97 DIY Halloween Decorations for Your Haunted House in 2024
Decorating your home for the spooky season can be one of the most fun things about fall. While stores begin filling up with Halloween décor as early as mid-summer, new decorations can be expensive. DIY-ing your Halloween decorations can be a great way to get distinctive décor whilst being far more budget-friendly.
So if you’re wondering, “How can I make my house look cool for Halloween?” These Halloween decoration ideas may be easier to create than you think, From simple Halloween decorations to how to make your yard scary for Halloween, we’ve rounded up some great ideas for easy Halloween style that anyone can create. Including many with things you may already have in your home or can buy at discount outlets and craft stores. All will be perfect for making your Halloween décor unique for the season.
Jump to Section
- Outdoor DIY Halloween Decorations
- Indoor DIY Halloween Decorations
- Cheap DIY Halloween Decorations
- DIY Halloween Decorations for Kids
Outdoor DIY Halloween Decorations
1. Graveyard Stones
Every haunted house needs a creepy graveyard. Use stone pavers with written messages for a fun DIY Halloween decoration mixed with lots of fake spider webbing and other spooky details.
2. Caged Skeletons
For an easy DIY Halloween decoration made with elements from Dollar Tree, tie two plastic laundry baskets together end to end with zip ties to make a cage for your life-size skeletons and hang them from your front porch or a tree.
3. Chicken Wire Ghosts
To make ghostly forms for a horrific outdoor DIY Halloween decoration, just shape some chicken wire into a ghosty shape and drape it with some gauze or muslin. You can even add lights inside so they glow.
4. Spooky Bird Houses
Turn ordinary wooden birdhouses into spooky houses for your feathered friends by painting them black and other Halloween colors like orange, purple and green. Add some spooky branches, twigs or moss along the roof to complete the look
5. Haunted Scarecrow
Put a spooky spin on an ordinary scarecrow by adding more sinister details and accessories like an ax or scythe, blood-stained clothes and a top hat. Or remove his pumpkin head and have him carry it.
6. Vampire Gothic Wreath
Paint a wreath all in black. Then add some vampire teeth below and creepy ping pong ball red eyes at the top of the wreath for a fun and easy outdoor DIY Halloween decoration.
7. Halloween Light Show
Use lights to set the stage for your DIY Halloween decorations. You can buy spotlights and other moving lights that create spooky effects or add mini-projectors that project spooky scenes and details on the side of your house or garage.
8. Spooky Soundscape
Make a haunted mix of scary sounds and songs to greet trick-or-treaters and visitors to your home. Play it on a Bluetooth speaker on Halloween. Insert lots of creaks, moans and maniacal laughing between the songs. Sound is perfect for creating specific Halloween party themes as well, including horror-movie-inspired or old-school haunted mansions.
9. Window Shadow Puppets
Use ordinary black paper to create shadow puppets on your windows that will show up when lit from within. Create creepy figures or entire spooky scenes across several windows of the house.
10. Trash Bag Webs
A heartier alternative to messy webbing, cut up some large black garbage bags into shreds and drape them from your patio and in all the corners outside for instant budget-friendly spiderwebs.
11. Eyeball Wreath
Use ping pong balls to create eyeballs, complete with anatomical details and lots of bloodshot veins. Glue them together with hot glue around a wire or foam wreath form for a horrific wreath that watches you approach the door.
12. Haunted Forest
Use glow-in-the-dark paper to create large spooky eyes for your trees outside that will glow during the night. Or use small bike reflectors with a painted-on pupil to catch the light when cars drive by.
13. Witch’s Candy Cauldron
Make a large cauldron for dispensing candy look old by adding a rustic and distressed effect on the outside. You can even light the cauldron from beneath with a fake fire. Just glue sticks, logs and orange tissue paper shreds together, then add an LED bulb underneath.
14. Skeleton Hand Sconce
For an easy wall sconce, glue a skeleton hand at the base to a block of wood you can mount on the wall. Use the hand to hang a small jar lantern with an LED candle inside.
15. Tomato Cage Witch
Create a witch using a foam head form and a tomato cage. Drape the cage in black fabric, add detail to the witch's head and top it off with a hat for an easy DIY Halloween decoration for your yard.
16. Skull Topiary
Use a wooden dowel or broomstick to create a DIY Halloween decoration perfect for the porch. Cut holes into the top and bottom of several plastic skulls in ascending sizes and stack them along the rod. You can even drape the topiary in twinkle lights or light each from inside with LEDs.
17. Spooky Wooden Signs
Use salvaged wood and some paint to create wooden signs that you can add to a tree in your yard. Choose spooky phrases like “Warning” or “Get Out,” or include fun horror movie destinations like Camp Crystal Lake, Elm Street or Haddonfield.
