First choose your Halloween theme
Classic spooky
If you’re a real Halloween enthusiast, you might want to go all-out spooky with your doorway. Think bats, cobwebs, skulls, skeletons, broomsticks, eyeballs, anything that will give your house that classic Halloween thrill. This maximalist theme is big, bold, playful, and sure to put your house on the radar.
Elegant gothic
If skulls, ghosts and bats aren’t your thing, lean into an elegant gothic look. This more traditional theme is a subtle take on Halloween décor, quietly building that eerie, atmospheric feel. Go for deep purples, moody blacks and burgundy, and add the likes of black roses, antique lanterns and candelabras to your display.
Kid-friendly fun
Decorating your doorway for Halloween is a great opportunity to involve your kids. Carve pumpkins together, make cartoon ghosts, or add friendly monsters to your entrance for a display that evokes festive fun, rather than nightmares.
Rustic autumn-meets Halloween
You might opt to go back to the Celtic roots of Halloween with your doorway decorations. For a rustic autumnal display, go for a warm, muted colour scheme, natural materials like hay bales or raffia decorations and cosy lighting. Texture, shadow and whimsical elements like dried flowers or antique bottles can add subtle spooks.
13 Halloween door decorations to try this year
Whether you prefer spooky maximalism or subtle autumnal flourishes, here are some ideas for creating your own festive doorway display.
Hang a Halloween wreath
Although they’re often associated with Christmas, there is a wreath for all seasons. Give yours a spooky twist to welcome visitors to your door for Halloween. Buy a pre-made wreath base, or make your own by winding dark twine into a ring shape.
“Seek out dramatic orange and black florals for a truly spooky, classic Halloween wreath,” says Everest ambassador, Chartered Horticulturalist David Domoney. “Black roses have a luxurious, gothic look, while round, pumpkin-like Chinese lantern plants (Physalis alkekengi) will provide pops of vibrant orange. Depending on your theme, you can even add dried flowers, miniature pumpkins or squash to a Halloween wreath.”
For that real Halloween touch, add little bats, skulls or spiders to your wreath. Buy them from your local toy shop, or cut them out of coloured card.
Add a spooky door cover or decal
A few carefully selected decals on your door or windows can provide an understated thrill, while a door cover is easy to remove once the holiday is over. It’s also reusable, meaning that you can put it up for years to come.
Door covers usually hook over the sides of the door, or attach directly to it. You can make your own using a large sheet of paper, or a length of fabric. Cut out stencils such as pumpkins, skeletons, bats or cobwebs, and sew or stick them to your cover.
Black stencil decals can look great in your windows. Confine them to the corners, or have fun depicting a spooky scene with bats, cats, witches and cauldrons, for example. You can buy Halloween-themed decals online, but for budding artists, it’s also possible to have your own designs printed. Once Halloween is over, most good decals should come off with some warm, soapy water.
Line the porch with glowing pumpkins or lanterns
If you’ve got a porch, line it with candles or warm lamps to frame your entrance, create a welcoming feel and give a subtle nod to Halloween.
Carve pumpkins with your children, scooping out the insides and popping in a candle or LED tealight, or head to your local charity shops to seek out antique lanterns. With pumpkins, don’t forget to use the seeds and flesh. Roast them up, cook them into a pumpkin pie, or blend them into a tasty soup.
Hang string lights or flickering LED candles
It’s amazing what adding some decorative lighting to your doorway can do. If you prefer a classic spooky look, opt for novelty Halloween lights (think pumpkins, ghosts or bats). For something more refined, simple fairy lights will create a warm, cosy glow, illuminate your entrance and can be repurposed for other celebrations. Hang string lights around your doorframe or allow them to cascade down the sides of your porch.
Experiment with coloured lighting for an eerie look, or play around with shadow. Flickering LED candles, for example, can provide a subtle spooky feel. Pop them in clusters at either side of your door, or on the steps leading up to it.
Use black netting or cheesecloth for a ghostly effect
Black netting or cheesecloth can add a simple Gothic flourish to your entrance. Hang it curtain-style around your front door, securing it at the top and bunching at the sides, or drape it from your porch to create a scalloped effect.
For a creative activity with children, use cheesecloth to make your own ghosts. Place a tennis ball or balloon on top of a recycled kitchen roll to form the basic body of your ghost, dip a square of cheesecloth in PVA glue, and drape it over the structure. Allow the glue to dry overnight, and you’ll be left with a solid cheesecloth ghost, which can be hung from your entrance or propped at your doorway for many Halloweens to come. Use a black pen to add eyes and a mouth.
