28 brilliant Halloween decoration ideas that will spook your neighbours

These spooky dwellings went all-out!

Seasonal décor is a fun way to mark a celebration or season, but don't forget the outside of your house! When it comes to Halloween, there are countless ways to go big and also go home, quite literally.

From a homage to Stranger Things to a supersize pumpkin patch, houses turned into monsters and a Beetlejuice bungalow, these Halloween homes are more than ready for the witching hour.

Read on to start your scary tour...

A festive front door

Starting out with a simple Halloween look, this home opted to repaint the front door in a festive colour: a classic pumpkin orange. They added a spider's web to amp up the fear factor just a touch!

Offset by some complementary flowers and jack-o’ lanterns this is sure to attract plenty of trick-or-treaters.

Light it up

All you need is…lights? This spectacular display has been accomplished predominantly by swathes of orange fairy lights draped over hedges and hung from the top of the porch.

With the addition of a few spiders, this display has a highly festive air that can be seen from all the way down the street.

Ghost manor

Of course, when you’re blessed with an historic house and a fabulous front porch like this one, you don’t need to go too crazy to create a spectacular spooky display on All Hallows' Eve.

We love the little hand-painted ‘Ghost Manor’ sign and the array of pumpkins in front of this New Orleans house. We counted at least 38..

Lazy bones

It's a busy season for skeletons, you know. This bone-chilling family are taking a well-earned rest on some deckchairs on the lawn of their backyard.

There appear to be parents and two children in the line-up, but the highlight of this little tableau is the skeleton of the family's pet hound. Just don't say he's like a dog with a bone!

A pumpkin rainbow

This rainbow pumpkin décor is a classy and colourful way to celebrate the season. This house is blessed with a large stairway leading up to a porch, but the gourds make the journey more fun we're sure.

We'd love to recreate this look, although we may have to check out a few pumpkin patches to get the full set. The aesthetic is definitely worth it!

A Stranger Things display

It's not always all about pumpkins at Halloween. TV shows and movies are great décor inspo.

Illinois couple Dave and Aubrey Appel, who specialise in designing horror props, spent more than 1,500 hours creating their Stranger Things  2022 display. The Max Mayfield from the Netflix show hovering above the graveyard in an attempt to escape the grasp of deadly villain Vecna went viral.

Home sweet hell

Sticking with the successful Stranger Things theme, their 2023 display was just as mind-blowing.

This time the duo decided to create a demonic gateway into Vecna’s lair along with lights, music and fog. They added some scary clowns too. Feeling inspired or terrified?

The slime pit

Artist Vile Kyle loves to get creative while also scaring the neighbours, no doubt. He transformed this home in Atlanta, Georgia for Halloween by adding slime, a festive staple, to each of the porches.

Oozing down from the balcony above, we dare you to walk under the dripping gunk to reach the front door to get your candy loot.

Monster mansion

Vile Kyle worked his magic again in 2021, this time taking his own home in Atlanta and turning it into a human-eating monster with some comic book-style green teeth that morph the porch into a hungry mouth.

To complete the beast's face, he also added some oversized eyeballs. Yikes!

That old black magic

Elsewhere in town, that old black magic has us under its spell with this creepy corner, filled with terrifying clowns, a garland of bloodied daggers and an angel of death casting its icy fingers up and down the spines of unsuspecting passers-by.

Neon Halloween

The front of this house in Sierra Madre, California, takes All Hallows' Eve to another level.

Rather than a simple lighting scheme or some carved pumpkin lanterns, this home has an entire garden decorated with a giant neon Day of the Dead zombie and quirky Mexican-inspired décor.

Ultimate pumpkin patch

How many pumpkins is too many pumpkins? Clearly for this homeowner, no amount could ever be enough! To welcome in the ghostly season, this lawn in Vermont was covered in countless pumpkins.

It's certainly an impactful display. Hopefully the owners made a giant pumpkin pie after the festivities were over.

Welcome to Zombieland

With a skeletal cowboy catching up with his characterful zombie businessmen friends, this San Francisco home erred on the side of comedy when it came to decorating their front garden.

We can't help but smile at this humorous tongue-in-cheek tableau, complete with deckchairs and a spare seat should you wish to shoot the breeze with these boney fellas.

'til death do us part

This garden in Boston, Massachusetts was transformed into the surprise setting for a ghostly wedding celebration, featuring a skeletal bride and groom, and a hair-raising priest.

