With spooky season just around the corner, it’s time to dress up our homes in preparation for October 31st. From creepy colour schemes to petrifying props, check out these hair-raising DIY Halloween decorating ideas that will transform your home into a haunted house of horrors. Click or scroll through and prepare to be spookily inspired…
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Cut out spooky wording
For a fun and effective Halloween craft for the dinner table, use a cutting tool to make letters from thin wood or heavy card – go for classic spooky words or phrases. Then simply mount in a frame or glue to a homemade signpost. Use little chalkboards as place cards and decorate the table with an orange runner, napkins and a few mini pumpkins.
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Draw faces on balloons
Try this awesome autumn craft idea to give your home a seasonal update. Balloons in black, orange and white are just perfect for a Halloween theme. And if you can blow them up with helium, then all the better! Make them even more fun by drawing on spooky faces with black permanent marker. It’ll go down a treat with the kids!
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Add some extra colour
You don’t have to spend a lot to create a stylish scheme for Halloween and it doesn’t have to be tacky either; this one is especially brilliant for a grown-up look. Visit the supermarket and buy a bundle of pumpkins and gourds in various sizes and simply spray paint them in vibrant colours. You don’t even need to carve them for this to still be impressive.
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Host a horror movie night
Turn your living room into a seriously scary home cinema for Halloween. Layer up the sofa with dark velvet, cushions, hang vintage nets and cardboard cut-out bats at the window and dress the fireplace with ‘haunted house’-style props such as scary photo frames, skulls and black feathery crows. Then, turn out the electric lamps, light lots of candles and let the ‘fright night’ movie marathon begin.
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Decorate a haunted tree
The next time you head out for country walk bring home a fallen branch to decorate with Halloween decorations. Spray paint the piece black or purple and then use it as a ‘wildwood’ backdrop to hang decorative ghosts, tombstones and spooky sign ornaments made from salt-dough or bought from the shops.
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Make pumpkin jam jar lanterns
Turn jam jars into jack-o’-lanterns for a safe alternative to the real thing. They make a warming glow and are especially cute as nightlights for children if you are decorating their bedroom for Halloween. Choose small jars and paste pieces orange tissue to the outside with PVA or craft glue. Cut shapes from black tissue paper or card for their cheeky ‘jack-o’-lantern’ faces. Once dry pop in a battery operated flameless candle.
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Bring skeletons out of the closet
Whether you choose a terrifying skull head as a chilling centrepiece or add a lifesize dancing skeleton in your porch, these bony bodies make marvellous Halloween decorations as their deathly shape and form have a spine-chilling impact. For super scary scenes combine them with candles and cobwebs. Or, for a lighter and humorous twist make them pose in everyday situations or dress them up in hats and accessories.
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Buy bloody curling bed linen
Hide under the covers with seasonal Halloween bed linen that will make an endearingly apt addition to spooky sleepovers. This version is printed with cute little dogs dressed up in batwings, capes and witches hats so is more fun than fearful but we get the point.
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Dance around an enchanted cauldron
During Halloween decorating outside can be as important as in, so be sure to light this fantasy spherical firepit on the night of October 31st to set your garden apart from the neighbours. Fairies and pixies are carved out of the iron globe to create an enchanted forest scene as it burns, which then casts bewitching shadows bursting with atmosphere onto floors and walls around the garden.
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Set a devilish dinner table
Decorate the dining room with eerie and interesting illustrated dinnerware. Theses wicked plates feature a different Halloween-inspired skull image on each surface – deadly has never been so debonair! Pair with black and white tableware for a classic, monochrome look, or with white and gold for an elegant take on a Halloween table scene.
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Go for a ghostly white theme
Orange and black not your scene? Go for a ghostly Halloween decorating theme of white instead. For a hair-raising haunted house vibe look for vintage books, faded handwritten letters and eerie black and white photographs and then layer them in amongst white church candles and antique bottles. Finish with white roses and a dressing of faux cobwebs and spiders. Mottled pumpkins in rose gold and white will add a touch of glamour.
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Serve spine-tingling refreshments
Let your friends pick their poison by creating devilish drinks. Look out for interesting bottles and then fill them with bright coloured fruit juice. Or, turn glass drinks dispensers into cauldrons full of vibrant potion punch complete with floating props inside. Stick on labels that have nasty names like ‘bat blood’ and ‘vampire venom’ and use corks as stoppers. Finish with cobweb-covered glassware using candyfloss.
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Conjure up a moonlit mural
Removable wall mural wallpaper will turn your room into an atmospheric werewolf’s lair. Sure to add a fright all night, this eerie full-moon scene creates a super-sized backdrop that will have you looking over your shoulder. Come morning, it can easily be peeled off and stored until next year.
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Head to the supermarket
When you’re on your weekly food shop you can very easily pick up Halloween decorations that aren’t expensive at all. Nowadays, all the main supermarkets dedicate an aisle to the special event, with shelves stocked full of real and faux pumpkins, fancy dress costumes, ornaments and decorations for the home, as well as edible treats and drinks. With plenty of budget buys available, this is a great first place to look.
