Victorian Mad Laboratory

This year I came up with a new Halloween display for our dining room! A few months ago at an estate sale I found the centerpiece to this display - an old expandable pharmacy file and bwahhahhaha the Victorian Mad Laboratory display was born.

Once I had decided on the theme - I hit the 99 cent store and got a few ghouly body parts - a heart, a brain and a bunch of fingers! I also grabbed a few bags of spiders and other creepy crawlies. I was lucky enough to already own the Victorian condiment cruet set on the far left. It is a family heirloom from Mike's side of the family. He had this fashionable great grandmother who lived in Chicago during the Victorian heyday and boy oh boy did she have fabulous taste (we also have her late 1900s tufted chaise lounge and pretty threadbare oriental rug (that I can't bear to part with). I filled the bottles up with salt or water that I tinted with food coloring.

I found vintage pharmacy labels on GraphicsFairy.com and added descriptions to them in Photoshop.

Then I hit the thrift stores for vintage books with gothic designs, worn covers or bindings and potion bottles with stoppers.

I even found an 1899 reproduction of Merck's Manual - a list of pharmaceutical ingredients for physicians.

 Last but not least I found an old mid century beverage server that I thought looked like an old Victorian style Bunsen burner with flask! I filled it with water and green food coloring for that perfect witchy potion color and on Halloween we'll put dry ice in it to spook it up!