Spooktacular Ideas for Your Home This Halloween

Halloween Ideas for Your Home

Halloween is now a huge deal in the UK. Whether you’re hosting a party, the kids are off trick or treating, or you’re welcoming trick-or-treaters to your home, you need to make your home look the part.

Give ‘em all pumpkin to talk about by using lighting, décor, and music to really put the heebie-jeebies into your visitors and lift their spirits.

No tricks only treats ahead…

1. Use outdoor lighting

You can buy a string of pumpkin lights, bat lights, skeleton lights…basically any scary figure goes. Line your path, so people can not only see to get to your front door but will fully get into the mood too. You will probably need one or two extension leads, but if you are planning on having anything far from the house, hire a generator to keep everything powered up for the night.

This means you can decorate your entire front garden, as you aren’t tethered to keeping plugs near the house. Why not make a Halloween graveyard, or light up the whole tree so the whole neighbourhood can spot where the place to be is?

• SPEEDY TOP TIP: If you have a generator, you can also buy animated characters and figures to sit in your garden which will run on power, too.

If you don’t want to buy novelty lighting, you can buy strings of lights where the colour can be changed using an app on your phone. Green, orange, and dark blue are all terrifyingly ambient.

2. Get your garden looking perfect

You want people to be terrified of the decorations you put out, not of the state of your overgrown garden. Use a lawnmower to trim the grass, which will give you some additional space if you’re entertaining.

While leaves may be lovely and autumnal, they can also be a slip hazard if you are encouraging trick-or-treaters to your door. A leaf blower will keep them all off your path, and it can be done daily in a matter of minutes to make it easier to keep on top of.

One thing you may want to leave is any hedges, as some height can add to the dramatic effect. But once Halloween is over, you need to trim any hedges and trees back before winter sets in. A long-reach hedge trimmer will be able to get everything cut down to an optimum height for full growth next season.

When working in the garden, always wear PPE such as gloves, work boots, and eye protection.

3. Add some height

As mentioned, height is perfect for Halloween. Spider figures are climbing your walls. Huge cobwebs come from the upstairs windows, ready to trap any prey which comes to your door. Garland lighting around your door looks inviting, but they don’t know what lurks inside. Skeletal ghouls hang from your guttering. There’s maybe even a witch on the roof.

Remember that for full effect, utilise your entire house, not just your garden and path. Hire a one-man tower to safely work at height, and always get someone on the ground to help you.

4. Eat, drink and be scary

Why not jazz your food up a bit to make it look gory, too? The BBC Good Food website has loads of ideas, from cookies and cakes to mocktails, pizzas, and even eyeball pasta or monster burgers.

As long as your guests have strong stomachs, they’ll enjoy the treats.

5. Dress up for the occasion

You can’t go through all of this trouble without looking the part, too.

Costumes can be bought ready-made, or you can get creative with whatever you already have in your wardrobe. A quick Google search will throw up hundreds of ideas, from traditional to pop culture references

Most importantly…Have a boo-tiful Halloween!

THINKING AHEAD TO CHRISTMAS?

We have a guide on how to get your home ready for the festive period, from ensuring it is somewhere you want to spend time to making room for guests.