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Dress the table darkly
If you’re hosting a dinner party for just the grown-ups, create an elegant soirée with unconventional colours. Weave fake spiderwebs over the tablecloth and around moody blue and black shades of tableware and finish with fun witchy props; smoked ombré blue glassware is perfect for spellbinding cocktails and refreshments.
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Weave a web
Make a creepy-crawly scene above the mantel or on a shelf with a large homemade spider’s web. Paint the back of a large empty picture frame with chalkboard paint and then draw a web shape with white chalk. Finish the display with scuttling spiders made from black pipe cleaners and foam balls. Blogger and crafter jane can… has got the full tutorial.
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Craft ghastly ghosts
Make floating ghosts by draping napkins or white tissue paper over ping-pong balls tied with ribbon and hang up with string. Give life (no pun intended!) to the scene with a backdrop of Halloween-inspired words and a colony of black paper bats.
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Invite a wicked witch
Die-hard Halloween decorators rejoice as life-size props are becoming easier to come by. This motion-sensitive cackling witch with gruesome green eyes will scare the life out of Halloweeners before she zooms off on her broomstick until next year. Complete the picture with purple and orange festoon lights.
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Make a ghoulish gallery
Love an upcycling project? Take inspiration from old haunted houses by temporarily replacing family photos with terrifying updates. Look online for free printables or get clever with photoshop. Better yet, have some fun with the digital camera and create tongue-in-cheek versions of your own with face paints, costumes and ghostly lighting. To complete the look, frame your shots in eerie surrounds by painting some second-hand frames with black acrylic paint.
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Use nightmarish neon lights
Neon lamps in spooky shapes make an easy last-minute Halloween update and will instantly ignite your home with an eerie atmosphere. Pop battery-operated bats, pumpkins and witch hats in windows and amongst Halloween displays, then dim the lights to let the spooky neon creations take centre stage.
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Knock them dead at the door
Only the bravest trick-or-treaters will dare to bang on the door that has a super scary bell or knocker. Create a haunted house effect with a skull or monster face that lights up and makes a chilling chime when pressed.
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Use glow in the dark paint
Glow in the dark paint makes a simple but effective prop for a spooky scene. Dress your front path with a ghoulish fence by painting temporary timber posts; the key is to prime the wood white first so the fluorescent paint pops. Then draw on the ghost faces with a black marker and stake them into the ground at different levels. If you’re short on time, you could create a mini version with lollypop sticks instead.
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Make magic candles
Cast ghostly shadows with a row of eerie floating candles. Spray paint battery-operated candles in black and gold and tie them with fishing wire. Hang them from the ceiling in a row at different levels and watch them splutter and flicker just like at a Hogwarts feast.
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Make room for a macabre mat
Transform your entrance with a deathly doormat using a stencil and black spray paint. Instead of the usual spiders or ghosts, why not go for something a little different like a creepy crow or a spiky dead tree? Check out Lollyjane.com for the easy tutorial.
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Put out ghoulish games
Give everyday games a makeover with a spooky Halloween twist. Paint ghost faces on white skittles, carve a pumpkin out to make a mini-golf target or throw witches hats over wooden pegs for ring toss. Pop sweets in glass jars and goody bags to give away as prizes at the end.
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Use a petrifying projector
If walls can’t be tampered with, a projector makes a clever mess-free option. There’s no end to the things you could project – we love these fun multicoloured dancing skeletons. These creepy characters would look super-menacing cast onto front gardens in the darkness too.
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Dress up a doughnut wall
Halloween wouldn’t be complete without an array of delicious treats displayed in a mischievous manner. Kids will go batty for this bat-shaped doughnut wall that makes a striking spooky centrepiece. Make the buffet table a feature by styling it with purple pumpkins, a witch’s cauldron and plenty of balloons.
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String up ghoulish garlands
Dress a mantelpiece with plenty of Halloween colour by hanging an array of novelty garlands. If you’d rather have a go at making them yourself, make a card template that you can use to trace and cut out shapes in black and orange craft paper; we like pumpkin faces and spiders in alternating shades, but you can go for anything you fancy.
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Add tape everywhere
A 10-metre roll of ‘caution’ tape is super cheap and is all you need to make an eerie impact on Halloween. Simply stick it across a doorway for instant impact or make it part of a spooky display with a glitter skull, flower wreath and fantastic vintage-style signage.
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Give it a glow
Group candles together for a display that glows in the autumn darkness. You can pop these outside your front door, in a fireplace, on a table or in the corner of a room. Due to fire risks, it’s best to use faux candles rather than those with real flames – especially as there will be witches’ capes and costumes swooshing about.
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Bake some creepy cookies
Great for including the kids, why not get in the kitchen and start baking? Young children can assist you with mixing and rolling out biscuit dough. Decorate your baked cookies with royal icing piped into pumpkin shapes and hang them from spikey branches placed in a vase.
