Lowe's Cauldron Prop Upgrade

Another quick prop upgrade is finished and ready to go! 

So last month I wrote about a full schedule really hampering my prop-building time for this season. Luckily, the big box stores have been upping the quality of their offerings, allowing me to pick up a few of their pieces to add to this year's display.

Although as a dedicated home haunter, there would be no way that I could simply pull the prop from the box and put it straight into the yard without giving it at least a little extra touch-up...

So just like I did with the Home Depot Grim Reaper Statue prop, I grabbed this really cool Haunted Living Cauldron from Lowe's and went to work...

Out of the box, this cauldron had a really great texture and finish, but I wanted to give it a well-worn, rusted look. So with paints already in my garage, I dry-brushed a complete coating of orange, followed by a light misting of dark orange and flat brown spray paints. And that was it. Done. In less than an hour, I had the rusty look I was going for.

Before.

After.

The only thing left to do, was to go old school with it! When I first bought it, I decided that I wanted to have the cauldron as a "witch prop" in front of the group that would be handing out candy. So it had to "do something" to get the attention of the trick-or-treaters. And like any good cauldron, it needs to smoke and bubble, so I decided to go out and grab dry ice. I have never used actual dry ice before, but I found a local vendor and secured a few test chunks. I added hot water to the cauldron and dropped the chunks in, marveling at the instant "smoke" rolling over the cauldron's edges and the unexpected "bubbling" from the dry ice's reaction to the hot water. Perfect!!

The final step will be to add some green LED lights to the inside of the cauldron for Halloween night, and this prop is ready to go! A quick and easy touch-up that took no time at all, and this will be a nice new accent piece in this year's display.