How to Decorate Your Home for Any Holiday

How to Decorate Your Home for Any Holiday Using a Video Projector on a Homemade Outdoor Stand.

An inexpensive home theater type projector can be used to project holiday-themed slide shows or motion video on the outside of your home. Changing videos allows celebration of any holiday with the type of message you want to convey. A protective stand is important if using a projector not designed for outdoors, so that you don't expose it to the elements.

Steps.

1. Purchase an inexpensive projector. Choose the type that can project videos from a flash drive or an SD card. This keeps the operation simple, since you won't need a computer or a DVD player connected to the projector.

2. Choose a blank wall on the front of your home. If necessary, you can create an area by covering it with some type of white material such as white foam insulation board, white plastic, painted plywood or white fabric.

3. Determine the best location for the projector to get maximum visibility. Once you have located the spot and the height for the projector, you can proceed to make a protective stand for the projector.

4. Cut a piece of lumber the right length for the height you need. Set it in a bucket filled with concrete. If using a 5 gallon (18.9 L) bucket, half full is enough. Screwing small pieces of thin scrap lumber cut to fit inside the bucket tightly at right angles to the vertical support will help hold it in place while the concrete is added and while it is curing. You may wish to drive some large nails into the lower part of the lumber before setting it in the concrete so that the wood cannot be pulled out once the concrete has set up.

5. Measure the projector and obtain a plastic tub that will cover it with room to spare. For a small projector, a plastic dishpan works well.

6. Cut a piece of plywood to fit inside the tub. Screw some scraps of lumber to the bottom of it to make a secure connection point for running in screws. Screw through the tub into the lumber with one screw on each of two opposite sides, the same distance from the edge so that the tub can be rotated up to reveal the plywood. You will want to place the screws toward one edge, not in the center.

7. Position the projector on the plywood and fasten it down by running plastic plumbers strap over the top and screwing it to the plywood. Leave it loose enough that the projector can be removed, but tight enough that it doesn't slide out too easily.

8. Cut a hole in the tub in front of the lens of the projector. You may also want to cut a hole to give line of sight to the spot on the projector that receives input from the infrared remote control.

9. Screw the plywood to the top of the vertical support that has been set in concrete in the bucket. The projector is now ready to be positioned outdoors and plugged in. You may want to add a wireless motion sensor "driveway alert" type device to protect against theft. Place it inside the tub. The receiving unit inside the house will sound an alarm if the projector is tampered with.

10. Create the video you want to use. There are several good tools for making videos. Photofilmstrip and OpenShot Video editor are two free ones. Create slides as .jpg images and piece them into a video with your favorite video editing software. Wikimedia Commons is a good source for photos, or you can use you own. You can add text to images using graphics tools, such as Gimp, Pinta, or Paint.net.

11. Load the video on a flash drive and plug it into the projector. Set the projector to repeat the video continuously. By adding text you can express your own ideas of how the holiday should be celebrated. You may want to include religious texts, such as short Bible verses or other texts that are meaningful to you. Text seems to show up better on imperfect surfaces if you use white text on a darker background.

Tips.

You may want to apply some paint or other form of covering to improve the appearance of the stand.

Warnings.

Using an indoor electrical device, such as the projector may be slightly risky. Using a GFI outlet should help it be safer. Don't set it up to run in wet weather.