12 Ways To Make Your House The Most Haunting Home On The Block

Halloween is just around the corner so it’s time to start preparing your house for all the little boys and ghouls who will be visiting. Don’t just hand out candy, embrace the spooky season and make your house the scariest – and the most exciting – on the block! The best way to entice and terrify your tick-or-treaters is with great outdoor decorations in your front yard and entryway.

Here are some DIY Halloween decorations and ideas that will help transform your home into a truly terrifying haunted house.

Freaky Front Yard

1. Spooky soundtrack. You can buy a Halloween themed CD at the store or even better, make your own. Record yourself breathing heavy like you’ve just escaped a monster and add some screams for dramatic effect. Another great idea is to record yourself lightly playing the piano. It will make the perfect eerie background music, and it doesn’t have to be great playing. Just the quiet plinking of they keys will put your guests on edge.
2. Fog machine. Fog creates a creepy supernatural atmosphere and another layer to your front yard display. You can rent a machine or buy one at your local party store for around $30 or $40. You can also go old school and use dry ice to make a layer of fog but it’s about the same price as a fog machine and could be dangerous to your tick-or-treaters. Dry ice burns and you don’t want someone accidentally stumbling onto it in their haste to escape your creepy crawly yard. The perfect place to hide your fog machine? Behind a gravestone.
3. Gravestones. A ghoulish graveyard in front of your house will give your Halloween guests chills down their spine. You can make grave stones out of Styrofoam or recycled cardboard. Decorate them with messages like RIP or fake funny names. Take inspiration from the masters of design at Disney. Outside of the Haunted Mansion there are tombs for U.R. Gone, Theo Later and Ray N. Carnation.
4. Terrifying Trees. If you have trees in your front yard, take the opportunity to make them haunting by dressing them up too. You can tie nooses and hang skeletons or even your kid’s life size dolls. When people see figures swaying in the breeze, they’ll be spooked. You can also go for a classic ghost to hang from your limbs. You can make these using any one of your kid’s round sport or play balls covered in a white sheet. Add a tortured and howling face in black sharpie to add more terror. Another great way to make ghosts is with cheese cloth and starch. Here’s a great example. You can hang the ghosts with clear craft string so they appear to be floating and haunting your graveyard.
5. Light the way. Create a pathway to your front door by setting a lighted walkway. You can do this with jack-o-lanterns or paper bag lanterns. For your walkway you’ll want pumpkins of all different sizes, and at least 4 lighted luminaries on each side – that means 8 carved pumpkins. That’s a lot of carving to do, so turn it into a party! You provide the pumpkins, supplies and maybe some tasty treats and have your friends help you carve up a few devilishly frightening decorations. You can do all pumpkins on your path, all bags, or a mix of the two. This is a great way to decorate your front yard because it encourages kids to approach your house, but it’s still spooky.
6. Glow in the dark! One of the easiest ways to make your yard come alive is with a bit of glow in the dark spray paint. You can spray it on pumpkins you didn’t have a chance to carve so they stand out, on your faux grave stones or spray on creepy faces to your front yard bushes; your possibilities are endless. Get a can and get creative!
7. Worried Warning. Your garage door is a huge canvas just waiting to get in on all of this horrible Halloween fun. Hang up a sheet and use your glow in the dark spray to leave a haunting message. Zombies are everyone’s favorite monster this year so try something like “Warning Zombie Outbreak” or “Beware of Undead”. You can also write your message in red paint to look like blood and illuminate it with a flashlight from a bush nearby. Scare Tip: Have dad dress like a zombie and hide in the yard to scare unsuspecting trick-or-treaters once they’ve gotten their candy.  Your message creates the suspense and a real zombie attack is the perfect finishing touch.

Eerie Entry Way

8. Bats in flight. Continue the decorations all the way to your front door by bringing some hair-raising creatures to your entry way. Cut out black card stock in the shape of bats and hang them around your porch to turn it into a bat cave. Make sure you have plenty and hang them at all different lengths, its ok if some of your taller guests have to crouch around them.

9. Fake Cobwebs are a classic. Go nuts.

10. Spider Sacs. A great compliment to all of your cobwebs is sinister spider sacs full of creepy crawly creatures waiting to emerge. They’re easy to make and sure to gross out your guests. All you need is a small foam egg, some pillow batting, fake spiders and glue (super glue or hot glue gun will work). Wrap the egg in the batting so it looks like a sack hanging from a long sturdy spindle, glue small spiders around the covered egg and hang it from the ceiling.

11. Witchy Wreath. Make your own Halloween wreath; you can be as creative as you want. If you went for a zombie theme, make it out of fake hands or limbs. If you want it to match your spider infestation, cover the wreath in webs and tons of insects. You can also paint a wicker wreath black and wrap around some rubber snakes to give it a sinister and slithery feel.

12. Creepy Candy bowl. Top off your Halloween experience for the kids by putting something gross at the bottom of your candy bowl. When they go digging for their favorite candy, they’ll be in for a surprise. Try a fake spider, phony finger or rubbery eye ball.