Halloween is the one holiday that brings a neighborhood together. One way to spread the spirit in your community is by putting your best Halloween porch decorating ideas into action.
Adding flair to your porch sets a magical stage for trick-or-treaters, but you don’t need to spend a ton of money or time to make your porch look unique. Simply changing a few pieces each year or working with an untraditional color scheme can be enough to make your home stand out.
In this roundup, you’ll find ideas on how to bring your fall-fun visions to life, especially the ones that involve bats, witches, ghosts, and spiders.
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01
of 33Hang Some Dramatic Curtains
@spookythankfulmerry / Instagram
We love it when a Halloween porch brings the drama. Curtains will give your porch the look of a stage, which will be especially fun for trick-or-treaters to enter. Black and white striped curtains are fairly easy to come by and are very on-theme for the holiday. If you have a hard time sourcing outdoor curtains, you can always look for waterproof shower curtains.
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02
of 33Go Classic With Jack-O-Lanterns
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Jack-o-lanterns are quintessential Halloween symbols. While we love a good pumpkin carving party as much as the next person, consider investing in a set of faux jack-o-lanterns that you can pull out year after year. You can mix them in with your typical set of real pumpkins too.
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03
of 33Make Your Skeletons Gesture
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Skeletons offer endless opportunities to add a little whimsy to your front porch. Rather than just propping them up and calling it a day, think of how you can bring them to life a bit. A simple handwaving gesture may just do the trick.
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04
of 33Let Your Skeletons Lounge
@karaspartyideas / Instagram
Another fun scene you can set up with your skeletons is to let them lounge on your porch chairs. You can personify these life-like pieces of seasonal decor by making them utilize your porch the same way living humans do. Prop some pumpkins on their laps to complete the look.
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05
of 33Hang Witch Legs
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Hanging a series of witch hats has become a popular choice for Halloween porch decor. If you want to go with a similar theme but with a bit of a unique flair, consider drawing inspiration from the Wizard of Oz.
Hang some witch legs from your porch ceiling. If you can’t find ones exactly like what you’re looking for, make your own set. All you need is some striped leggings, black shoes, and some stuffing.
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06
of 33Stick Some Witch Legs In Your Mums
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You can also take the witch legs in a different direction, literally. Instead of hanging them, stick them upside down in your potted mums. Bonus points if they match the color of your mums.
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07
of 33Hang a Halloween Banner
@hearts_at_claremont / Instagram
Pendant banners aren’t just indoor holiday decorations. Hanging a Halloween banner underneath a porch roof is a fun way to greet guests. If you don’t have a good covered area to hang one underneath, you can always just put it up for Halloween night only.
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08
of 33Hang Scary Spiders
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Giant spiders are easy-to-hang pieces of outdoor Halloween decor that really make a statement, and they really pop against homes that are lighter in color, like white. Hang a few above your porch, but don’t stop there. Make an entire army of spiders crawling on other areas of your home’s facade.
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09
of 33Put Up a Pumpkin Arch
@brittt_rose / Instagram
If you feel like going out with your Halloween porch display, here’s a great idea to get you there. Create a hanging pumpkin arch with light-up jack-o-lanterns and fall leaves above your porch opening. It should be pretty easy to disassemble and re-use for future years.
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10
of 33Put Up Some Floating Candles
@everyday_allie / Instagram
Pull a little inspiration from the wizarding world with a set of floating candle sticks. You can attach them at altering heights to your porch ceiling. These also make fun indoor decor for Halloween, so you can mix things up next year and put them above your scary mantel.
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11
of 33Set Up a Cauldron
@seasons4home / Instagram
Cauldrons are another iconic Halloween symbol. Instead of simply just plopping one on your porch, set up a scene around one. Toss some fake bones in the pot and put some stringed lights around it. To take it a step further, dress up a skeleton as a witch that’s working on a potion.
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12
of 33Add a Scary Touch to Your Fall Porch
@offischerlyhome / Instagram
If your porch has already been decorated for fall since September, you’ll only need to add a few touches to make it read more Halloween. You can take the simple route and hang a few ghosts and witch hats and perhaps plant some mums in a skeleton head flower pot. Then, you can take down the Halloween touches and go back to purely fall for November.
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13
of 33Add Some Friendly Ghost Greeters
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A pair of friendly ghosts make for the perfect Halloween door greeters. There are so many tutorials online on how to make your own ghosts using basic household items. Simply build a base for your ghost with a round head, toss on some white fabric, and paint on two black eyes. You won’t want your ghost to get too lonely, so make sure to make him a friend, too.
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14
of 33Incorporate Your Current Porch Decor
@themakerista / Instagram
You don’t need to start with a completely blank slate when it comes to putting your Halloween porch decorating ideas into action. Think of how you can decorate around your spring and summer porch decor.
For example, place a skeleton in your potted ferns rather than retiring them for the season. It will make it look like he was up to some wild shenanigans, which the neighborhood kids will love.
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15
of 33Pick a Black and Purple Theme
@decorateswithbourbon / Instagram
Orange and black are the two colors that everyone associates with Halloween. But you can make your porch stand out a bit from the crowd with a different color palette. Purple and black look just as great together. Opt for purple mums and black and white pumpkins and skeletons for a unique but festive display.
