Thread: Help me pull all this together :(

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Folks, I'm so frustrated. Granted, I've never had a good "eye" for decorating, including home decorating like my living room...I can never make things go together. Well, I'm having the same problem with decorating my house for Halloween.

I've always decorated but it always looks like a bunch of pieces thrown together and not a real "haunt".

I'm going to post a bunch of pictures so you can see what I have so far. How can I pull all this together???? It just looks like it's thrown into one place! Should I add more skeletons and make more of a "skeleton" theme specifically? If so, should I get rid of the hanging pirate? Etc.? Any ideas would be most welcome!

Hanging pirate on front porch:


Front porch:


Half of front walkway:


Other half, stuffed owl:


Then all the way over to the left, hanging skeleton w/o skull:


Front gate, silk leaves:


Front yard to the left, cheesey tombstones, store-bought:


Other side of front lawn, more tombstones:


Mini cemetery gate in front of tree:

My suggestion is to find some inexpensive items to fill in area. The items you have are great, but you have them too spaced out.

When you group something together it ADDS to the mystery in my OP.

Cardboard, black or clear plastic, cobweb, dollar store skulls, vegetation, are just a few things you can pull into your yard that is inexpensive that will transform the area to look haunted.

I agree with TGP and some light ,spot light if you like Pirate theme ,pieces like Treasure chess some more bones and skull .
Oh never get ride of a nice prop like the pirate in the cage there is so many ways to make hime fit somewhere so people can appreciate it more . I can wait to see what other will come out to help you there is a bunch of talented people in here

I agree with GothicPrincess, especially on how spread out it is. Instead of putting thing all over the place, congregate them to your porch and maybe one side of your yard. It's okay to have empty spaces and what not, but if it's spread too thin, folks won't know where to look or what to focus on.

I'd suggest putting all the tombstones on the left side of the yard. It's a nice, small area that will look good with several tombstones.

I'd put the headless skeleton on your porch at the corner of the railing. Same style as you have - wrapped up in webs. I'd put him on the inside part of the corner with his hands reaching through the bars towards the walkway. Well... before I go too far... where do people walk up to your door? Is it up those couple of steps or up the ramp/railing walkway?

Originally Posted by TheGothicPrincess

My suggestion is to find some inexpensive items to fill in area. The items you have are great, but you have them too spaced out.

When you group something together it ADDS to the mystery in my OP.

Cardboard, black or clear plastic, cobweb, dollar store skulls, vegetation, are just a few things you can pull into your yard that is inexpensive that will transform the area to look haunted.

Totally agree. You can get cheap foam tombstones from the dollar stores or Walgreens (they usually have deals like 3 for $10 on good medium sized stones) and adding cobweb - LOTS of cobweb - to your front porch. If you can, tap in some tiny nails so you have lots of points to stretch the webbing. The more you stretch it out and over and around, the better it looks.

I would actually move the decorating zone closer to the porch, sort of clumping everything closer (and still adding more stones, etc).

The little fence fragment might be better suited near your porch, outlining a smaller graveyard... with little tombstones (you can get the smaller foot high stones at most dollar stores).

I could even see lining your walkway on both sides with strings of orange or purple lights.

Lighting overall helps also. Changing out your porch light to a red or green or blue light, and having a spotlight of color in the yard aimed up towards the house will really go a long way towards bringing your yard together.

I would section off different areas of your yard (i.e. side lawn, front lawn, porch, etc) and select different themes for each of the areas. Maybe concentrate on two or three areas and really build that up. It looks like the decorations are two spread apart right now. Creating themes in different areas will bring attention from visitors towards that area.

You have a good start, but as everyone else is saying go out and get yourself some more decorations (i.e. foam gravestones, more skeletons, etc.) You can get these are pretty good prices. I seen a graveyard kit at KMart or Walmart that comes with something like three gravestones, some bones and a few other items. That would help out your graveyard area for sure.

Another idea is to take some time and look at the pictures people put up of their haunts from years past. You can get some really good ideas that way.

Best of luck on your Haunt.

Oh, wow. Thank you so much!

About the walkway: There are actually just three steps "up" to my front door. The walkway you see horizontally, running the same way as the house, is the wheelchair accessible ramp (for the previous owner)...I just like to decorate it because there's a gate there, and gates are good for hangin'.

I'm getting outside RIGHT NOW and grouping my tombstones for a "real" cemetery! (And moving my skellie, etc. in closer for my front porch.)

Thanks so very much, everybody!!!

Oh, and I have more cobwebs left...I'm going to get webbin'.

I was thinking of some cheap hanging bats from Party City b/c the whole underneath of the roof running against the house and then perpendicular, against the garage to the right, has hooks where some more talented and decorative people must have hung plants in the past.

Okay. I rehung some stuff and here's what I came up with so far:

1. porch:



2. cemetery:

Now the cemetary looks like it is coming together. Nice job.