After painting the cellar windows black on the exterior and interior, I applied some paint washes in Bittersweet Chocolate and Terra Cotta, both by Americana. This gives the windows the look of rusted wrought iron.
I added the windows previously spray painted lightly with flat black to give the appearance of years of accumulated dirt, holding them in place by gluing a spare wood piece behind the semicircle of the outer trim (so they won’t show from the outside). Once the foundation is attached to the base, I don’t want those windows budging one bit!
I then glued the windows inside the foundation.
I used warm white 5mm LEDs from Evan Designs for the lighting. I like them since they have the look of a bare lightbulb. To give the LEDs the proper placement behind the windows, I bent the ends approximately 1.5″ from the tip of the bulb and secured them in place with duct tape to the foundation ceiling.
I found that an off-center placement worked best since the spindles on the window were blocking the light otherwise.
The light is not terribly bright with the thin layer of black paint on the windows, so I painted the “room” behind the window white.
It reflected back just enough light to enhance the eerie green glow that works so well.
For the corner with two adjacent windows, I used one LED.
For one of the windows, I sprayed one side first with flat black paint and scraped away some of the paint after it dried. I then sprayed the other side to act as the outside. Now it looks as though someone has tried to see out from the cellar. :O
Since there is so much room in the foundation, I left all of the wiring here instead of running channels on the opposite side as I usually do. I ran the two sets of wires through existing openings under the foundation and spliced them together to work as one. These will have one plug that will operate both lights.
I taped all the wiring in place with duct tape to make sure it stays in place.
