It’s autumn – the cruel summer heat has passed, and in its wake is the vibrant red, yellow, and orange palette of the colder months. Yet behind the aroma of pumpkin spice and the buckets of candy is something darker, more sinister. The dead have risen again, and all the ghosts and ghouls are walking around outside. It’s the most wonderful time of the year: Halloween! 

Halloween is one of the best decorating holidays of the year because of the amount of imagery and material you can work with. If you’re hosting a party, the Halloween house decor game can get pretty intense, bordering on competition. That’s why we’re here – to show you how to appeal to the classics and still come up with something fresh.

Feeling spooky? Let’s get into it!

If you have some people over, it all begins with curb appeal – set the mood right the moment your guests see your house. And it doesn’t mean you have to splurge on expensive decorations too! Take a look at this simple but effective display of ghosts playing in the yard:

All they used were a couple of sheets and some nylon wires to create the imagery. With the addition of red string lights, however, the design truly comes alive at night, when the seemingly wholesome frolicking turns into a sinister ritual.

Part two of upping your curb appeal: setting up signs on your front lawn. Certainly your guests won’t need directions if they’re already there, but it’s not your house the signs should be pointing to! This one from Houser House Creations appeals to several beloved Halloween flicks with its directions.

To make something similar, you can even make it look more rugged and rundown with old, rotting wood and jagged handwriting to really commit to the bit. Assembly will only take a few minutes with a hammer and a couple of nails!

Halloween porch decor is a big opportunity to really set expectations for your guests or anyone passing by. There’s a lot of Halloween imagery that you can refer to, like the witch hats and floating candles from Modern Glam below. These can easily be lined up and hung on the eaves or roof overhangs with eye screws and clear nylon cords.

After setting up the mood with the outside decorations, it’s time to welcome the guests inside while maintaining the same hint of spookiness – and what better way to instill fear than suggesting a witch lives inside the house?

If you don’t have a coat hanger behind the door, you can easily install a couple of coat hooks for the occasion. Attach a wide-brimmed pointy hat to one of the hooks while hanging a black cloak or tattered fabric over the other. To really sell the imagery, you can add a witch’s broom beside the cloak – the witch is home, so you better be on your best behavior!

As your guests make their way deeper inside the house, it’s time to break out the more interesting decorations that can quickly start conversations. Take a look at this tasteful Halloween gallery wall by Allie White – this one is definitely for horror film buffs! Like the signs on your lawn, a gallery wall can appeal to widely recognizable spooky pop culture icons. When else will you have the opportunity to have Winona Ryder from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Michael Keaton from Beetlejuice up on your wall?

Several types of picture-hanging hardware can anchor a gallery wall. Drywall hooks, cleats, and picture rails come to mind, although it all comes down to frame weight and wall type.

When it comes to making your living room like a graveyard or an eerie abandoned building, the walls and ceilings are the most accessible areas to really encourage the atmosphere. Placing cobwebs all over them is a classic way to do that. They’re a quick fix for rooms you don’t want to alter too much, like the kitchen or the bathroom.

Stretch the cobwebs across corners, doorways, along the edges of furniture, and across other wall hangings. Use push pins to secure the cobwebs in place, or if you really want to stretch it out across the room, use tape to secure the ends.

Another way to add Halloween wall hangings is by using garlands of bats, spiders, and other creepy critters. You can purchase them pre-made or make them yourself and use nylon cords, adhesive hangers, or tape to string them across corners.

This setup from Grandin Road is one of – if not the most – hauntingly beautiful Halloween decor we’ve seen yet. Not only will wall-mounted hands add an unexpected and bizarre element to your decor, but they’re also the extra pair of hands (pun intended!) you’re looking for if you need somewhere to hang your lanterns. 

These are also a great way to frighten your guests a little bit! Scare the bejeezus out of someone by placing them strategically in dimly lit areas and making it look like they’re reaching out from behind cobwebs and spiders.

These decor are usually sconces with mounting brackets with the appropriate screws and anchors. To simplify things, look for ones with integrated keyhole hangers that only require screws during installation.

Folks, we have a winner for the most freakish Halloween wall art! This moss wall by Proud House Project takes the wall-mounted hands set up from before and puts a new spin on it. Once you mount this, it will genuinely feel as if the undead are just outside your house, desperately reaching into your walls in search of the flesh of the living.

That, or they’re just nice enough to stick their hands in there and hold your lanterns for you.

This moss wall is achievable with strong and sturdy aluminum cleats. Just make sure to weigh the whole thing first and get the proper size and weight capacity to match.

Lastly, the final act, the pièce de résistance: a giant shadow creature towering over the entire room. There are many variations to this – we’ve seen other people do giant spiders, while Kalea Haaga’s inspiration below was the Mind Flayer from Stranger Things. 

While this may look daunting (quite literally!), it’s one of the easier indoor Halloween decorations to prepare. The material can be made from different craft materials – sheer and lightweight fabric like chiffon or organza, simple colored paper, or even unused trash bags! You can easily pin them on the wall or ceiling with tacks or push pins, but if you find it a bit heavy, you can always install eye screws to hang the joints and folds on. 

There you have it! A whole house of creative modern Halloween decorations that are bound to entertain – and even scare – anyone who comes in for a visit. We hope you picked up one or two things from this article to put you in the wicked spirit. 

If you need help installing some of the decorations, check out our shop for any hardware you might need.

Happy haunting!