35 DIY Outdoor Halloween Decorations

Take your home's curb appeal from charming to alarming with our frightfully festive DIY Halloween outdoor decorating tricks (and treats!).

By: Maria Conti

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Wicked Ways to Deck Out Your Outdoors

‘Tis the season to haunt your house inside and out. Gear up for All Hallows’ Eve celebrations by giving your outdoor spaces a monstrous makeover using our creep-tastic DIY decor projects. From levitating cauldrons and haunted tree ghosts to floating witch's hats and temporary tombstones — we’re covering all the bases to make your yard the creepiest (and cutest!) on the block.

Continue, if you dare, to check out our 30 best DIY outdoor Halloween decorations guaranteed to bewitch friends and foes alike this season. Or, if you'd rather buy than DIY, check out our shoppable guide.

Get More Ideas: 73 Front Porch Decorating Ideas for Halloween

Paint Your Pumpkins

Treat passersby to some serious eye candy in honor of All Hallows' Eve with a pile of painted pumpkins on your porch. Bring home pumpkins in varying sizes for dimension and costume the lot with your choice of 3-5 Halloween-inspired paint motifs. Here, ghostly-white, glitter leaves and sinister stripe gourds join forces with metallic rose and orange pumpkins beneath bone-chilling bare trees to haunt this front stoop.

See More Photos: 40+ Painted Pumpkin Ideas

From: H. Camille Smith

Have a Hay Day

You know what they say — if you’ve got it, haunt it! Give your garden or porch bench a festive facelift just in time for trick-or-treating by surrounding it with three harvest-ready hay bales and pumpkins by the dozen. Disguise your existing outdoor cushions with our dreadful DIY skeleton pillow cover project, linked below, to complete the harrowing display.

Get the How-To: How to Make Bleach-Dyed Halloween X-Ray Pillow Covers

From: Brian Patrick Flynn

Show Off Your Hat Collection

Inform neighbors that the witch is in with a pointed hat display. Levitate your hats sans magic by threading some fishing wire through each hat's pointed tip. Secure overhead with outdoor tacks and dangle each hat at varying heights for the most bewitching results.

Get the How-To: Make a Kid's Witch Costume for Halloween

Or, Park Your Broomsticks

Come, we fly! Reach new heights with your Halloween decor this year by conjuring yourself a pair of our classic witch’s broomsticks. Follow our step-by-step guide, below, to make the iconic besoms with foraged twigs and craft supplies you already have at home. Once complete, park the pair in your porch planters to add height and a touch of magic to your outdoor display.

Get the How-To: How to Make a Witch's Broom or Besom

From: H. Camille Smith

Ensnare Trick-or-Treaters in Your Web

Serve up tricks and treats this Halloween with a hair-raising spiderweb door hanger complete with an arachnid goodie guard. To make, paint a hula hoop black and attach white string at seven points spread across the span of the hoop. Cut and tie strands of string perpendicular to the first seven to weave your web, then attach individually wrapped sweets to your web with clothespins.

From: Brian Patrick Flynn

Spy on Passersby

Transform your front door into a colorful 10-eyed monster to keep a watch over the neighborhood this scary season. All you need to give your door the googly-eye treatment is a pack of vibrant card stock, crepe paper, scissors and double-sided tape. Oh, and add a gruesome grin and Frankenstein-inspired hair to complete the dreadful display.

Get the How-To: DIY Halloween Outdoor Decor That Will Have "All Eyes on Boo"

Trick Out Your Lemonade Stand

Bring your long-forgotten lemonade stand back from the dead to pass out candy this year. Cloak your once-cheerful stand in sinister shadows by applying alternating inky-black and glittering purple paint to each crate. Drape an eerie banner from dowel rods to invite costumed kiddos to your porch for a little something sweet on All Hallows' Eve.

