DIY Haunted House Decorations
Creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky, these Halloween decorations are definitely Addams-family approved. It’s really easy to transform your home into a ghoulishly good party setting or a thrilling stop for little trick-or-treaters. Put googly eyes to good use on seasonal veg like gourds, pumpkins and butternut squash, or set the mood with some spine-tinglingly scary blood-dripping candles. Ready for some hocus pocus?
Googly-eyed gourds
Plump pumpkins aren’t the only Halloween veg you should know about. Use them for this decoration, or, if you can’t find any or just fancy a mixture of shapes, colours and sizes in your display, we recommend gourds and butternut squash. These best-during autumn vegetables are the perfect addition to a carved pumpkin on your doorstep. You can even use them to skip the pumpkin carving altogether – stick a pair of googly eyes on the outside of your chosen veg.
Materials needed:
- A whole pumpkin, butternut squash or gourd
- Glue
- Googly eyes
- White paint (optional)
How to:
- First cut out three cups from an egg
- Choose your preferred veg and make sure the surface is clean.
- If you like, paint your veg white to make it look like a ghost. Make sure the paint is completely dry before you stick your eyes on.
- Using the glue, stick the googly eyes next to each other in the centre of your vegetable.
Halloween bunting
You can’t go wrong with bunting. Whether you’re setting up for a scare-your-guests party or decorating for visitors on October 31st, it’ll bring a spooky stamp to any room. You just need to print out your design and use some string to hang it up wherever you like. The best bit about this bunting? It’s a blank canvas, so with a few colouring pencils you (or your kids) can draw your own vampires, witches, ghosts and ghouls…
Materials you need:
- Plain paper (to print your bunting)
- Scissors
- Colouring pencils or pens
- Holepunch
- String
How to:
- Print your bunting onto plain white paper and use your scissors to cut out each triangle shape.
- Using your colours, decorate your bunting however you prefer.
- Take your holepunch and make two holes at the top of each bit of paper, an equal distance from each other.
- Slip the string through both holes to create your bunting. Add as many pieces of paper as you like.
Lollipop Ghosts
These scarily easy-to-make sweets are perfect for trick-or-treaters and party favours. In fact, they’re so cute that your ghastly guests might not want to eat them. If you’re making them for a party, why not pick up some spongy foam blocks and stick your creepy creations in them to make an edible decoration?
Materials needed:
- Tissues
- Round lollipops
- A thick black pen
- Tiny elastic bands
- Thin orange and black ribbon (or any other spooky colours)
How to:
- Lay out one full-size tissue and cut another into quarters. Put one of the smaller pieces of tissue into the center of the full-sized one.
- Put the lollipop in the middle of the tissues and bunch the material up over it. Then stretch an elastic band over it to hold it all in place.
- Use a thick black pen to make the eyes. Press gently so the ink doesn’t bleed. If your eyes end up being different sizes, adjust them as you need to.
- Wrap a couple of different colours of thin ribbon – we recommend orange and black – around the neck of the ghosts, and tie them like a shoelace. Trim the ends to your preferred length once they’re tied.
Blood-Dripping Candles
This decoration needs a little care (and plenty of adult supervision), but makes a terrifyingly pretty addition to your Halloween decorations. Just make sure when you light them, put them on a flat surface that you don’t mind waxing dripping on to.
Materials needed:
- Candles in red, burgundy, or black (make sure they’re not ‘no-drip’)
- Long candles in different colours, like red or gold
- Empty wine bottles, cleaned & labels removed
- Red food coloring
- Water
How to:
- Fill the bottles with water and add a drop or two of red food colouring to create a nice light when lit by the candles.
- Light one of the cheap candles and hold it over the edge of the mouth of a bottle so wax drips down the side of it. Make sure to let it drip on every side for the best effect.
- Place one of your longer candles in the mouth of the wine bottle and light it. Allow the wax to drip to finish off the look.
Boxy Bats
Another fun way to recycle materials you may have acquired from your recent Ocado order is to turn leftover egg cartons into these boxy bats. Hang them from the ceiling to get your family’s Halloween bash off to a flying start.
Materials needed:
- Empty egg carton
- Black paint
- Paint brush
- Ribbon
- Googly eyes
- Glue
How to:
- First cut out three cups from an egg carton. Then cut the bottoms of the two outside cups to resemble bat wings.
