How to Decorate Your Porch for Halloween

The spooky season is coming up! Is your house and front porch ready for all the trick-or-treaters? Maybe this is your first house and the first opportunity you've had to decorate. Maybe you have kids who are really excited about costumes and candy, and you feel your house should match the overall tone. Maybe you've never gotten into the spirit before, but suddenly you've become inspired. Whatever the reason, you're planning on decorating your house and front porch for Halloween.

But how to do it? Here are some ideas for how to decorate your house and porch for Halloween.

First, Consider What You Have and What You Want

Look at your entryway and your front door. What's the shape? Does it curve? Is your door front and center or is it off to the side? Is your door deep set? Is there an overhead ceiling area? Next, look at the color. Some houses have big black doors that are just perfect for a creepy setup. Other houses have warm red or brown doors that would look great surrounded by a lovely harvest abundance. Other houses may need a little more finessing. Before you decide on outdoor decorations and the home décor, you need to know what you have to work with.

On the other hand, you should also keep in mind your own sense of the spook-tacular! Do you love witchy brews and mysterious omens? Do you prefer graveyards of gory zombies? Alternatively, perhaps you enjoy pleasant scarecrows surrounded by corn and pumpkins. Whatever your style is, consider the options below and think about how each would line up with your house. From there, you can design your dream Halloween setup!

Autumn Everywhere

Starting with some of the cheerier season decors, you can really get into fall by highlighting the changes that are taking place around you. Use autumn garlands of fall leaves to line your banisters, loop your porch columns, and your doorway. Get a personalized doormat with season greetings. Buy a colorful autumn wreath to hang on the door or make your own from the leaves your find in your neighborhood! Barrels and crates can be filled or covered with more leaf garlands and fall flowers like yellow sunflowers, black-eyed susans, orange carnations, and black calla lilies. Add a pumpkin or two and you have a complete seasonal picture.

Harvest House

The harvest house is full of autumn plenty. Use hay bales to visually give your scene different levels for people to look at. Next, look for wicker baskets you can lay on their sides, pad with weatherproof items for different levels, cover with a festive piece of material, and "fill" with pumpkins, gourds, apples, and corn. Remember, fake is as good as real and much less cleanup. If you want more than just food, add fall-colored flowers like those in the "Autumn Everywhere" scene. Put corn stalks from your local corn maze on your doorposts and any porch columns you have. Don't forget your smiling scarecrow! Stand him next to the entrance to your porch or your house so he can greet people for Halloween!

Witchy Cottage

There's a little more color flexibility with this one! Stuffed green and black striped stockings sticking out of a front porch planter and ending in black witch shoes make a great decoration. A purple broomstick in the corner that shifts about every once in a while, dusty hardback spellbooks, or a spider-webbed cauldron over a "fire" also make for excellent magical props a witch might have lying around. If you have windows, take some black paper and make some silhouettes of some witches at work. You can either attach them to the window or hang a shower curtain and put them there. For an extra touch, hang witch hats from the ceiling above your doorway so it looks like they are floating. Bonus points if they glow different colors!

Mysterious Ravens

For omens of death, ravens are perfect! Get a bunch of fake ravens from the store and set up a few in flight around your door frame. Next, set up some "dead trees" around your porch by picking up fallen branches from around your neighborhood or from a nearby hiking area. The bigger, the better here! Arrange the branches into "trees" with vases or stacks of pumpkins as anchors so nothing falls. Then swoop a few stands of spider web and place more fake ravens here and there on the branches. Add some candles flicking in the wind for a complete picture. Nice and creepy!