Spooky Shadowboxes: UpCycled Halloween Light Displays (Using Desk Shields)

Of the many holdovers from the COVID era, one of the things we have all had to deal with as a society is an abundance of disposable protective equipment. During the height of the pandemic, each student computer workstation in my lab had a tri-fold protective barrier installed. This type is made of foamboard and plastic, but are impressively sturdy and self-standing thanks to the balanced tri-fold design.

I was inspired by the simplicity of the design and the possibilities of such a large, built-in frame. This seemed like an item begging for a new purpose.

This is a fun project which yields such satisfying results! It is easy to jump into once you have the materials.

Here are the supplies you'll need:

• One Pandemic Partition / Desk Shield / Sneeze-guard / Divider / Trifold (This one is made of foamboard with plastic 'windows')
• 2" Wide Roll of Water Resistant Black Tape (Duct Tape / Gorilla Tape /etc.) This project used 18.5 ft. of tape (That's just over 6 yards.)
• Permanent Marker (Black)
• Ruler, tape measure or other straight edge
• Hobby knife (or box cutter)
• Black Construction Paper
• Scissors
• Line Drawing print-outs of Halloween Shapes (Spooky Cat, Bats, Haunted House)
• Clear adhesive tape
• LED Lighting (I used some battery-powered color-changing lights found here)
• Vellum (large rolls can be found here) (Pieces of light-colored fabric might work as an alternative).

The original dimensions of each tri-fold panel are 19 3/8" x 23 1/2". They have built in handles (which some might like) but I really wanted the frames to look more evenly portioned. So I measured off about two inches of material from the window edge and got rid of the entire 'handle' area.

The foam is strong, but thin enough that a good blade on a hobby knife works well. Removing this portion gave each part of the divider a nicely even and square appearance.

As Halloween approached our family schedule was incredibly hectic, so I took a bit of a shortcut on this one and printed out some clip-art line drawings, cut them out, and then traced them onto black construction paper.

Printing line drawings and tracing them was an extra step versus simply printing silhouettes straight away, but let's face it - that would be a TON of printer ink!

BTW, For anyone out there who is more artistically confident in a time crunch...why not save a step and draw out some cool spooky shapes directly on the construction paper.

I was fortunate enough to be given a large (34" wide) roll of vellum some time ago.

It simply gets rolled out and cut into large squares that are just a bit larger than the 'see-through' parts of the tri-folds.

• The tri-fold windows each measure 16" x 16".
• The Vellum pieces were cut to roughly 17" x 17" and the edges were taped. (No worries if there are a few minor tears or uneven cuts - It's okay if it doesn't look perfect on the backside of the display.)

Worth mentioning: Although vellum works really well for this project, it may not be practical for everyone. Any other translucent material or fabric is worth a shot.

This part is simple, but do take your time.

• A few good strips of clear tape will hold the vellum to the frame in each section - pull it tight for best results.
• Fair warning: any sort of paper from a large roll like this tends to curl in towards itself.
• I recommend facing the 'curling' action inward towards the surface of the tri-fold to tape it down. Otherwise, the force of it curling away might cause the taping to fail.
• Once the vellum is in place, secure your silhouettes with tape.

Use clear tape to secure the cut-outs neatly and flatly to the back of the vellum. The flatter the better - leaving it too loose could cause unwanted shadows once you set it all up with the LED lights. You could also opt to tape the cut-outs to the front of the plastic window instead. Attaching them that way might have some advantages - but I chose not to thinking that they might have a greater chance of getting accidentally torn.

I chose to go with a black frame.

It helps to conceal the original nature of the trifold better and the deep blacks really compliment the Halloween color palette.

It is worth mentioning that a black frame may not be desired if someone wanted to take this idea and give it a totally different spin. I am already thinking about how this might work with more of a Winter/Christmas theme - a white border might be fine for that. I'm all about less steps!

The permanent marker is used to fill in the gaps not covered by the tape.

And...yes... the Sharpie-work does not fool the eye up close since it appears purple next to the black tape. However, it goes unnoticed in the dark.

At this point, I recommend using any sort of color-changing LED device so that you can test out a variety of options.

I purchased some waterproof pool lights with the intent of making something more fitting for the outdoors. Ultimately, though, the end result is 'covered-porch friendly' but maybe not quite built for staying out in the weather.

There are very similar tri-fold displays which are manufactured using corrugated plastic frames (instead of foamboard). Corrugated plastic is the same type of material used for many of the small yard signs that roofing companies and politicians set out. It is a much more weatherproof option and a great choice if you can find it.

One of the great things about any of these partitions is that their structure makes them quite versatile. A single 3-panel desk shield could be easily cut into three equal panels. Multiple sets of these could be set up a variety of ways.

These are also lightweight enough to be wall-mounted flat (with Command Strips) and a similar lighting effect could possibly be attempted using adhesive LED tape.

To top it all off, the entire display neatly collapses down.

It measures roughly 20" x 20" and is less than 3/4" thick. You could store a bunch of these and they would take up so little room!

As of this posting, these tri-fold partitions may still be useful in your community or maybe your local pandemic guidelines have pushed them past their prime. I hope this idea inspires someone out there to get creative with these objects in new ways. Please share your creations if you do!