than a Gorey-esque decorating scheme. If your sensibilities like in the Victorian direction, the Rosenbaums’ designs ought to give you all kinds of ideas.

(via EPBOT)

I ran into this wreath in a BHG slideshow of outdoor decorating ideas (incidentally, the spider wreath at that link is pretty neat too). Their method involves wrapping styrofoam balls in yarn and then hot-gluing them to a wire wreath form, which strikes me as overly complicated.

An even easier approach would to be to bend some wire (such as from a coathanger) into a circle and thread balls of yarn onto it. Tape the ends of the wire together and cover the join with a pretty ribbon.

If you’re a crafter you probably have leftover yarn laying around which would be perfect for this project. It’d be easy to make several of these as gifts, and the construction is simple enough that kids could help out.

A wall full of wreaths might be an attractive way to store yarn as well; it’d be out of the way and you could find the color you need at a glance.

I ran into this on Pinterest the other day and have given up trying to source the original image; a couple of sites point to Marie’s Manor as the creator, but since most of the stuff there appears to be from someplace else, I doubt they’re the originator either. I did manage to track down the graveyard background, though; it’s a silhouette standup by ShinDigz.

It’s also made of cardboard and costs nearly a hundred bucks, which is just ludicrous. (The price seemed bad enough when I thought it was a vinyl wall decal. But cardboard?)

The shapes are all simple enough that you could cut your own out of cardboard sheets, but an idea that I like far better is to actually stencil them on the walls for a permanent room makeover.

The silhouettes shown here are all very simple, with no fiddly details, so they should be do-able for even a stenciling novice (obviously, you can make them much more intricate if you have the skill and patience). There are tutorials all over the Web for stenciling walls, and googling “how to make wall stencils” will turn up a wealth of information: This, this, and this should be enough to get you started.

The actual decoration would involve painting the top part of the walls whatever color you want your “sky” to be: The burnt orange in the example is striking, but you could use purple, grey, or even scarlet if you’re feeling particularly gothy; you could also paint them plain white for a low-key, monochrome look. Apply your stencils in a darker contrasting color, then paint the lower part of the wall the same shade. Bingo! Insta-graveyard.

If you’re feeling ambitious you could use more than two colors and add extra details: A full moon, a few bats flitting around, a big spooky tree with bare branches, or even an errant ghost or two emerging from their crypts. Taking care with your stencils will make your results look like the work of a pro for little more than the cost of a bit of housepaint.

This unusual idea for a house address marker (click the image for larger) was part of a BHG “Halloween Outdoor Makeover” slideshow. As if it should be limited to Halloween.

It’s a super-simple project, and the result is really striking. The plates are decoupaged with house numbers and skeleton clip art, then hung outside on a metal plate rack.

You could buy matching plates, or look for interesting mismatched ones in thrift stores. Use vintage-y drawings of human skeletons, or maybe a selection of animal skeletons instead.

Resize them if necessary, then print them and the appropriate house numbers–there are a zillion fonts to choose from, but it’s a good idea to select something easily readable from a distance–and carefully trim away excess paper. (If you use an inkjet printer, test to make sure that the ink won’t run when decoupage medium is applied; if it does, you may need to go to a copy shop and re-print them using ink that isn’t water-soluble.)

Arrange the pieces on the plates until you like the way they look, then decoupage in place.

Instructions for decoupaging a dinner plate are here (and plenty of other places online), but the procedure pretty much amounts to: Make sure the plates are clean and dry. Brush on some decoupage medium such as Mod Podge. Press the printouts down carefully, and smooth out any wrinkles or bubbles by pressing gently with your finger. Let dry, then apply a couple of coats of decoupage medium over the top and let dry again.

It’d be a good idea to display these on a covered porch or someplace else where they’re somewhat protected from harsh weather. Much more interesting than plain old house numbers, and you can make visitors vaguely nervous to boot.

If I ever win the lottery I’ve just found the first place I’m going shopping.

Intrepid commenter Fiend4Halloween alerted me to Fabulous & Baroque, a company who creates furniture that would make Morticia Addams’ jaw drop.

Fabulous & Baroque was established in 2010 based on a love and appreciation of the elaborate detail and designs of 17th & 18th century European furniture. Fabulous & Baroque takes a modern approach to the luxurious, hand crafted, French design by using fashion forward colors and concepts. Having emerged as a leading furniture company of Baroque design, we continue to evolve our designs to accommodate client preferences and custom requests. The slogan “If you dream it, we can make it” truly separates us from the competition. Client dreams are transformed into a beautiful piece of artwork for your home.

They are…not cheap. But their stuff is just gorgeous. They’ve got antiqued silver-leaf beds and balloon chairs and mirrored wardrobes and rococo dressing tables and…I think I just furnished the bedroom of my dreams.

As their slogan suggests, they also do custom work. I have no idea what that would cost, but if there’s a piece you’ve always dreamt of having these guys might be the ones to make it for you.

(Thanks, Fiend4Halloween!)

Ah; this is heartbreaking. Someone posted this awesome photo on the Elders of Goth page the other day, commenting that it was pretty much the ultimate haunted house. Another member identified it as the Webster Wagner House in Palatine Bridge, NY, and noted that it was in terrible disrepair.

I did a bit of digging to find out some more about the house. It was built in 1876 for railroad car magnate–and later senator–Webster Wagner (who, interestingly, died in a tragic fire in one of his own railroad cars). The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, which apparently is why it hasn’t been condemned. Until recently it wasn’t technically abandoned; a reclusive hoarder lived there, refusing to sell and refusing to leave. Of course it’s rumored to be haunted, because what ghost wouldn’t want to live in this awesome pile?

I found this thread on a forum for old house enthusiasts, bemoaning the state of the house and wondering if anything could be done to preserve it. In August of last year, someone identifying himself as a descendant of Wagner posted that the current owner had abandoned it but was locked in a battle with the city. He asked for anyone interested in helping to save the house to contact him.

There ought to be some sort of Gothic Preservation Society whose mission was to buy incredible houses like this and restore them to their spooky best. Indeed, there’s a lovely one just a few miles from where I live: If you go here and switch to Street View you can see it in all its dilapidated glory; Shadowboy is always eager to look for the “haunted house” whenever we drive into town. Sadly, it’s also in danger of demolition and it’s questionable whether it’ll be saved. If I ever won the lottery, I’d do whatever was necessary to restore the house’s structural soundness whilst keeping it looking just like that.

If anybody wants to found a Spooky Old House Retention League, I’d definitely be on board.

Over at BuzzFeed, there’s an intriguing roundup of DIY themes for a baby’s nursery. They’re listed as “pop culture,” but they skew pretty much exclusively toward the geek/goth end of that spectrum.

They all seem to be aimed more at a parent’s interests, since a number of them (Game of Thrones, Twilight, Doctor Who) really aren’t baby-friendly even if you squint, and a couple (I’m thinking particularly of the Walking Dead one with the zombie-hand wall stencil) should only be considered for a nursery if you’re planning to redecorate before the kid’s old enough to start having nightmares. However, there’s no rule that says you can’t decorate to your own taste until your children are old enough to have their own opinions. There’s also no rule that says you can’t use some of these ideas to decorate your own bedroom: I’m quite taken with both the Tree of Gondor wall stencil and the NMBC Sally dresser.

There are only a few elements for each theme, but some of them are quite clever and it’s a great way to kick-start your inspiration. There are links for each featured piece, which is also helpful.