Holiday & Seasonal

Create a Spook-tacular Haunted House!

Boo! Halloween Is Here!
How To Create a Spook-tacular Haunted House!

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It's trick-or-treat time again so why not get in the spirit of this spooky season with your very own haunted house. With a little decoration, imagination and do-it-yourself know-how, you can be the talk of the neighborhood. If you've got kids, most of the suggestions below are super-easy projects you can take on together.

Creepy Cemetery

Your haunted house can begin by transforming your yard into a makeshift graveyard. Build your own tombstones by shaping plywood with a jigsaw. Even if you don't consider yourself skilled with a saw, don't worry. Varying sizes and shapes only adds to the spookiness. Sand down the wood pieces and then paint them with dark paint. Using white or grey paint or chalk, add names to the "headstones."

Use the leftover scraps of wood to shape stakes with the jigsaw. Then nail the stakes to the graves and stick them into the ground. It's okay to let the graves lean a little—it makes for an older-looking cemetery.

Bloodcurdling "Bodies"

Add "inhabitants" to your cemetery. Using a few pieces of wood, hammer together a rudimentary stick figure. You can build your "body" so that it is standing up, keeping watch on the graves, or sitting, and later prop it against a tombstone. Cover the figure with clothes and stuff with hay, dried leaves or foam batting. Staple a scary mask to it and maybe even splash on some fake blood. Now you have the undead living in your yard.

Jane Tip: An easy recipe for fake blood is to take corn syrup and mix it with red food dye. Add a touch of flour for texture and watch it ooze.

If a whole body seems like too much work, cut a sleeve off an old flannel shirt and attach an old glove to it. Stuff the "arm" with leaves or old rags and attach it to one of your graves, as though it's reaching up from the ground. You can buy all sorts of fake limbs at a costume store and scatter them over your lawn.

Other props for your bone yard can include plywood coffins. There are many patterns online from which to draw inspiration. (
Click here for directions on building your own coffin.) Or you can make a less-sturdy version with cardboard. Visit your local home improvement store and ask a salesperson if you can have an unused refrigerator box. Cut a pattern out using an exact-o knife and hot glue the coffin together. Paint the coffin with black spray paint. Cover the coffin in fake cobwebs and put one of your "creepy creatures" inside of it.

Jane Tip: Add a bowl filled with water and dry ice into your coffin. An eerie fog will soon emerge from the lid.

Ghosts and Goblins

Since many trick-or-treaters will be ringing your bell on October 31st, your porch is a good place to add some frightening detail. Invest in fake cob webs, plastic spiders, and other critters to adorn your porch. Make hanging ghosts by using a soccer ball sized Styrofoam ball, an old white sheets or gauze, and fishing line. To build your own ghoulish ghosts, first, bore a hole through the Styrofoam ball using a drill. Tie a fishing line to a hanger (to use as its "shoulders"), and pass the line through the bottom of the ball with a needle. Place a white sheet over the ball and feed the needle and fishing line through it, tying it in a knot and leaving some extra line, so that you can hang the ghost. Cut the bottom of the sheet in a jagged pattern so that it looks tattered. Hang your ghosts from your porch or trees and let them sway in the wind.

Jane Tip: Styrofoam painted black coupled with black pipe cleaner also makes for great homemade spiders!

Mini ghosts can be created by using lollipops and muslin (or tissue). Simply cover the candy with the muslin and secure it with fishing line. To hang your ghosts pass fishing line through the "head" of your ghost using a needle and tie the two ends with a loop. Fray the bottom of the muslin and hang your mini ghosts inside or outside. Feel free to draw scary faces on your ghosts to give them petrifying personalities.

Perfect Pumpkins

It just wouldn't be Halloween without pumpkin carving. Instead of giving your pumpkins those run-of-the-mill triangle jack-o'-lantern faces, get creative. Pick up a variety of pumpkins and gourds to make your haunted house a reality. A pattern book with outlines of different scenes can be purchased quite inexpensively at the grocery store and will make you look like a pro. (You can also download patterns for free online). Make copies of the patterns so that you can use them year after year. A pumpkin carving kit will make the detail work much easier, though you can also use utensils lying around the house. Ice cream scoopers are great for removing pumpkin innards, cookie cutters make great patterns and an ice pick can double as a poker.

Jane Tip: Bring out the kid within and throw a pumpkin-carving party for you and your friends. Have your guests vote for the best/scariest/most original pumpkin and offer a prize for the winner! (A pink tool belt perhaps?)

Painting faces on your pumpkins is a good time-saving option, though you won't get those glowing faces once dusk descends. Remedy this by using outdoor lighting in different colors to highlight your creepy decor. Candles and decorative hanging lights are also good for setting the mood, but don't go overboard. Limited lighting keeps things spooky.

Light It Up!

Here are a few great and inexpensive ways to light up your Halloween decor:

Strobe Lights - Strobes always have an eerie affect especially when combined with a creepy soundtrack.
Black Lights - For just a few dollars you can purchase a black fluorescent light kit that will accentuate any light colored objects giving them a haunting glow. If you don't want to worry about installing or purchasing a whole new light fixture, consider temporarily changing out your existing white fluorescent bulbs with black ones.
Colored lights - You can add "color gels" to any white light to give your existing lights a whole new look. These are specifically made to handle high heat without melting. You can usually find them at camera supply shops.

Safety Check! Be mindful of where you place open flame outdoor lighting pieces such as candles or torches. Be sure they are not in the path of your guests or in an area where they might be prone to blow over from a gust of wind. Look to see what's above the open flame as well and be sure that there is enough "breathing" space for the heat of the flame to escape safely.

Daunting Details

If you are throwing a Halloween party, make costumes mandatory. Add ambiance with scary music, such as a CD of horror movie themes and consider spooky sound effects in a few rooms of your home. There are a number of
outdoor speakers available so you can bring those sound effects to your front yard as well. For refreshments, pumpkins carved in half, gutted and lined with plastic can serve as "chilling" mini-coolers, or fill them with dry ice instead to create a haunting fog and cook up some scary recipes to serve to your ghoulish guests.

By spooking up your front yard and the inside of your home, you can make a truly memorable Halloween for you and your guests. You'll be surprised by how wonderfully responsive your friends and family will be. After all, you're getting into the holiday spirit! (Get it, spirit?) But, hey, Halloween isn't just for kids anymore, so have fun.