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16
of 33Create Depth With Height Variance
@flowerwalldubai / Instagram
When putting together your Halloween porch display, think of how you can add charm to admire at all different eye levels. You’ll want to place decorations near the ground for your littlest trick-or-treaters to get up close and admire, but you’ll also want to guide some attention upward. Hanging decorations always add some depth and dimension, and so do bats pinned up to the walls.
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17
of 33Mummify Your Door
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Give your front door some personality and fashion it into a mummy. Simply wrap it in some white gauze or crepe paper, and don’t forget to give it some big googly eyes. This will look especially great on black or dark wood doors.
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18
of 33Turn Your Door Into a Spider Web
This is another great way to make your door the focal point of your Halloween porch. Tie some rope together to make a spider web shape, and attach it to your door. Don’t forget to add some spiders, and perhaps accessorize them with googly eyes and bows.
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19
of 33Hang a Beware Sign
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A „beware“ sign is a nice detail to set the tone for trick-or-treating. You can make one out of an old piece of cardboard and cut the ends to look like planks of old wood. Change up the wording to fit with whatever creature is haunting your porch, be it ghosts, skeletons, witches, or spiders.
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20
of 33Put Up Light-Up Trees
@theverestplace / Instagram
Since the evenings get longer in the fall, think of ways you can add some light-up decor to your porch. Bare faux trees or orange and yellow fall trees with lights are pretty easy to come by. The bare-tree route brings more of a haunted house look to the scene, and you can even add in some crows for a nice little detail.
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21
of 33Accessorize Your Skeleton
@truemanstreasures / Instagram
Skeletons don’t have to be scary. Give your life-sized skeleton a bit of a goofy look and dress it to the nines. Give it a wig, hat, and even a purse. Or, throw on a fashionable scarf or football jersey. You’ll be sure to evoke some smiles and chuckles with this kind of setup.
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22
of 33Use Cheese Cloth as Spider Webs
@caitlinparkerladd / Instagram
Cheesecloth, which you can typically find at a grocery store, just so happens to make the perfect material for spider webs. Just be sure to pull a few corners tight to get it into the right shape. You can hang your faux spider web next to your door, over your door, or between porch posts.
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23
of 33Lean Into a Farm House Look
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There are ways to match your Halloween decor with your year-round porch decor. For example, if your current porch decor leans a bit farmhouse, look for jack-o-lanterns made from galvanized steel, wicker pumpkins, and wooden ghost cutouts that look a little distressed.
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24
of 33Light Your Corn Stalks
@cherrystreetblossoms / Instagram
Corn stalks are great pieces of fall decor that you can hang up for all three months of the season. To make them extra fitting for Halloween, wrap some strands of orange stringed lights around them.
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25
of 33Display Some Halloween Art
@2561farmhouse / Instagram
Your first instinct may be to display your signs and Halloween artwork inside. However, if your porch is pretty well protected from the rain, these pieces can survive the elements for a few weeks in late September and October.
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26
of 33Opt for Crows Over Bats
@ourfergusonfarmhouse / Instagram
Stick-on bats are another increasingly popular piece of Halloween porch decor, and it’s a trend for good reason. It takes very little effort to put them up, and they are often reusable. However, you can make your porch look just a little different by opting for black crows instead of black bats. It’s sometimes these subtle changes that make the most difference.
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27
of 33Make a Trail of Spiders
@lovenikkile / Instagram
Another example of an alternative to stick-on bats would be these stick-on spiders. You can hang them in the same trailing fashion as you would bats or crows.
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28
of 33Add Some Skeleton Creatures
@sanctuaryhomedecor / Instagram
Humans obviously aren’t the only creatures with skeletons. Consider adding a couple of fake animal skeletons next to your fake human skeleton. This dog skeleton howling at the moon and a tiny cat skeleton in a cage are great examples.
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29
of 33Hang Some Witch Brooms
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If you decide to hang some witch hats on your porch, don’t forget about the key witch accessory. You can often find very rustic-looking brooms in the seasonal decor aisle, or you can even opt for your straw household broom.
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30
of 33Make it Mini
@megan_ballarini / Instagram
If your porch is a bit on the petite end, don’t overwhelm it with oversized and bulky decor. Spiders, skeletons, and pumpkins all come in miniature sizes.
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31
of 33Stick on a Spider Web
@whimsically_angie / Instagram
When people approach your front door, they’re often looking at the ground so they can watch their step. Because of this, your porch floor is often a missed opportunity when it comes to seasonal decor. One way to add some interest is to apply a large spider web decal to the floor and perhaps scatter a few plastic spiders around the sides.
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32
of 33Opt for a Pink Theme
@daily_disco / Instagram
Pink is very close to orange on the color wheel, so it makes a great pairing or alternative for the classic Halloween color of choice. Pink also happens to look great with black. You really can’t go wrong with painted pink pumpkins, orange mums, and a few black bats.
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33
of 33Paint Ghoulish Ghost Gourds and Pumpkins
Painting pumpkins is a mess-free alternative to carving pumpkins, and there are so many designs that will look just as scary as a set of jack-o-lanterns. These black and white ghost pumpkins and gourds are such a perfect example.