Nevermind pumpkin spice everything. Halloween is back! What’s more enjoyable than being terrorized by the constant ringing of your doorbell as tiny ghouls and ghosts scream “Trick or Treat!” while demanding candy from you so they’ll go away?
All joking aside, it’s a hoot, and with so many different types of decor readily available, from the Dollar Store to Michael’s to Amazon, there’s no excuse you can make up for not decorating your home for the spooky season — both easily and economically.
In fact, if you haven’t already started, it’s almost too late to achieve the spookiest effect since this is your last weekend to plan for Tuesday’s hauntings. So let’s get right to it, you don’t have any time to waste!
Decorate the front door
If you aren’t a hardcore Halloween decorator, dressing up your front entry is the minimum requirement. With every decoration imaginable available from the drugstore to the hardware store, there’s no excuse not to at least hang a Halloween-themed wreath to welcome all those candy-grabbers. Change the exterior light bulb to green or red, and you’re done. Better yet, get a black light bulb and use glow-in-the-dark decor items. You get extra points for effort if you set a speaker up behind a carved pumpkin and broadcast blood-curdling sound effects.
Terrify with tombstones
If you have a bit more ambition, try adding larger props to your yard and porch. Sure, realistic tombstones can be purchased at the store, but what’s the fun in that? Create your own easily with Styrofoam insulation. Cut it in the shape you want, paint it to look like stone with black and grey outdoor paint and add a fun saying to it. For example, set up a bicycle or scooter with a skeleton sitting on it, write “Let ‘er RIP” on your tombstone, and you’ve got an instant photo op!
Pick your colour scheme
Inside the house, decorating requires a bit more finesse so it doesn’t look cluttered instead of moody. Limiting your decor’s colour palette to just a few shades creates a cohesive look. Try the classic black and orange colour scheme, using orange for pops of brightness. Or try a black-white-and-grey theme. All black looks especially striking against white walls. Mixing in touches of old brass or tarnished silver amps up the vampire glam if that’s what you’re after. Matte black and pops of gold is a very chic gothic option (see cover). This look is even more brooding if you have a black accent wall to set it against.
Picking your focal point gives the room focus.Adorn a fireplace mantle with black crepe, spider webs, antique candlesticks and lanterns. Create a spooky vignette on your kitchen island with a jack-o-lantern and an assortment of creepy-looking gourds. Drape cobwebs and spiders from your chandelier.
Add spooky spiders
Spiders are fascinating and terrifying at the same time. All those legs and eyes! Make your own small spiders using Styrofoam balls spray-painted black with black pipe cleaners for legs. If you want really big ones for drama, black garbage bags and black Halloween garland wrapped around heavy-gauge wire are perfect. If you have a really big budget, you can buy a giant spider and a web big enough to cover the entire front of your house!
Go batty!
A bat template, scissors and black card stock are all you need to give your front door or interior walls a scary transformation. By tacking the bats to the door in the center of their body, leaving their wings free, you’ll have a colony of fluttering bats every time you open the door or when a gust of wind catches them. Vary the sizes for extra interest. They look especially great on white walls. Add a few tree silhouettes and a half moon if you feel especially creative.
Create scary window silhouettes
This one is especially eerie if you live in a two storey home. You can suspend the silhouette of a hanging man in an upstairs window and set a strobe light behind it to create a lightning effect. But you don’t have to go quite that gruesome for great results.
Using black poster-sized stock, cut out a silhouette of a skeleton, flying witches or a huge cobweb and spiders, and tack those to the inside of your windows. Hang a white bed sheet behind them and then turn on the room’s lights. Don’t forget your garage door. That also lends itself perfectly to a haunting scene in silhouette. There are also fantastic light shows that you can purchase that create a moving swarm of ghosts or bats over your entire house. Eek!
Haunt with ghastly ghosts
It’s scary-easy to create a yard full of ghosts. Bend chicken wire into the desired shape and height, cover with inexpensive gauze and let the wind move it in eerie tendrils. If you have a tall tree in your yard, you can suspend the ghost from an overhead branch and light it up with a spotlight. Place an LED lantern directly below each of the shorter ghosts. Say boo!
For the easily spooked
Do you prefer a less terrifying Halloween? It’s super-easy to make your home look well dressed for the season without resorting to jumpscares.
Again, pick a colour scheme and run with it. Set out orange or red mums in black pots and surround them with pumpkins and gourds. Instead of wrestling with sharp instruments, especially if you want to involve children, paint the pumpkins with fun designs. Anything goes! Add metal lanterns with LED candles, and you have a welcoming yet festive front porch.
Decorating for Halloween is a great activity for the whole family. Not only do all the trick or treaters appreciate the extra effort you put in to scare them, it’s also a fantastic opportunity to meet people in the neighbourhood who you may never have met otherwise, creating a strong sense of community.
Stay scary and stay safe!