Get the How-To: Spooky Swap: Turn Your Lemonade Stand Into a Halloween Treat Station

Guard Goodies With a Packing Tape Mummy

Give trick-or-treaters the fright of their life with this petrifying packing tape porch mummy. To make, apply clear packing tape to a dress form or mannequin with the sticky side up, wrapping the tape around each part of the form. Apply packing tape again, but this time with the sticky side facing down to cover the first layer of tape. Once complete, cut the solid creation up the back to remove it from the form and use it to guard your candy bowl for years to come.

From: Brian Patrick Flynn

Or, Mummy Up Your Front Door

For an easy-to-assemble front porch makeover, take a cue from designer Natassja Conway. She wrapped the front door of her home in Powell, Ohio, with stretchy gauze fabric from her local craft store, then stuck on googly eyes using damage-free strips. “The 9-foot-tall cornstalks were a challenge to stuff into our car at the nursery,” she says, “but easy to lean in the corners!”

See More Photos: 73 Front Porch Decorating Ideas for Halloween

From: HGTV Magazine

Give Your Planters a Toothy Grin

Transform your simple galvanized bucket planters into something a bit more sinister for scary season. Paint a creepy-cute jack-o’-lantern face onto the galvanized surface with black paint. You can freehand this gruesome grin from memory or use one of our free printable pumpkin-carving templates, below, to help you along the way.

Get More Ideas: Beginner Halloween Pumpkin-Carving Ideas With Templates

Or, Preserve Them Forevermore

If creepy jack-o’-lantern planters aren’t quite creep-tastic enough, these mummified planters should do the trick. Turn back the clock on your pots (6,000 years or so, give or take) with double-sided tape, black tea bags, glittery gold craft foam and cheesecloth. Follow our step-by-step tutorial in the link below to make mummy planters of your own.

Get the How-To: Halloween in a Hurry: Easily Mummify a Fall Planter

From: H. Camille Smith

Conjure Creepy-Cute Poltergeists

In just a few steps, you can turn scrap wood planks into expressive and eerily adorable porch poltergeists. Style the playful planks in groups and pair them with pumpkins to frame your front door or anchor a garden bench for the season. Learn how to make your own by clicking the link below.

Get the How-To: (Almost!) Free Halloween Decor That’s Spookier Than Store-Bought

Or, Haunt Doors With Googly-Eyed Ghosts

These levitating ghosties are easy to craft using empty toilet paper rolls, white cheesecloth, googly eyes, glue and a bit of string. Use outdoor tacks to secure and dangle at varying heights to achieve playful results.

Give Arachnophobes a Fright

Now, how's this for a grim greeting? Ignite your guests' arachnophobia when they step onto your stoop. Make this spine-chilling spider door hanger with an old (or thrifted) picture frame, spray paint, spider webbing and the hairiest faux tarantula you can find.

Make No Bones About It

There’s always one trick-or-treater who runs off with more than their fair share of sweets from the candy bowl. Solution: A skeleton security guard to keep the kiddos in line. Prop a store-bought skeleton on your porch bench and dress him for the occasion. Bonus points for a skeleton guard dog, too.

Get More Ideas: Hanging Coffin Wreath

Craft Punny Grave Markers

Watch the quick video, below, to learn how to turn inexpensive foam sheets into not-too-terrifying mini tombstones on the cheap. Install the graveyard in your front yard and dangle a few faceless ghosts from tree branches overhead for good measure.

Get the How-To: Dollar Store Halloween Decor

Or, Skip the Scary With Candy Corn

You either love it or loathe it, but regardless of your stance, one thing remains true: candy corn is synonymous with the Halloween season. Usher iconic holiday appeal to your front door or porch railing with our DIY candy corn pennant garland. Make it cheap; use a dollar store pennant banner, craft paints and wood beads.

Get More Ideas: 35 Creep-Tastic DIY Halloween Wreaths

Make a Monster Treat Tent

Turn your trusty pop-up personal tent into the most talked-about Halloween decor on your street with this simple, no-sew project. All you need to get started is four yards of electric green faux fur, a pink feather boa, binder clips, duct tape, green and pink craft felt, a white bunting banner and two googly eyes. Get the step-by-step guide to constructing your monster in the link below.