18. Branch Wreath
Use a raffia wreath form to create a simple wreath with branches from your yard. Use hot glue to arrange the branches around the perimeter and top off with a black ribbon at the bottom for a simple DIY Halloween decoration.
19. Terracotta Pumpkin Planter
For a fun way to make your fall plantings part of your decor, plant flowers in a simple terracotta pot. Use black paint to add a jack o'lantern or ghost face on the outside of the planter. Fill it with fall mums and other fall-weather flowers.
20. Melted Taper Ghosts
To turn ordinary taper candles into Halloween decor. soften them up in a pan of warm water until they are flexible and shape them into squiggly ghost shapes. Use a sharpie to draw eyes and a mouth and place them in your taper candle holders.
21. Crime Scene Tape
Yellow crime scene tape is perfect for setting a spooky scene for visitors and trick-or-treaters. Combine it with blood stains and chalk drawings of bodies on the sidewalk or porch.
22. Zombie Barbies
If you have a lot of old unused Barbies or find a stash at the thrift store, turn them into fun DIY Halloween decorations by roughing up their appearance and clothes and turning them into an army of marching zombies for your yard.
23. Wood Pallet Hell Gate
Use a shipping palette to create a gate to the underworld in your yard. Lean it on some bricks on a slant and add some red fabric stapled to the underside. Light it with LED lights from underneath. You can also add black cutout figures inside or add zombie hands coming out of the gaps.
24. Leaf Pile with Bones
Pile a bunch of leaves in your yard and place a skeleton peeking out amongst them for a fun and easy DIY Halloween decoration. You could also use a zombie hand or a partial zombie on top of the pile.
25. Day of the Dead Skeleton
Use sticks from your yard with a broomstick or wooden dowel to create a beautiful skeleton figure in your yard in honor of the Day of the Dead. Use the top half of a skeleton as the top, then make a skirt with the gathered sticks. You can add black draped fabric or artificial flowers to decorate your figure, as well as a flower crown on top.
26. Leaf Bag Bodies
Turn your ordinary leaf collection bags into DIY Halloween decorations. Fill large black trash bags with leaves and shape them into a human form with duct tape. Leave them lying around or hang them from the trees for spooky outdoor DIY Halloween decor.
27. Bone Wreath
Save up and dry out poultry bones from your kitchen to add to a spooky wreath of bones. Use hot glue to glue them together and attach them to a wreath form around the perimeter.
Indoor DIY Halloween Decorations
28. Eyeball Flowers
Turn ordinary artificial flowers into spooky bouquets by adding plastic eyeballs to the center of each bloom with some hot glue. Use them in arrangements, centerpieces or on a wreath for some spooky botanical DIY Halloween decorations.
29. Creepy Painting
One of the best ways to instantly add some spooky to any room is to switch out your artwork for the season with newly created Halloween-inspired art. A great way to brush up on your art skills or learn new ones is to take an art class, where you can learn techniques like watercolor, acrylic painting and oil painting. Find art classes in Atlanta, art classes in Dallas or art classes in Portland. Or you can take online art classes wherever you may be located.
30. Ghost Prayer Candles
Turn ordinary white prayer candles or any white pillar candle into a ghost figure by adding black paper or paint to create eyes and a mouth. Use these candles in your windows or along a fireplace mantel for cute and easy DIY Halloween decorations.
31. Spooky Printed Book Pages
Turn any old book into art by collaging or printing spooky images for easy DIY art perfect for framing. Combine them with gold or black painted ornate frames for a spooky assemblage on the wall mixed with other Halloween art.
32. Leaf Ghosts or Bats
Turn ordinary leaves into bats or ghosts with a little paint. Paint them black or white and add facial features. Use them on a garland or add them to windows or doors as stylish indoor DIY Halloween decorations using natural materials.
33. Cauliflower Brain
Use an old jar, some food coloring and a segment of cauliflower from the fridge to create a realistic-looking brain in a jar to gross out your guests. Attach an LED light to the lid to make it glow eerily from within.
34. Fairy in a Jar
Use mini-skeletons and some decorative details to create small fairies for your upcycled jars. Add fake wings, flowers and other details to the skeletons with glue. Include sticks and other natural materials like moss and dried flowers in the jar.
35. Graveyard Terrarium
Create a small terrarium cemetery with miniature headstones created from painted rocks in a glass globe or fish bowl with other natural materials like moss and small succulents. Create a cute popsicle fence with a distressed finish to contain your graveyard.
