How to Build Halloween Props of Faux Stone Walls

Faux stone walls make great props and photo backdrops for a haunted house at Halloween. If you learn how to make fake stone walls for Halloween, you can create the look and atmosphere of a spooky castle or dungeon. There are a few ways to make a faux wall. The quickest and easiest is to make a flat wall and give it a realistic look using faux stone spray paint. For a free-standing faux wall, the process is trickier and more time-consuming, but the results can be spookily realistic.

A flat faux stone wall, which you can prop up against or temporarily attach to a real wall, is relatively easy to make. Use a large, flat sheet of heavy cardboard, plywood or paper-coated foam board as the wall and decorate it to appear like a wall of old stone bricks. First, paint the entire board the color you desire for the mortar of your stone wall. Look at images of stone walls online for color-matching ideas, but black or any shade of gray will provide a realistic look.

Next, use painters' tape to create the grout or mortar lines horizontally and vertically across the board in a brickwork pattern. The shapes of the brick outlines do not need to be perfect, and in fact, the stone brick effect will be more realistic if the mortar lines are somewhat irregular. Enhance those imperfections by tearing or scrunching the edges of the painters' tape in some places. Spray the entire wall with at least one coat of faux stone spray paint following the manufacturer's instructions. When the final coat is dry, carefully remove the painters' tape strips to reveal your faux stone wall.

With hand-carved "bricks" of Styrofoam, you can assemble a faux stone wall and decorate it to look realistic. Source one large or multiple smaller blocks of foam and cut them into rough stone brick shapes using a serrated knife. Arrange the bricks into a wall formation, consulting images of stone walls for ideas, first without glue. Once you're happy with the arrangement, glue the bricks together one at a time using rubber cement. For a permanent bond, apply glue to both surfaces, stick them together and pull them apart a few times to get the glue tacky. Finally, press them firmly together.

Create a realistic texture on your faux stone wall by rounding the edges and corners of the bricks and roughing up the surfaces with a knife, sandpaper and a wire brush. Use the knife to gouge out rough mortar lines between the bricks. Apply a coat of white craft glue over all the surfaces as a primer, which will enable you to successfully use faux stone spray paint on the Styrofoam. When the glue is dry, apply one or more coats of faux stone spray paint all over the brick wall and black or gray paint in the mortar lines.

Depending on your artistic skill, art supplies and time commitment, it's possible to make a faux stone wall look very realistic. Consider spraying or lightly brushing on black or dark gray paint shadows in the same bottom corner of every brick to create a 3D illusion. Some smears of mossy green could give the appearance of moss or lichen growing in the cracks between bricks.

If you don't want to use faux stone spray paint, there are a few alternatives. Look for faux stone paint products that you mix with regular paint to give it a stonelike texture or apply white glue all over the painted wall and rub sand or grit into the surface.

When working with primer, paint and glue, work in a well-ventilated area, preferably outside, and wear a protective mask.