Get the How-To: Monster Mash-Up: Turn a Pop-Up Tent Into a Trick-or-Treat Station

Poison Your Planter

Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore. Bring the eerie magic of Oz to your outdoor space with our wicked witch planter project. To make, cut a standard pool noodle in half and insert 5/8-inch dowel rods through the center hole of each. Dress the noodles in striped stockings and thrifted black boots, then secure each leg with floral foam inside your existing planter.

Get the How-To: 3 Ways to Put Outdoor Planters to Good Use This Halloween

Send Out the Spiders

Celebrate the season with this stylish scare tactic: a creepy-crawly spider infestation. Cut out these eight-legged creatures in various sizes from black card stock, then apply them with double-sided tape starting at the door's top left corner. Install the smallest spiders at the top, gradually increasing the arachnid's scale as you reach the lower right corner of the door.

Get More Ideas: Beginner Halloween Pumpkin-Carving Ideas With Templates

Or, Spin a Wicked Web

These creep-tastic spider webs will earn praise aplenty from neighbors this year. The best part? You only need three things to make these larger-than-life webs for your front yard: three equal-length sticks, white yarn and our step-by-step video tutorial in the link below.

Get the How-To: DIY Stick Spider Web

Bring Out the Bats

Go batty with your outdoor Halloween display – literally. Recreate this bat-tastic display by cutting out a mix of 2-3 size bats from black card stock and applying them to your outdoor walls, windows or doors with double-sided tape. Bonus points if you create this moonlit haunted house backdrop on your door too.

Get the How-To: Cover Your Front Door in a Spooky Swarm of Bats for Halloween

Go Grim With Tattered Gauze Drapes

Take your curb appeal down a notch (or 10) with our grim and ghoulish DIY gauze draperies. To get the look, soak cheesecloth in a bucket of black tea overnight and let dry before stapling 8-foot-long sections to a thin piece of wood to create a secure line of drapes. From there, tack the wood strips to your porch overhang, then use scissors to add gashes to complete the tattered look.

Get the How-To: Make Ghostly Outdoor Draperies for Halloween

From: Brian Patrick Flynn

Install Ominous Owls

Line your banister or garden fence with a set of our eerie, all-seeing owls. This ominous crew adds a touch of whimsy to your home’s otherwise haunted façade. The best part? The feathered flock is crafted from plywood and can be used to guard your porch for years to come.

Get the How-To: Outdoor Halloween Decoration: Banister Owls

From: Brian Patrick Flynn

Cast a Spell on Your Porch

Brew up some Halloween magic by recreating this beguiling front porch vignette. Nestle twiggy broomsticks near your entry, then use command strips to hang three sweeping cloaks and pointy witch hats from the front door.

Get the How-To: How to Make a Witch's Broom or Besom

Or, Serve Candy From Levitating Cauldrons

Give your neighbors a witchy welcome on All Hallows’ Eve by recreating our levitating cauldron candy bowls. The magical display may look expensive, but it’s not. Our secret? You can make it cheap using dollar store materials. Fasten 3-5 plastic cauldrons together with rope and suspend them from a hook secured to the porch overhang before filling to the brim with individually-wrapped treats.

From: Brian Patrick Flynn

Make a Monstrous Welcome

Welcome Halloween guests with a friendly, furry monster wreath. To craft it, you'll need one yard of black faux fur, small balls in assorted colors and 8-10 sets of plastic vampire teeth. Cover a foam wreath form with the faux fur, securing the ends with strong tape or T-pins. Attach the balls and vampire teeth to the fur with hot glue. Finally, use black and white paint pens to add a slit pupil to each of the eyes.

See More Photos: 35 Creep-Tastic DIY Halloween Wreaths

From: Brian Patrick Flynn

Or, Sub a Basket for a Wreath

For a twist on tradition, swap out a standard wreath for a slim basket or straw tote you can fill with a variety of spooky silk blooms, dried seed pods and grasses. For a free finishing touch, gather dead branches from your yard and tie it all together with black-and-white striped ribbon. Get our tips for creating a front door basket that'll take you from Halloween through Christmas, below.

