The entrance gates to the grounds of Hogwarts are ‘flanked by winged boars’ and serve as a barrier (sometimes magically reinforced by the professors and the headmaster) between the outside world and the wizarding school.  We thought it fitting to have similar entrance gates to welcome visitors to the Halloween house.  We wanted to do our best to represent them well.

We stacked boxes to simulate the entrance gates to see what they might look like.

When we determined a size that would work, we began to plan out the underlying structure.

We created some square shapes that would fit within some tall boxes we had (thanks to my super-cool co-worker for giving us the boxes from your speakers!)…

…and then created the uprights to connect them.

The gates will stand on our front grassy area, and we needed to add some leveling supports.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Making an Entrance, where you’ll see how we created the winged boars…