36. Toilet Paper Ghosts
For a cute DIY Halloween decoration in your bathroom to greet guests, add paper ghost eyes and mouths to rolls of extra toilet paper. Then stack them on a shelf or the back of a toilet for a spooky bit of fun.
37. Poison Bottles
Create fun poison labels on your printer for an easy indoor DIY Halloween decoration using upcycled bottles. You can even dye the bottles your choice of color with some Mod Podge and food coloring coated on the inside for an antiqued look.
38. Halloween Charcuterie
For your next gathering, create a scary charcuterie board with a plastic skull or skeleton form as the base. Use the framework to add meat slices to create the look of human form without skin and then add cheese, crackers and other Halloween snacks around it.
39. DIY Broomsticks
Make easy DIY Halloween decoration broomsticks with a larger stick and a bunch of smaller ones. You can also use dried reeds or pieces of wheat. Just bunch them together with a rubber band and affix it on the stick with some hot glue.
40. Book Sculpture
Turn an old book into a cool pumpkin sculpture. Use an exacto knife to cut the pages into a rounded shape, so that when fanned out around the spine, they create a pumpkin. Leave it natural or add some orange or gold paint to the edges.
41. Macrame Ghost
For a fun boho-style DIY Halloween decoration, use some rope to make a cute hanging ghost for your wall. Glue several pieces in an arch shape and then add a yarn fringe below for a cute piece of decor you’ll want to leave up all year long.
42. DIY Crystal Ball
Use a styrofoam ball and some silver paint to create the base for a faux crystal ball. Affix some silver foiling to add texture and sheen to the ball, then stick it on a pillar colder handle painted in gold, silver or black.
43. Haunted Mirror
Use a large ornate frame to create a fake haunted mirror with a skeleton torso attached to the frame so that it looks like it is crawling out of the mirror. Drape it in white or black gauze for a ghostly look.
44. Spooky Dishes
Use a porcelain marker to write spooky messages and Halloween imagery on plain thrifted dishware. Pop them into the oven on a low setting for 10-20 minutes to set the ink. Put messages on plates, bowls and at the bottom of tea cups or mugs.
45. Faux Taxidermy
Use plastic insects and inexpensive frames to create faux taxidermy pieces. Paint the insects gold or silver and mount them with glue onto black paper or fabric in the frame. Or back the insects with old book papers.
46. Covered Lamps
For an easy reversible way to make your lamps look spooky during the fall season, use some sheer black or red fabric over the lampshade to cast a subdued and haunting glow to your regular lighting.
47. Doll Head Planters
Outfit the plants in your home with creepy doll heads or doll faces from the craft store, Drape and wind the plants around the head to make them look like they are growing out of the dolls. Or cut a recess in the top of a large doll head and slip a small planter inside.
48. Eye of the Beloved
Print out a classic painting and crop the image to include just the eye. Frame the piece in an ornate gold, black or brass frame, These paintings were often given as keepsakes to loved ones in the Victorian era. Use several to create a creepy antique gallery wall.
49. Spider Web Wall
Cover an entire wall in your home in spider webbing and add plastic or pipe cleaner spiders to it. You can also add some twinkle lights wound through to create a glowing wall of creepy crawlies.
50. Haunted Books
Turn any stack of hardcovers into spooky books using paint. Distress them to make them look much older. You can also add sculpey clay or plastic appliques on the front to make spooky details on the front.
51. Skull Centerpiece
Use a large plastic skull as a holder for your floral centerpiece. Cut out a hollow on the top of the skull and fill the space inside with floral foam. Add real or faux blooms into the foam to create your arrangement.
52. Skeleton Chandelier
Turn any old chandelier frame into a gothic chandelier by replacing the bulbs with plastic skulls. Add a small LED light to the interior of each skull that operates via a remote to turn the chandelier on and off.
53. Creepy Hand Soap
For another spooky DIY Halloween decoration for your bathroom, add some plastic wriggly things like bugs, frogs or eyeballs to your hand soap on your vanity to surprise guests.
54. Draped Bust or Statue
If you like to decorate with bust statues, use them as part of your DIY Halloween decorations by draping some gauze or black meshed fabric over the faces. Place them on your mantle or as bookends for your spookiest books.
55. Wall of Faces
Create a horrifying wall of faces by hanging spooky masks from the wall to create an installation. You can even add LED lights to the backside of the masks to make the eyes glow eerily.
56. Zombie Wall
For another great idea for a segment of the wall, cover the wall in vines using small sticky hooks and attach some disembodied zombie arms or skeletal hands among the greenery. They will look like they are coming out of the wall.
