What does the great front door of Hogwarts have to do with Panda Express?
Well, not much in the books or movies. But, the two are tied together here at the Albertson Halloween House.
We wanted to achieve that “great carved wooden door” look for the entrance to Hogwarts and after looking at reference photos, saw that there were regular, raised rectangular shapes protruding out of the real door.
How would we replicate that?
Well, one day Michelle brought home some catering containers from Panda Express and asked if I wanted to use them. They were in proportion to the rectangular shapes on the Hogwarts door, so we decided to use those to achieve our look.
For the top of the doorway (above the two doors) we cut out a cardboard shape that would fit in the arch. Then, we laid out our Panda Express container lids and drew a line around each to make sure they would fit.
Then, we adhered the lids to the cardboard with Glidden Gripper (a primer-like substance which has great adhesive properties).
After that, we painted it brown, which turned our Panda Express lids into the decoration on some ancient wizarding castle door.
