Skeleton Key Ideas

Games

• Skeleton keys can provide hours of family entertainment. They can be thrown into a pool for the children to retrieve. On a rainy evening, they may be used as part of an indoor scavenger hunt, they may be flipped into plastic cups as a game of skill, or may be the subject of a guessing game if hidden inside a box. They can even be the inspiration for stories: after all, who knows what they opened, who used them and why? Perhaps your skeleton key fit the door to a creepy dungeon; maybe it opened a magical portal to 16th-century Spain; or maybe it unlocked the tower where a beautiful princess was being held captive.

Antique Display

• Skeleton keys are antique objects that can have a second life as quirky knickknacks around the home. They can be used as a pull handle at the end of a window shade or ceiling-fan cord, or they can be displayed with other antique objects such as old locks. They can be scattered through the drawers or across the top of an antique desk. If the keys were used by your ancestors, they can become part of a larger genealogical display, such as family daguerreotypes or other personal items, such as writing pens or glasses.They can be draped on cords or wires and hung across the top of a window as a kind of funky valance or used as drapery tiebacks.

Art

• Skeleton keys are often grouped together and displayed as wall art, either separately or within a frame. They can be used in combination with other found household objects, such as homemade sculpture or folk art. They can be displayed within framed photos of compelling antique doors or gates, or cemented together and used as the frame itself. They can be glued onto campy movie posters with a "key" or "door" theme, or used as part of a mobile.

Adornment

• Skeleton keys can be hung on the end of a satin ribbon and worn around the neck, singly or in groups, as a pendant or necklace. They may be glued onto shoes as a quirky buckle. A pair of them can be used as earrings, or they can be glued or sewn onto belts and, with a little crafting skill, may even be converted into brooches, hairpins or rings.