Drape garlands of leaves, skulls or eyeballs around the frame
“The oranges, reds and browns of the autumn leaves are synonymous with Halloween, so why not turn them into a simple, rustic garland for your front door?” says Domoney. “Head to your local park for a scavenger hunt for the prettiest leaves in rich autumn colours.”
For a full, textured garland, collect small bunches of leaves, tie them by the stems and attach them to a length of floristry wire. Alternatively, you can press individual leaves flat and fasten them one by one to your wire or twine for a more delicate look.
For something spookier, make a garland of skulls or eyeballs. Buy yours from a toy shop, or fashion your own eyeballs using ping pong balls and a set of felt-tip pens. A paper cut-out skull is simple, low-cost and easy to attach to a length of ribbon or coloured string.
Style with autumnal pumpkins and gourds
“Carved pumpkins are a Halloween classic, but people rarely explore the wealth of varieties available", says Domoney. “The Batwing pumpkin, which looks like it has been dipped in dark paint, is named after its distinctive markings, while Crown Prince pumpkins have an eerie blue-grey colour. Lil Pump-Ke-Mons are decorative miniature pumpkins with white rind and eye-catching orange stripes.
“Combine pumpkins with gourds, some of which are cultivated specifically for ornamental use. The Turk’s Turban squash, for example, is flecked with oranges, greens, yellows and whites, which has the slightly spooky appearance of a smaller squash bursting out of a larger one. The Hedgehog gourd, meanwhile, is egg-shaped and covered in soft spines, adding texture to your display.”
For a stylish look, cluster a mix of seasonal pumpkins, gourds and squashes on your doorsteps, or beside your front door. Don’t forget to roast up edible varieties afterwards.
Add broomsticks or witches’ hats by the door
Broomsticks are a great way to marry together rustic and spooky for Halloween. Look for traditional besom brooms, with materials like twigs or heather tied to a wooden handle. When Halloween is over, you can also use these around the house.
“You can make your own witch’s broomstick using foraged materials,” says Domoney. “Collect a selection of dry twigs or vines from your garden or local park, look for slim, woody ones like birch, and hunt for one long, strong branch, or perhaps an old broom handle, for the broomstick itself. Gather the twigs around the broom handle in a bunch, and secure with an elastic band or cable ties, winding some twine round the top to disguise this. Add pinecones or dried flowers as decorations.”
To really lean into the witchy theme, prop a witches’ hat against your doorstep too.
Try a colour-themed display
Whether you use plants, fabrics or coloured lighting, a colour-themed display can help to create a ghostly atmosphere. Take a leaf out of the Addams family’s book and go for a classy monochrome, or use enchanting purple and green to hint at the likes of monsters, witches and aliens, without actually adding them to your doorstep.
Use glow-in-the-dark accents for a nighttime effect
Halloween is all about the night, so add glow-in-the-dark details to make your display cut through the darkness. Put little stickers on your windows, or hang glow-in-the-dark props, be it a skeleton, ghost or pumpkin, in your doorway.
Add glow-in-the-dark touches to your other decorations. If you choose to make a cheesecloth ghost, for example, give it a lick of glow-in-the-dark paint. Likewise, if you craft your own door cover, consider adding some luminous paint or props to give it a pop in the night.
Craft DIY bats or ghosts from paper or fabric
Making your own bats or ghosts is a great, budget-friendly option and a wonderful way to involve your kids. Draw your own design on a piece of paper, or download a printable template to make your stencil, which you can trace and cut onto coloured felt or good-quality card.
Reproduce your bat or ghost design as many times as you like, and use coloured pens, fabric pens, or felt to add extra details, like beady eyes or gaping mouths. String these onto a piece of ribbon for a DIY garland, or use coloured pipe cleaners to hook them onto your porch, letterbox or doorway.
Play with shadow and light using stencils or projections
Shadow and light are two of the simplest but most effective ingredients for a spooky Halloween display. Draw or print your own Halloween design for a silhouette stencil, whether that’s a witch on a broomstick, a crescent moon, a pumpkin or a ghost, and cut it out onto a thick piece of dark card. Place the stencil in front of a light source like an LED lantern or fairy lights, which will project ghostly shadows onto your door or windows.
If you want to go all out directing your own Halloween light and shadow show, you can use a projector to cast images onto your walls, many of which come with pre-cut designs.
