Here is a look at my work area. I needed a great deal of space for this project so I decided to take over the garage.

To cut the strips I placed the boards on the floor and used one of the strips as a guide for making straight cuts. I imagine this would have been soooo much simpler with a table saw. Unfortunately I have not got around to buying one of those yet. That will have to be one of my next major tool purchases.

I created the pylons out of cheap particle board. Particle board is not necessarily very strong but when you build it into a column of 4 strips it becomes very sturdy. Unfortunately it required me to cut 56 strips of particle board. I used 1/2? particle board and created 28 strips 5? wide and 28 strips 4.5? wide to create roughly 5?x5? columns.

I’m going to start the Haunted Dungeon project by creating the 14 pylons that are required to create the frame of the dungeon. They will be what I secure the wall panels to and mount the ceiling beams to.

I built the pylons by clamping the strips to a 2×4 and then using both liquid nails and regular nails to fasten the strips together.

Here you can see all 14 pylons built. I was a little nervous about the strength of the materials I used, but I am extremely happy now with how they turned out.

Here is a closer look at the panels as they are drying.

Here you can see a couple of the panels standing up. They are actually a little shorter then 8? so that they fit into my living room standing up.

Here I am gluing 1/8? thin 4×8 sheets of plywood to 1? thick 4×8 sheets of polystyrene. These will become the brick walls of the dungeon. The polystyrene can stand on its own, but I wanted something that would be a little tougher to break to allow me to screw the wall panels to the pylons. I have a few pylons sitting on top of all the panels to apply pressure while they are drying.

Here you can see I am drawing out a block pattern on each wall panel. This will act as a guide for me while cutting out the mortar joints.

I used a rounded bit in my router to cut mortar joints into the polystyrene for the walls. I forgot to get a picture of a panel with the mortar joints cut earlier today while I was working. I’ll get a picture of the cut panels the next time I work before I paint them.

I decided to move the panels into my living room to do the painting. This is where the dungeon will be for my party. This way I could make sure I had enough panels for the room.

Here is a closeup of the panels so that you can see the mortar joints I cut out with the router.

Here I am spreading “Monster Mud” onto the sides of the pylons. This will make the pylons look like stone columns in the dungeon.

Here is another shot of me applying the Monster Mud to the pylons.

Here I am painting primer on to the ceiling beams. The ceiling beams are two 12? 2×4’s nailed together. They will span the dungeon and fasten to the pylons on each side of the dungeon.

Here I applied a coat of primer to the wall panels and then painted the mortar joints black. I will then roll on the stone paint onto the wall panels. With any luck, it won’t seep into the mortar joints and I won’t have to spend forever trying to detail the small joints.

Here you can see I am securing the wall panels to the back of the stone pylons I created with screws. The entire structure is standing on its own.

Here is a shot of me securing the panels to the pylons. One detail I forgot to point out before, is the slot at the top of the stone column in the picture. This slot is where the ceiling beam will rest. I will also use screws to secure the beams into the slots. This will make the dungeon structure more rigid.

Here is a shot of the remaining wall panels and stone columns waiting to be put into place.

And here is my dungeon completed. I put down grey outdoor carpeting for the floor. This way it does not take a way from the dungeon look and I don’t have to worry about spills! I did not have time or the budget this year for a ceiling so I decided to just use black plastic for the ceiling. I also created some nifty simple sconces to hold real jack-o-lanterns! I created 8 sconces and jack lanterns to line the walls of the dungeon.

Here is a picture of the right wall in the dungeon. I originally created 8 sconces and jack-o-lanterns to go on the 8 side stone columns of the dungeon. But later decide that it would look really neat to put two of the jack-o-lanterns on the back wall. Next year I’ll probably have 10 jack-o-lanterns in the dungeon.

Here is a picture of the left wall of the dungeon.

Here is a closeup of one of the jack-o-lantern sconces. I put two course screws through the shelf part of the sconce up into the jack-o-lantern to hold it in place. This way it could be relatively safe enough to put tea lights into the jack-o-lanterns.

Here is closeup of me next to one of the jack-o-lanterns.

And here I am in my haunted dungeon. It’s not extremely fancy…. but I constructed it in a way that I think will make a great base to build on. Each coming Halloween I’ll plus it with new and spookier features to make my haunted parties better every year!