Haunted House Ideas That’ll Bring All the Spooks and Scares

Holidays like Halloween are a real measure of your love for the spirit of the dark and ominous - and good old-fashioned fun. While some people only see it as a reason to dress up and go out to party, many homeowners approach Halloween like a contest of who can put up the best scary house decorations on the block. But even if it’s not a bit of competition you’re after, there’s something so satisfying about scaring the pants off your guests with all the terrifying decor (or at least getting festive).

As you would imagine, with millions of people celebrating Halloween across the world, there is no shortage of horrifying Halloween decor ideas that can help you turn your home into a really scary house. Best of all, many of these you can even make these with household items or purchase from the store and spruce them up to make them even scarier. These easy DIY haunted house ideas should give your neighbors a nice little scare every time they pass by during the Halloween season.

A Proper Spooky Welcome

With a few neat tricks such as using a fog machine, you can completely manifest those spooky holiday vibes.

You’ve likely seen your fair share of Halloween entrance decorations that are really charming, but also tacky. While this type of simpler decor does have its place in your traditional Halloween setting, if you’re looking to create a more authentic haunted house, it won’t do. The entrance sets the tone for the rest of your haunted house decor. Regardless of how elaborately terrifying your haunted house may be, if the entrance is somewhat lackluster and skimps out on the spooks, your guests are not going to be particularly impressed.

Jack-o-lanterns are a mainstay on Halloween, so you should definitely have a few sitting on the steps and porch, but they shouldn’t be the main focus of your haunted house entrance decor. With some fake spider webbing strewn about, you can give your home that abandoned haunted house feel. A few spooky lanterns and candelabras should also do the trick. But what’s really going to bring everything together in your horror house decor is a bit of fog. You can purchase fog machines from online markets for around $50 and they should get the job done at creating the smokey effect you need to bring the haunted house vibes to your front lawn.

Scary Haunted Trail Ideas

If you really want to commit, it’s all in the details.

As your guests come closer to your front door, they should already be slightly spooked. While entrance decor can get the job done, you can give them a little scare even before they step up to your door. Turn your front lawn pathway into a little stroll through haunted woods or perhaps even a terrifying walk through a cemetery.

You can find fake tombstones and other spooky decor meant for pathways that will set the haunted house vibes on your front lawn. Additionally, get some of those aforementioned fake cobwebs and sprawl them across your bushes and trees along with a few fake pipe cleaner spiders that you can make yourself, resting on them, giving your visitors a jolt of arachnophobia. The exterior decor is a great way to set the mood for whatever awaits your guests on the inside.

Plastic Poltergeists 

Reuse old plastic for the perfect Halloween decorations.

Got some clear plastic bags lying around the house? You can turn those into spooky poltergeists that look good indoors and outdoors. Get your hands on a few tall tree stakes or any other thin construction material and wrap the plastic around them. Use clear tape to tighten the plastic around where the neck and the waist of the poltergeist are going to be. Also, remember to fill the inside of the poltergeists with as much leftover plastic as possible so that they don’t look entirely transparent. But be sure to recycle afterward!

If you have some string lights that are not already in use, you can also drape them at the base of the poltergeists to give them some extra spooky lighting. Now, obviously, these are not meant to look like actual paranormal entities, but it’s all about the illusion and making them look as scary as possible. 

Creaky Doors

Get that perfect creaky door sound for your haunted house to add an extra touch.

Nothing says “abandoned” or “haunted” like a creaky door. It seems as though Halloween is the only day throughout the year that you can appreciate the sound of metal on metal as you open the door and it gives off a light shriek. So chances are, your doors do not creak at all and are completely devoid of any noise. There is a bit of DIY you can do to make your doors give off that spooky creaking sound that’ll send shivers down your guests’ backs.

Find spare door hinges that correspond to the ones your doors use. Remove the hinges that are already in place, which you can do with a drill or screwdriver in a matter of minutes. Remove the bottom cap of the spare hinge and separate it into several parts. Then wipe off any grease from the hinges to make sure they are completely dry. This will allow the metal to rub against each other, causing that creaking sound that is a staple of any haunted house. Then replace the spare door hinge on your door temporarily to fully commit to the night!

Boneyard Backyard

Make use of your backyard by totally transforming it into a set of a horror film.

The backyard is a treasure trove of an amazing haunted house and haunted maze ideas. There are so many great opportunities to create a moody backyard that reflects all the decor that you have on your front lawn as well as indoors. Many homeowners tend to overlook the backyard thinking that guests won’t go back there, but what these homeowners don’t know is that they are missing the perfect opportunity to create a little boneyard in their backyard, which they can fill with countless gravestones and skeletons.

Purchase a few gravestone and skeleton decorations from the store and give them a bit of sprucing up. Sprucing up in this case mostly has to do with the color of these props. Many of them come in very pasty or dull colors or may not be authentic enough. Get a few cans of black and gray paint and start spraying them with it. But make sure not to cover them completely in the same color as this makes them look even more artificial. Also, get a few faux branches and vines and drape them over the gravestones to make them look even more aged. 

Floating Candles

There is a magical allure of floating candles.

With nothing more than toilet paper tubes, a glue gun, and a fake candle with batteries, you can create some really nifty flying candles that will bring the magic and awe of a haunted house into your own home (assuming it’s not already haunted). Simply paint the toilet paper tubes white, use a glue gun to adhere the fake candles to the tube itself, and let a couple of drops of the silicon drip over the sides, making it look like candle wax.

Using some threads, hang them from the ceiling throughout your home and try to keep them as high up as possible. This is to not only keep your guests from knocking their heads against the flying candles but also so that some of the younger visitors don’t pull them off. 

Somber Lighting

Lighting truly makes all the difference when setting the tone for your spooky night.

As with most things that have to do with design and decor, landscape lighting design plays a huge role in how effective your haunted house is going to be. A great way to bring all the decor and horror themes together is with somber lighting that illuminates the surroundings but still leaves the finer details in the shadows for your eyes to discover on their own.

This means you have a better chance of surprising your guests with a spooky bit of decor that isn’t in plain sight. The last thing you want to do is to have bright lights all over the interior spoiling all the fun. Use lanterns and candles to help you light up specific areas of the room without giving anything extra away. Additionally, not only are types of lighting practical when you want to guide the attention and vision of your guests but are also stylistically complementary to the haunted house aesthetic. 

So if you want to make your house extra spooky this year, it doesn’t have to break the bank. Just get a little creative with these DIY horror house ideas and you’ll surely be the talk of the neighborhood.