- Paint the egg carton with black paint.
- After the paint is completely dry, glue two googly eyes onto the middle cup. Then attach ribbon to the top of the middle cup and hang.
Spider Web Wreath
Wreaths are not just a Christmas decoration now that this webby wonder exists. Give your eight-legged friends a place to hang by hanging one of these on your wall or door. All it takes a bit of skill with the scissors to get that arachnid aesthetic you’re after.
Materials you (arac) need:
- Black paper
- Scissors
- Glue
How to:
- To make this clever wreath, fold 2 sheets of black paper accordion-style (about 1.5″ inch folds), and then fold each in half lengthwise.
- Cut the top of the fold diagonally, so you’ll have a pointed end when it’s unfolded.
- Then, cut three rectangles out of the paper, about half an inch apart, on each segment.
Pinecone Spiders
Spooky supplies can even be found in nature. Bring a little bit of the wild woods indoors with these chilling conifer configurations. Just make sure you brush off any real spiders before you bring your materials home! And when it comes to applying the eyes, there are no rules. Most spiders have eight, some have six and other ground-dwelling spiders have no eyes. In this case, ‘spooky’ is in the eye of the beholder.
Materials needed:
- Round pine cones
- Wiggly eyes
- Scissors
- Glue
- Cotton butcher’s twine
- Brown pipe cleaners
How to:
- Wrap 4 full-length pipe cleaners around the pine cone to make a total of 8 legs. Shape the pipe cleaners into spider legs, adjusting the length with scissors, if necessary.
- Next, attach the wiggly eyes with hot glue to the bottom of the pine cone.
Ghostly Lanterns
These DIY Halloween decorations are cheap and cheerful. Draw spooky faces on empty, clean plastic milk pints, then fill with white holiday lights to decorate your porch or walkway with a ghostly Halloween glow.
Materials needed:
- Empty plastic milk pints
- Permanent markers
- Scissors
- Fairy lights
- Batteries
How to:
- Rinse out an empty milk jug thoroughly.
- Cut open the top of the jug slightly.
- Draw or stencil on Halloween-inspired faces using the permanent markers.
- Add the battery-operated fairy lights into the jugs to give your lantern a nighttime glow.
Spooky Silhouettes
The Halloween conundrum:
You want to host a party that’s more chilling than cute, but you also don’t want to scare pint-size party guests half to death.
The solution:
Throw some shade. Spooky silhouettes cut from black craft paper add character to Halloween parties. Stick them on mirrors or above the Halloween spreads to add a little contrast to your haunted home scenery.
Frankenstein Windstock
Materials needed:
- Large tin can, clean with label removed
- White paint
- Black paint
- White ribbon
- Glue
- String
- Paperclip
How to:
- Paint the cans white. Once dried, make a small hole in the centre of the can bottom.
- Paint a spooky face ( we chose Frankenstein) with black paint (feel free to add other features such as googly eyes !
- Cut the ribbon in varying length (cut them at an angle to keep them from unraveling).
- Then glue the ribbon all around the can. Top tip: Start at the back so, if you have to overlap, your last piece is not as noticeable
- Cut a 12 inch piece of string and tie it in a loop. Thread on the paperclip as a stopper.
- Pull the loop through the top of the can and hang your spooky Frankenstein.
JAR-ingly Spooky Faces
One easy way to add a little spook-factor to your window sill is by turning a common jam jar into a jarring feature. These frighteningly fun faces can also work as a month-round substitution for the classic Jack-o-Lantern. The best part is: it’s safe for all ages to get in on the crafting fun, as long as they are being supervised!
Materials needed:
- Tissue paper
- Black craft paper
- Paint brush
- Glue
How to:
- Start by cutting your tissue paper into strips about 1-2 inches wide. Brush a thin layer of glue on the glass jar and stick a strip of tissue to it. Work one strip at a time until you cover the entire jar. We recommend covering the bottom and rim of the glass jar too to ensure no plain glass peaks through.
- As your jars are drying, work on your faces. Cut out faces from black paper and use a glue stick to glue them onto the jars, though we recommend waiting until the jars are dry before gluing on the faces.
Don’t have the time to make your decorations from scratch? No problem. Shop Halloween at ocado.com.