Creating Your Own Haunted House For Halloween

Recreating the spooky excitement of the Halloween Nights of childhood and sharing not only with your own children but friends, family and neighbors is a great way to bring some good old fashion fun back to this holiday. Both the process and result of creating your own Spook Alley or Haunted House for Halloween is a great activity for the whole family.

Much of the process of making your own Haunted House for Halloween can be very complicated, but this article will give you a general idea of what is involved. You know you will need to create a spooky atmosphere both, inside and outside of your Haunted House. If you want a serious Halloween Haunt it is recommended that you begin well before October, even as early as June or July because so many of your props will have to be handmade.

For a home haunt you should first begin with the cemetery. Fantastic headstone props are available at many Halloween specialty shops, but if you find the expense too much, it is possible to create your own authentic looking headstones.

If you decide to create your own, is best to use the thick foam insulation board available at your local hardware store for the headstone. Study pictures of the headstones from some of the more gothic cemeteries and try to duplicate these headstones.  There are many sites on the Internet with instructions on how to cutout and carve these headstones, and they are fairly easy. Just remember to paint the headstones with liquid primer first, as spray paint will eat away at the foam.

Next you will need a cemetery fence and arched entrance. This is usually done with 2x2 boards and PVC pipe. Again, there are many versions of this fence and instructions are available online. When completed, paint the fence a flat black which will make it resemble the gothic style iron fence.

When you have your cemetery completed you will want to make it appear even spookier by adding some props. Glue some prop moss to the headstones and paint it greenish brown. A cardboard coffin made to appear as if it is emerging from the ground is a wonderful addition, and don’t forget to put a corpse in the protruding coffin.

All this can be done with or without the addition of a Spook Alley; if you do decide to add a haunt to your yard there are several ways to do this. The easiest and least expensive way is to frame a maze with wood are PVC pipe and cover it with tarps are black painter’s plastic. This is the most popular method and there are many sights that offer different instructions for their methods. It is extremely important to ensure the structure is sound and secure and that there are no open flames near it, if you do choose to use this method.

As well as having a secure structure, it is also very important that you always use GFI outlets anytime you run electricity to any part of your yard or Spook Alley; in addition, safely light your pumpkins with battery operated Jack O Lantern lights. You don’t want someone’s costume getting caught by a flame. The whole night will be a lot more fun if you know that everyone is going to be safe while visiting your haunt.

Once you have all the safety features down, go wild on your props. You can create any type of haunt you want, with your only limit being your own imagination. This will keep your whole family busy for many weekends before Halloween. It is a lot of work, but well worth it when the big night comes. Halloween is so much more fun with a haunt of your own.

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