Homemade Halloween Props

There are loads of great Halloween props on sale in stores during October in the run up to the big day.  However, if you’re hosting a party and want to transform your home into a haunted house, the costs can soon mount up.  One way to keep within budget is to make a few of your own props, and save your money for just a couple of really good store-bought decorations that you wouldn’t be able to easily make yourself.  To get you started, here are some ideas for homemade props using items that you probably already have:

Old Sheets

Tatty old sheets draped over your furniture haphazardly are good for making your home look unlived-in.  It doesn’t matter if they are torn, the messier the better.  You could also hang them roughly from your curtain rails in place of your curtains and perhaps leave a window slightly open to create a breeze and cause the sheets to move spookily. 

String

If you’ve got a dark corner at your party, or perhaps a badly lit corridor or hallway, one way to spook your guests is to hang pieces of string from your ceiling, so they come down to head height.  Before your guests arive, dangle the ends in a bowl of water to wet them.  It should give people a fright when the damp string brushes against them as they walk past.

Lighting

One of the easiest ways to change the ambiance of a room is to change the lighting.  If you have a dimmer switch, simply turn the lighting down to make the room darker and more sinister.  At a party for adults, lit candles and tea lights are great for creating an authentic haunted atmosphere, just make sure they are in a safe place and keep an eye on them.  Another idea is to replace your regular lightbulbs with colored ones, such as red, orange or green, to produce an eerie glow.

Gloves

Cheap plastic or rubber gloves can be stuffed with scrunched up newspaper or tissue to make them look like hands.  You could use a red pen to draw on splatters of blood and then leave the “hands” in various places around your home for your unsuspecting guests to discover.

Trees

Put all your houseplants and vases of flowers away in another room during your party and in their places put dead branches – a bit like Christmas trees but with no leaves.  You could spray paint them black to look even more scary and hang homemade decorations on there, such as cardboard cut-out bats or spiders.  If you have kids they can help out here by raiding the crafts box.