13 Frighteningly Creative Ideas for DIY Halloween Yard Decorations

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Spooky season is upon us, and with it comes the fun of decorating with creations that will get the neighborhood talking. From the freaky to the frightening, there is no shortage of ideas out there for Halloween decor.

Many homeowners love creating their own displays because they can customize all of their DIY Halloween yard decorations. We scouted social media to find some of this year’s coolest and most imaginative DIY Halloween decorations to inspire your creepy creativity.

1. Creepy Homemade Cemetery

Make your yard a place where spirits feel right at home. This idea comes from Rabbitt Ranch, an artist and video creator who believes in bright colors and maximalism. They’ve gone so far as to personalize their graveyard with a chalkboard that advertises a make-believe business—feel free to write yours with campy or dark humor.

Make your tombstones out of cardboard or styrofoam, and add pumpkins from the garden to mimic this look. DIY skeletons may be a bit more difficult to create, so you can grab a posable one like this 5-foot one from Target.

2. Giant Spiderweb on the Lawn

The Frecon Ranch knows a thing or two about decorating a home. They’re currently renovating a 1970s ranch home, and their style is clean and simple—much like the spiderweb they put up for Halloween.

You can recreate this look on your own property with some white polyester rope, stakes to hold it in place, and a temporary hook attachment. You can also buy a pre-made web like this large spider web at Target. Remember to add a spotlight to make sure trick-or-treaters can see it after dark.

3. Pumpkin Shed

California-based Misssanfranc ordinarily fills her Instagram feed with photos of nature and beautiful florals, but even she makes an exception for a cute Halloween display. Instead of acquiring more decorations, this pumpkin shed is a perfect example of using what you have to show your love of the season.

Take an existing structure that you want to paint anyway, and turn it into a temporary mural of sorts. All you really need is paint and imagination. Just like this pumpkin shed, the design doesn’t have to be complicated. Once Halloween is over, simply repaint it.

4. Ring Around the Rosie Ghosts

Is there anything more frightening than ghost children singing a song about the bubonic plague? Jessica Hernandez Home is an avid DIYer who uses her account to show off her beautiful home, cats, and seasonal decorations. For the last few Halloweens, she has set up these dancing ghosts, and it’s a design that’s easy to replicate with some cheap sheets, styrofoam spheres, sticks, and hot glue.

5. Skull Sunflowers

Moxie Home goes all out for the holidays. Featuring whimsical, creative, and colorful DIYs, this happy family is a go-to source for home hacks, tips, and ideas on how to make your house your own. Based on their feed, it looks like plants can be found everywhere inside and outside their home, which is why their skull sunflowers are a fitting Halloween decoration.

This one is a super-easy DIY Halloween decoration. Pick up some fake sunflowers from the dollar store and some small plastic skulls—like this 12-pack of mini skulls from Target—and use hot glue to bring the two together.

6. Monster Eyeballs

Can’t get enough Halloween spookiness? Sounds like you should follow hallowqueeeeen31, as her feed pays homage to her favorite season and the most frightening time of the year. Expect tributes to horror films, costume ideas, monsters, and seasonal decor to get in the Halloween spirit all year long.

A feed favorite is her monster eyeballs in the bushes—a little something to make passersby uneasy. Paint bowls or old trick-or-treating buckets with white or glow-in-the-dark paint, and then add an iris and some red streaks to make them look bloodshot. All that’s left is to position the eyeballs in the bushes out front.

7. Socially Distanced Trick-or-Treating

Leave it to a tool aficionado to come up with a simple apparatus to make it easier to practice social distancing while trick-or-treating. Garrett Wade finds the right tools and equipment for all your indoor and outdoor home projects—gardening, cooking, building, camping, and even apple picking. With a feed dedicated to the usefulness of each tool and high quality images, there’s a lot to discover and learn.

It was on Garrett’s feed we came across this DIY Halloween candy chute attached to a stair rail. All you need is a PVC pipe decorated to look like a creature, or just a message that reads “Happy Halloween,” and some zap straps or zip ties to keep it in place.

Pick up a PVC pipe at your local hardware store, like this 10-foot section from Lowe’s.

8. Jack o’Lantern Balloon Garland

Using basic materials, Kulsoom keeps her kids busy with DIY crafts then posts about their creations for a fun and colorful Instagram feed. This Seattle mom comes up with imaginative concepts for easy-to-replicate crafts that can be used to entertain kids, decorate the house, and spread a little joy.

A master of using what’s on hand, Kulsoom came up with these crafts that make great DIY Halloween yard decorations. To celebrate the spooky season, try this simple garland using only balloons, tape, ribbon, and a Sharpie.

9. String Light Spider

You’ve seen those homes where people go all out for every holiday. Kim’s Vintage Happy Place is the account to follow if you appreciate holiday spectacle. A thrifting pro with a stunning A-frame lake house, Kim has put together a feed that’s sure to inspire the maximalist in you: incredible finds, antique decorations, and beautifully excessive holiday displays.

This enormous Halloween spider is just one of the imaginative yard decorations she’s come up with over the years. She outlines the materials you need in her Instagram post, which includes string lights for the legs. Hatch your own spider with orange mini lights, like this 60-count string from Target.

10. Hanging Pumpkin Ghosts

Larry Pfarr’s Instagram account feels like an homage to the botanical beauty of Minnesota. This feed is full of garden harvests, fresh florals, snow-filled trees, and breathtaking views.

Of course, an avid gardener needs to protect their crops. Instead of a usual scarecrow, Larry added these gigantic pumpkin ghosts for Halloween. Most of these DIY materials can be sourced at a gardening or hardware store. Using actual pumpkins is a possibility, though they will eventually rot and make for extra cleanup, so we suggest plastic ones, like these 16-inch jack-o’-lanterns from Target.

11. Window Box Full of Fright

Audrey from Oh So Lovely is a DIYer, traveler, blogger, and art director. She’s curated a collection of posts and reels full of home renovations and crafts, celebratory displays, far-away places, and family. The feed shows creativity and taste, and Audrey models what’s possible with ingenuity and a little elbow grease.

This window-box project from five years ago has become a hub for some of her DIY Halloween yard decorations. Full of jack o’lanterns, spiderwebs, and other ghoulish delights, this is a display you can personalize. Once you’ve filled it with creepy crawlies or monsters, make sure to add some spotlights so your window box can be seen in the dark, like this Harbor Breeze spotlight kit found at Lowe’s.

12. Climbing Skeletons and Spiders

Supermom Chelsee Hood’s Instagram feed effortlessly exudes elegant charm and her love for home decor. The feed shows off her pristine home, the furniture and styles she has used for each room, her beautiful family, and upscale decorations for each holiday season. On this feed, you’ll find some how-tos, favorite products, and lifestyle content too.

This year, Chelsee’s Halloween decorations included covering her home’s exterior with enormous spiders held in place with Command strips or staples. To copy this DIY Halloween yard decoration, use last year’s creepy crawlies or pick up extra-large ones, like these 80-inch spiders from Target.

13. Slithery Snake Wreath

Trick-or-treaters may think twice about knocking on the door if they see a wreath like this clever decoration from Hillary Meadows, a wife and mom who posts images of her home, kids, and pets, as well as some of her favorite fashions. In the leadup to All Hallows’ Eve, her feed features plenty of orange, but this black snake wreath might just be her spookiest Halloween design.

Copy her style by adhering plastic snakes like these from Amazon to a grapevine wreath. Spray paint the whole thing black, and boom–scary serpents!