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Put vases on display
Investing in decorations that will only be used for a few weeks can seem a little extravagant. Take a look around your home for vases and ornaments in typical Halloween shades – think orange and black – that you can group together to make a spooky display. You could spray paint plain glass bottles, too. Buy a few mini gourds from the supermarket to add the finishing festive touch.
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Decorate your front door
You don’t need to go all-out to give the outside of your home a bit of a spooky touch. One large decoration on the front door, like this skeleton cover, will do just the job for adding that Halloween flavour.
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Adorn straws with paper spiders
Easy and quick to make, grab yourself some paper straws that you can adorn with handmade decorations. Using a black pen, draw a spider onto white card, trim and adhere to the straws with glue or tape. You could even draw ghosts, cats and other spooky characters.
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Set up a ‘trick or treat’ candy station
We love this idea for decorating a pumpkin. It’s not Halloween without copious amounts of sweets, chocolates and cakes. Bright bowls are perfect vessels for treats and why not customise your own baked cupcakes with pumpkin cake-toppers?
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Fake a graveyard
Create a spooky graveyard inside your house with these realistic decorations with light-up features. If you’d rather have a go at making one yourself, cut polystyrene to size and carve ghostly shapes into it. Simply spray paint grey and then drape faux spider’s webs over the top to finish.
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Bake a spooky house
Gingerbread houses aren’t just for Christmas! Bake a spooky old mansion for Halloween and decorate it with orange and black icing – pipe on the roof, windows and doors. Pop teeny pumpkins made from sugar paste outside the house’s door and add bats to the front. Make it extra special by filling it with sweeties before you secure the roof.
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Wrap fruit in bandages
It’s time to raid the medicine cabinet for this one! Grab yourself rolls of bandages, googly eyes and some fruit and veggies – go for unripe ones so the display lasts longer. Simply wrap the food pieces in gauze or bandage and then press on some playful eyes. Dot your new cheeky friends around your home and on the doorstep.
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Dish up fun foods
No Halloween party is complete without tasty treats and this idea will really impress your guests. Create a plate of ‘severed fingers’ by carefully trimming nail and knuckle lines into half a hot dog sausage. Smear the ends with tomato ketchup for the finishing bloody touch!
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Blow up an almighty display
Inflate as many balloons as you can to fill your party room. Use helium so that they drift to the ceiling and bob around above you. Go for a quirky mix of colours and patterns – we love these spotty and marbled designs. But the key is the more the better!
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Lay on a feast
Every Halloween party needs an extra spooky buffet table. Use a black table cloth and lots of lanterns, candles and pumpkin decorations to set the scene. And be sure to cater for your guests with plenty of homemade cakes, nibbles and treats with ghastly decorations.
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Be daring with wallpaper
Make a statement in your home by using stylish wallpaper to dramatic effect. To recreate this look, buy yourself a few black and white striped rolls and affix to the wall with Blu-Tack, continuing the design onto the floor. You’ll be able to easily remove it once the party is over.
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Make a tissue paper pompom
Grab yourself some tissue paper and get folding. Hanging pompoms like these are so easy to make and quick to do. Layer 10 squares of tissue paper and concertina fold into a strip. Press down firmly so that all the folds are crisp. Fold in half and tie in the middle with string to secure tightly. Fan out both ends and then start to separate the tissue paper layers, fluffing them up to form a pompom.
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Draw faces on oranges
The little ones will love this next project. Take some paint or pens and draw cheeky faces onto mandarins and oranges. Group these guys together for a fun, fruity display and add googly eyes for a 3D effect. The best bit? As long as you don’t pierce the skin, they can still be eaten once the festivities are over.
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Decorate the hallway
Create the perfect spooky welcome on Halloween. Thread fairy lights up the stair balustrades and fix giant paper pompoms to the banisters. An obligatory pumpkin and candles on the console table are a must too.
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Keep it cheerful
The bright colours and decorative detailing of these bright skeletons are more cheery than chilling so this look might be less frightening for little ones. Use pops of vibrant orange and pink to lift the whole scheme.
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Paint the wall orange
If you’re brave enough, paint one wall of your home in a vibrant pumpkin shade. You can always return it to the old colour at a later date – but be sure to get your landlord’s permission if you live in a rental. Once the paint has dried, dress the room around it by adding orange cushions and some pumpkin faces cut from large pieces of black card.
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Paint playful faces
If you’re short on time or want to cut out the mess, you don’t have to carve your pumpkins to achieve a fun spooky look. Instead, simply use a large black marker pen to draw on a cheeky or terrifying face. Position them around the house as playful festive decorations.
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Beware of flying bats
Hang up curtains of bats or better still, take on a DIY craft project and make your own. Take a sheet of black paper or card and neatly cut out bat shapes. Affix to black ribbon with glue or a stapler to make a DIY curtain, then either hang to decorate a wall or display across a doorway.
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Add a wicked word board
Spell out some Halloween fun by adding a wooden word board to the mantel and magically changing the message each day as the 31st October draws nearer. If you want a look that’s a little less scary, opt for dainty props in softer colours and a lantern or two.
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