Ideas to Creating a Spooky Entryway for Halloween

by Cheryl DeBartolo The House Designers’ Contributing Writer

Halloween is approaching in 4 weeks, whether you go for subtlety with a few pumpkins and scarecrows or you go all out with your decorations, here are some tips to inspire you:

​1. Paint Your Door

A paintable door is a subtle way to change your home’s exterior and to get your porch to say welcome to family and neighbours. You can easily change the colour of a door with a paintable surface. If you paint your door a solid colour it can serve as a canvas for other decorations including wreaths and wall clings. When deciding on what colour you would like to apply, think about how that colour will look in a few different settings: morning, daytime and evening.
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2. Have a good and warm lighting

Lighting is a key element to any good landscape but it is especially important during fall and winter when it's darker out. A well-lit path will guide trick-or-treaters to your doorway and minimize the risk of injury. Good lighting doesn’t have to be Halloween themed, in fact you can achieve great Halloween lighting simply by picking outdoor light fixtures you love already. Get creative and put those lights on some Halloween buckets, near the plants and on the pathways.

3. Use What You Have Around the House

Decorating for Halloween doesn’t have to be an expense. There are plenty of easy DIY decorations that you can craft. Find some ideas on Pinterest to inspire you. You can create ghosts to hang in the trees around your home, or create a scarecrow out of used clothing to sit on your front porch.

​Wanting to add on some extra lights, flame-less candles can be a safe way to make sure that you maintain the ambiance while keeping the fire lit.

4. Give Your Garden a Gruesome Graveyard

With foam gravestones and skeletons, it’s easy to build a fake cemetery right on your lawn. Skewer the tombstones into the ground so they don’t blow over, and cover bones with mounds of dirt or straw to make it look like they’re half-buried, rising from the dead. A fog machine and some creative outdoor lighting can conceal the illusion even better.
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You can make a scene like this look really gory, with splatters of fake blood and severed zombie limbs. If you’re into creating haunted houses for adults, this can be the perfect addition to your decorations.

​Or, if you’re decorating your front lawn for all the trick-or-treaters (and their parents) to see, you can go with a tamer, but still spooky, set-up, like we’ve done here.

If you would like to do a more extensive renovation on your porch, entryway and other parts of your home, we're here for you!
​Book with us before the holiday and have  some renovations done to welcome your family and loved ones.

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