57. Bubbling Cauldron
Use a smoke machine and string of twinkle lights to fill a glowing cauldron that doubles as accent lighting. You can also add other fun details like webbing, plastic spiders and other spooky things.
58. Creepy Cloche
Fill a cloche jar with some fall details like bones, dried flowers, small bats and other decorative items to create a seasonal cloche perfect to use on a mantle or as a centerpiece on your fall table.
59. Butterfly Skull
Turn any plastic or foam skull into a pretty DIY Halloween decoration by adding a few faux butterflies and flowers to the skull with hot glue for a feminine and romantic gothic touch.
60. Skeleton Trellis
Use a skeleton torso attached to a wooden dowel in any climbing plant as a fun framework that adds a bit of spooky energy to your regular house plants.
Cheap DIY Halloween Decorations
61. Yarn Ghost Garland
Cut yarn into strips and twist around a large wooden bead, covering it completely and allowing the ends to hang down as the body. Wrap an additional piece of yarn around the head of the ghost and string it along a garland for a cute and whimsical DIY Halloween decoration.
62. Giant Balloon Spider
Create oversized black spiders on a budget using black balloons and crepe paper. Add tape to attach a larger balloon to a smaller one on the wall for the body and drape the crepe paper outward to form legs. Or use black garbage bags cut into strips to create outdoor-friendly spiders.
63. Pool Noodle Candles
Large real candles can be expensive, so make your own using a bunch of pool noodles cut down to form an arrangement perfect for placing on a charger platter or on your mantel. Paint them black or red and create drips down the sides with hot glue. Top them with LED votives.
64. Wine Bottle Heads
Turn last evening’s soiree wine bottles into cute Halloween characters. Paint them as witches, vampires, mummies and Frankensteins, adding hair around the top and fabric around the bottom. Use them alone or to hold taper candles as part of a seasonal centerpiece.
65. Cabinet Card Votives
Reproduce some vintage cabinet cards on printer paper and use Mod Podge to decoupage them onto simple votive holders to create spooky candles that glow from within.
66. Balloon Spider Webs
Blow up a balloon and wrap some twine around it that has been soaked in a solution of sugar and water. It will firm up as it dries, leaving behind the shell. Pop the balloon and attach plastic spiders to these cool web balloons.
67. Black Figurines
You can turn any ceramic figurine from the thrift store into spooky decor by painting it matte black, including animals, dolls and other knick knacks. You can even turn a traditional Christmas village into a Halloween village with the addition of black paint.
68. Mummy Mason Jars
For a great easy and cheap DIY Halloween decoration, wrap upcycled jars in white gauze to create adorable mummy heads that are perfect for holding real or flameless candles inside. Add some stick-on googly eyes to finish.
69. Sheeted Furniture
To give your house a haunted look before your next Halloween party, drape your furniture in white sheets. Combined with candlelight and cobwebs, the vibe will give off an abandoned mansion aesthetic. For an extra horrific version, add red paint to the sheets to create bloody smears and handprints.
70. Spooky Jar Lanterns
Any old jar can become a spooky lantern to illuminate your home. Cover the outside in spider webbing, fake blood, spiders or other Halloween details and put a candle inside for a great easy upcycled lantern,
71. Decorated Paper Lanterns
Inexpensive paper lanterns you can buy at the party store can be instantly turned into Halloween lighting for your next party with details like facies to create jack-o-lanterns, Frankensteins or ghosts.
72. Glove Candle
Use some soy or paraffin wax to create a handmade candle from a silicone glove. Add wax wicks threaded through a small hole in the fingers, then fill the cavity of the glove with wax. Allow it to set and remove the glove This also works to create fun hand-shaped ice molds for a punch bowl.
73. Milk Gallon Ghost
Turn an empty milk jug into a cute upcycled luminary. Just cut off the top portion of the jug around the opening to make it large enough to stick a tealight or LED candle in, then draw a ghost face on the front. Use them to light your driveway or path on Halloween night.
74. Graffiti Sheets
Hang some old sheets in your yard and around your home with scary messages of warning and ominous threats in paint. Like “Beware” and “I’m Coming to Get You” that will delight your trick-or-treaters.
75. Chalk Outline
Create chalk outlines on the sidewalk and porch to scare tricks-or-treaters in chalk or use glow-in-the-dark chalk to draw them. You can also use masking tape to create markings on a rug or carpet inside.
76. Garden Ghosts
Create charming ghostly lawn picks for your garden using wooden dowels and foam balls. Wrap cotton or organza around the sphere and tie them off with a ribbon, allowing the ends to drape down.
77. Wax Drip Candles
If you love the look of spooky candles, but don't want to burn them, create fake wax drippings using a drizzle of hot glue. Or use some red paint over the glue to add blood drips on a white candle.