It's a very literal take on ''til death do us part'. We're not sure we want to be on the front row for this one...

Pumpkin harvest

Orange doesn't have to be your main colour scheme this season. An arty take on the usual pumpkin decorations, the owners of this New York City townhouse adorned their front steps with some unique and unusual marrow specimens, as well as two rather bizarre pumpkin installations, which flank the entrance.

Haunting gingerbread house

Who needs to go through all the trouble of making an iced gingerbread house, so popular at Christmas and the spooky season, when your home looks the part already?

This clapboard house in Kentucky has been painted blue and purple and while it doesn’t look quite good enough to eat, its front yard has been decorated with pumpkins, cobwebs and tombstones to put on a scary front.

The White House

When it comes to this much-loved annual festival, even POTUS gets into the spirit of things. In 2014, former president, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle decorated The White House with giant pumpkins and invited local children from military families around for a special Halloween party.

Dark fairytale

There's little party atmosphere on the front porch of this home in Churriana in Southern Spain however. Dark and lugubrious and draped in cobwebs, Grandma's old rocking chair stands empty alongside jars of peculiar liquids and poison apples.

There's even a witch in her dark long robes urging us into this dark fairytale.

The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze

Each year, Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-On-Hudson, New York, hosts a rather spectacular (and illuminating) Halloween festival. Known as the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze, this annual celebration is renowned for its use of more than 7,000 intricately carved pumpkins.

The manor itself is also impressively decked out for the festivities, with dozens of pumpkin lanterns alight, each hand-carved thanks to the work of over 1,000 local volunteers.

Eerie Beetlejuice bungalow

It’s Halloween all year round at this Beetlejuice house in Winona, Minnesota, which was painted black and white in honour of the movie. The owners add a few extra decorations for the spooky season, but it’s pretty much like this the entire year.

Funnily enough, Winona Ryder, who stars in the film, was born near the town, hence her name. We’re sure she would be impressed.

Gigantic spider invasion in Scotland

Being invaded by a man-eating giant spider is the stuff of horror movies. But for the owners of this house in Scotland, the scene may have been inspired by the real-life invasion of giant house spiders in 2023.

According to Socttish news reporter Aberdeen Live, following a warm but very wet summer the eight-legged beasts moved in far earlier than usual in search of mates. House spiders can bite, but they are more likely to scurry away for cover.

The Incy Wincy Spider house

Just in case you haven't had your fill of spiders yet, here's another rather aesthetically pleasing cluster of fluffy spiders cluttering across this stunning white clapboard house.

Just watch your children's faces light up when they get home to see this. Are you sure you didn't see one of them move?

The alien pilgrim house

This alien pilgrim is sitting back on his colourful porch to celebrate Halloween. While the pilgrims can hardly be thought of as 'party people,' they are credited with originating the holiday of Thanksgiving. Perhaps this guy is just getting ready early...

Wacky webs

This front porch should certainly set your spidey senses tingling! A classic brownstone in Montreal has been well and truly 'creepified' for the haunting season.

Faux spiderwebs have been draped across shrubbery as if left by the giant arachnids crawling up the home's porch. We can't help wondering if any of them made it through the front door...

Farmhouse chic

Calling all Gilmore Girls fans! We are obsessed with this cute farmhouse aesthetic, complete with scarecrows, corn stalks, mums (a sweet shortening of chrysanthemums) and freshly picked pumpkins.

While it's more Sleepy than Stars Hollow we're sure the show doesn't mind being used as inspiration for such a unique take on its vision.

Gourds galore

Pick your own, anyone? We like how this homeowner made it look kind of like a farm truck overturned onto the front lawn. A pumpkin and haybale display is both charming and effortless, topped off by two jack-o’-lanterns – one cute and one scary for balance of course.

Keep it cute

Well this door is certainly welcoming to trick-or-treaters. With its cheerful scarecrows and playful pumpkin lanterns, this home’s aesthetic is a reminder that Halloween doesn’t have to be scary, although that enormous spider might be a deterrent for some.

A spooky smile

We’re not sure if there’s a trick or a treat hiding behind this grinning front door, but we’d certainly want to find out. With a batwing smile a creepy collection of bony hands hanging from the door handle, nothing shrieks ‘enter if you dare’ quite like this haunting home.

Now discover more dreamy decorating ideas