See More Photos: Skip the Wreath: Try a Holiday-Spanning Front Door Basket Instead

From: H. Camille Smith

Show Your Spirit(s)

Offer friends and foes a ghastly All Hallows’ Eve greeting with a gang of our glowing tree ghosts. These statement-making spirits look store-bought but are suspiciously simple to make using white fabric, black felt, string, glue, paper lanterns and shepherd’s hooks. Follow our step-by-step tutorial to make a gaggle of ghosts of your own in the link, below.

Get the How-To: Outdoor Halloween Decoration: Hanging Ghosts

From: Kim Stoegbauer

Turn a Milk Carton Into a Super Spider

Think twice before tossing out your milk carton this week, friend! Turn that overlooked jug into a can’t-be-missed masterpiece with this DIY spider decoration. Follow the link, below, to learn how to create giant outdoor spiders for your porch or exterior walls without busting your budget.

Get the How-To: Two Ways to DIY a Giant Spider for Halloween

Or, Craft a Scary-Cute Playhouse

Bewitching your little girls’ hangout is a good idea when it’s this cute. “I put in a pink flood light plus string lights on the ceiling,” says Chesterfield, New Jersey, blogger Ceres Mercurio of The Pink Dream. Her daughters helped paint the mini pumpkins.

See More Photos: 80+ Easy Halloween Kids' Crafts

Mum's the Word

A tooth-baring monster, shrieking ghoul and inauspicious black cat — oh my! Follow our lead and give your fall mums a costume with our kid-friendly craft project this Halloween. Dress violet mums in our glittering feline pot, linked below, put your white posies in our ghost planter and for marigold, go bold with our winged monster design.

Get the How-To: Monstrous Mums: Craft a Lucky Black Cat

From: H. Camille Smith

Consider the Optics

Turn last summer’s beach balls into all-seeing eyeballs for your yard this Halloween. Paint the inflatable balls (don’t forget the bloodshot details!) and scatter the scary eyes throughout your yard and garden.

Get More Ideas: Halloween Eyeball Garland

Watch Your Step

Swap out your festive fall doormat for something frightening and foreboding. Make this creepy web design in one afternoon using an outdoor coir door mat, black spray paint, white craft paint, a plastic spider, outdoor adhesive, newspaper, scissors, a paint brush and our step-by-step tutorial linked below.

Get the How-To: Quick and Easy Spiderweb Doormat Craft

35 DIY Outdoor Halloween Decorations

Related To:

Shop This Look

Wicked Ways to Deck Out Your Outdoors

Paint Your Pumpkins

Have a Hay Day

Show Off Your Hat Collection

Or, Park Your Broomsticks

Ensnare Trick-or-Treaters in Your Web

Spy on Passersby

Trick Out Your Lemonade Stand

Guard Goodies With a Packing Tape Mummy

Or, Mummy Up Your Front Door

Give Your Planters a Toothy Grin

Or, Preserve Them Forevermore

Conjure Creepy-Cute Poltergeists

Or, Haunt Doors With Googly-Eyed Ghosts

Give Arachnophobes a Fright

Make No Bones About It

Craft Punny Grave Markers

Or, Skip the Scary With Candy Corn

Make a Monster Treat Tent

Poison Your Planter

Send Out the Spiders

Or, Spin a Wicked Web

Bring Out the Bats

Go Grim With Tattered Gauze Drapes

Install Ominous Owls

Cast a Spell on Your Porch

Or, Serve Candy From Levitating Cauldrons

Make a Monstrous Welcome

Or, Sub a Basket for a Wreath

Show Your Spirit(s)

Turn a Milk Carton Into a Super Spider

Or, Craft a Scary-Cute Playhouse

Mum's the Word

Consider the Optics

Watch Your Step

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