78. Head in a Jar
Place a latex face mask in a large jar and fill it with food coloring and water to make a horrific head in a jar. You can even add an LED light at the top of the jar to light it up.
79. Painted Pumpkins
Instead of carving up your pumpkins this year, paint them instead. Not only can you get more creative with your design in paint, but it makes less of a mess and the pumpkins stay intact longer than carved ones.
80. Creepy Dolls
Any thrifted doll is a great opportunity to turn it from cute to spooky. Dirty up the clothes, create marks and veins and use paint to change the dolls’ appearance. Set a grouping of spooky dolls on your porch or inside your door as a great DIY Halloween decoration.
81. Thrifted Painting
For another great thrift hack, use any painting or print from a thrift store to create a custom haunted piece of art. Add spooky details to it with paint like ghosts, bats or bloody handprints for a fun Halloween painting idea.
82. Eyeball Rocks
Pick some rocks from your garden and paint them white with an iris and cornea. Use them as part of your craft projects or just add them to your garden or walkway for people to stumble upon.
DIY Halloween Decorations for Kids
83. Paper Bats
Paper bat cutouts are an easy project for kids and useful everywhere. Use black construction paper to add bats to your windows, doors and around mirrors or other artwork. Or add some string and suspend them from the ceiling.
84. Milk Carton Haunted Houses
Use half-gallon or pint cartons to make cute Halloween haunted houses. Paint the exterior black, adding windows, doors and other spooky details to the house. You can also cut squares in the windows and have monsters looking out from inside in silhouette.
85. Paper Plate Ghost
For a cute DIY Halloween decoration and kid’s activity, take a paper plate and glue a few segments of crepe paper or toilet paper dangling down. Add drawn ghost eyes and features to the plate and hang from the ceiling.
86. Construction Paper Black Cats
Roll a sheet of black construction paper into a tube and add details like ears, whiskers and eyes to create cute black cats for a fun kid crafting project for Halloween.
87. Pipe Cleaner Spiders
Use pipe cleaners to make adorably spooky spiders you can use all over your home as little additions to your decor. They are great for placing in floral arrangements or on wreaths and are a fun craft idea for little ones.
88. Skeleton Hand Print
For a fun kid-friendly DIY Halloween decoration project, have kids trace their hand on a sheet of paper, then add glued-down cotton swabs to recreate their fingers and hand bones.
89. Popsicle Stick Monsters
Glue several popsicle sticks together to create a canvas for making your favorite Halloween characters like witches, ghosts, vampires and Frankenstein. Paint the face color and then use paper or paint to draw the facial features for a cute and easy DIY Halloween decoration for kids.
90. Spooky Lampshades
Create fun lantern shades for a strand of string lights with painted paper cups designed to look like Halloween monsters, including all-white ghosts, green witches and orange jack-o-lanterns.
91. Framed Silhouette
For a fun DIY Halloween decoration for kids, use a projector to create a silhouette of your child on paper and then allow them to modify their features into monstrous forms. Frame the silhouette in an ornate black or gold frame for instantly spooky decor and a fun keepsake from the season’s past.
92. Pumpkin Luminaries
Use ordinary white or brown lunch bags to create cute luminaries for the outdoors. Have kids draw on or cut faces into the bags and then add some LED tea lights before you line them along your driveway or walkways. Make creating luminaries an annual Halloween activity.
93. Glow-in-the-Dark Chalk
Set kids loose to draw or write spooky messages with glow-in-the-dark chalk on Halloween night on sidewalks and driveways to welcome trick-or-treaters or party guests to your home.
94. Haunted Dollhouse
Turn an old thrift store dollhouse into a haunted version by adding paint and other creative horrific details to the interior, including paper cutouts of ghosts, goblins and other fun details.
95. Googly Eye Jars
Cover any jar or glass container with googly eyes in various sizes to create a fun and spooky lantern. Place a candle or tealight inside to illuminate the eyes with an eerie glow.
96. Spider Web Sun Catcher
Cut a spiderweb out of black paper or cardstock and back it with parchment, wax paper or vellum. Use a marker or colored pencils to color in each segment for a colorful suncatcher and craft project for kids.
97. Pumpkin Prints
To create perfect pumpkins on the page, dip a sliced apple into orange paint and use it as a stamp to make a print. Add stems and spooky details to the pumpkins for a creative activity for kids and a fun piece of Halloween art.
These Halloween DIY ideas create the perfect vibe for the spooky season, whether you are having a party or just looking for a great way to wow trick-or-treaters come Halloween night.
For even more fun Halloween ideas, check out other experiences happening on Classpop!
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