How to Make a Kraken Outdoor Planter for Halloween

Looking for unique Halloween front porch decor? See how we turned a summer strawberry flowerpot and pool noodles into a sea monster container garden.

By: Jessyca Williams

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Halloween decor contains traditional storybook monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula and Werewolf. This year, celebrate another famous mythological monster — The Kraken. Originating in Norse folklore, The Kraken is a ginormous sea monster (like the size of a ship ginormous) that is a cross between a squid and an octopus with massive sucker-filled tentacles laced with barbed hooks. Check out how we made a smaller, less menacing Kraken using upcycled pool noodles and small suction cups for the arms and eyeball, then added them to a strawberry pot to create this sea monster porch planter.

Kraken Outdoor Halloween Planter

Photo by: Jessyca Williams

Jessyca Williams

Tools and Materials

(2) pool noodles
utility knife
9-gauge wire
black matte tape
silver metallic acrylic paint + paintbrush
ruler
20 mm suction cups
black matte spray paint

glue gun with glue sticks
purple and silver paint pens
strawberry pot
dark-leaf plants (live or faux)
yellow duct tape
black permanent marker
bamboo skewer

1. Prep Pool Noodles

Slice pool noodles in half, lengthwise. Then cut the noodles into smaller sections, creating 8 pieces in various lengths from 2 feet to 12 inches. Shape one end of each noodle piece into a pointed tip.

Jessyca Williams

Photo By: Jessyca Williams

2. Wire the Tentacles

To make the pool noodles more flexible and easier to shape, add a piece of wire to each one. Cut a piece of wire for each noodle slightly longer than the noodle. Wrap a small piece of tape over the flat edge of the noodle and secure the wire within the groove. Overlap the groove with another piece of tape to reinforce the connection. Cut off any excess tape at the pointed end.

Jessyca Williams

Photo By: Jessyca Williams

3. Paint the Noodles

To enhance the tentacles' aesthetics and give them a shimmering effect, dilute the silver paint with water and apply it over the black tape and the purple section of the pool noodles.

4. Cut Holes in Tentacles

Cut two parallel slits 1 inch apart, along the length of each tentacle using a ruler as a guide. Then return to each slit and create a perpendicular slit at each point, resulting in an X shape

Jessyca Williams

Photo By: Jessyca Williams

5. Paint and Insert the Suckers

Place the suction cups face down and spray paint the backs, allowing them to dry thoroughly. Insert each suction cup into the X-shaped slits made on the tentacles and secure them with hot glue.

Jessyca Williams

Photo By: Jessyca Williams

6. Decorate the Suckers

Using a light brush, apply silver paint over the suction cups. Once the paint has dried, draw a purple circle near the inner edge of each cup. Outline the outer edge with silver paint using a paint pen.

Jessyca Williams

Photo By: Jessyca Williams

7. Create an Eye

Cut a piece of pool noodle about 8 inches long. Fold it in half and tape the ends tightly together with black tape to create an oval. Cut a piece of yellow duct tape slightly larger than the oval's opening. Carefully secure that piece of tape to the inside of the oval pool noodle. Draw a circle on the tape to create the eye. Blacken the inside of the noodle to darken it and paint the outside with a sheen of silver. Insert a bamboo skewer into the base so you can stand it up inside the planter.

Jessyca Williams

Photo By: Jessyca Williams

8. Plant the Kraken

Manipulate and bend the tentacles to shape. The curved tape has an interesting appearance, resembling muscles. Fill the strawberry pot with potting mix and add plants. To match the pool noodles, we're using purple plants. Place small ajugas in some of the pot's holes and insert the tentacles into the remaining holes. Allow some of the tentacles to flow from the pot's interior and extend outward.

Jessyca Williams