What do you do with your driveway?

5682 Views 27 Replies 25 Participants Last post by mrincredibletou, Sep 23, 2015

Jenn&MattFromPA

Discussion Starter · Sep 6, 2015

Hi! For those of you doing an outdoor set-up that have a driveway to deal with, I'm wondering if you could post any inspirational ideas or photos. We have a driveway that is two cars wide & two cars long (so four cars could fit total), and I'd like to find a way to incorporate it better into the whole display.

Currently on Halloween night, we park our Jeep cross-ways in the driveway to prevent anyone from walking up to the door that way. We stick a zombie in the driver's seat & he points towards the entranceway that's in our front yard. And we often have a fire pit and tables & chairs on the driveway for people who stop by and I think I'd like to keep that option available.

I'm in the process of making columns & "iron" gates for the bottom of the driveway & will hopefully finish them this year (not positive though), but even when they are done, I'm not sure what kind of display I really want on the driveway, let alone what COULD go on there, knowing it's tough to secure things on. Eventually I do also hope to camouflage our garage door too, so the driveway & garage door would hopefully tie-in together.

For what it's worth, we do a front yard display that is mostly a cemetery with a small cornfield-type of area. We don't want strangers entering the house area from the driveway as it's down a sharp incline from our front yard and not easy to navigate in the dark.

What do you do with YOUR driveway? Do you decorate or camouflage it in some way?

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doto

· #2 · Sep 6, 2015

We don't do anything with our driveway at all. Osenator used to do a small maze on his and this was very enjoyable for the TOTs.

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kloey74

· #3 · Sep 6, 2015

We put up a tarp and then hang down black plastic to create walls. We use day glow paint, black lights, and hang glow sticks from the ceiling. By the time it gets really dark outside, it looks pretty cool. Unfortunately last year we had to take it down at the last second because the wind got too strong
Here are some pictures from 2 years ago that I took.

Party Event Visual effect lighting Night

Light Sky Darkness Night Lighting

This was one of the creatures we made that kids had to walk past in the entrance.

Light Head Hand Finger Darkness

My darling husband

Darkness Organism Night Performance Photography

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trentsketch

· #4 · Sep 6, 2015

I just use the driveway as the safe route for ToTs to enter the yard. They walk down the driveway, turn onto the walkway, and approach the door. I'll pull the car up if the decorations get too close to the walkway so they know to turn.

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Scatterbrains

· #5 · Sep 6, 2015

My driveway has limitations because it is sloped.

I have the tots walk up on side to enter the walkthru haunt on my RV pad and then when they exit the garage, they walk down the other side. I use orange rope light laid out on the ground to mark the paths. Between the paths I haave a bunch of coffins I use for a lightorama display.

I've also drilled holes in 2x8s then inserted 10" nails in them that I can slide PVC over...this is the same as hammering rebar into your yard but without the holes in your driveway. If the props uses 2x4s for legs, then I screw the legs to a 2'x2' piece of plywood for stability.

There's a lot you can do to compensate for not wanting to put holes in your driveway. If you want to put up a cemetery gate, you better way it down so that it doesn't get knock over by the wind, or negligent trick or treaters

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SpiderWitch

· #6 · Sep 6, 2015

We built a crypt in one garage, with an exterior entrance- it was about 7x8x8, and the ToTs walked in the front and out the side to get to the front door.

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scareme

· #7 · Sep 6, 2015

Mine is pretty simple for now. I don't have any props in that area because I don't have anyone who will stay out there. There is a security light in the drive too. So after an idea I found on here (sorry I can't give exact credit) I buy a bunch of end of season chalk. I draw out a couple of pumpkins and body outlines. I write some odds and ends things, just to give people an idea of what I'm looking for. I also ask, in a couple of spots for people to leave us a message, draw a picture, or just tell everyone Happy Halloween in the most colorful way they can. It's neat to read what people have to say. Like I said, it's no big deal, but's it's interactive with our tots.

This year I'm going with an island theme. I'm going to get the sound of waves on a shore. So I thought it would be really cool to dump a truckload of sand, throw some sand buckets and shovels in, and let kids have a go at it. Several problems with this. I don't think kids will play, they want to make time and get candy. Hubby isn't likely to let me dump sand in the driveway. And someone will get sand in their eye. So I guess it's chalk again this year.

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printersdevil

· #8 · Sep 6, 2015

kloey, do you have daylight pics of your driveway tent setup? Is it a canopy or just a tarp on top. I am trying to figure out how to do something like this on our driveway without having to use a tent wh in gets the city code enforcement people involved

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Defenestrator

· #9 · Sep 6, 2015

I've actually begun using the driveway as the cemetery.

It turns out that if you save fallen leaves for a little while, and then simply scatter them on the driveway, (inside the cemetery columns and fence) that it makes for a very level and stable platform for the stones, and props.

I'm not sure that it's clear in the photos, but these images are all of a driveway based cemetery. Two are in the daytime to provide a sense of how camouflaged the driveway can be even with evil sun out

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kloey74

· #10 · Sep 6, 2015

printersdevil said:
kloey, do you have daylight pics of your driveway tent setup? Is it a canopy or just a tarp on top. I am trying to figure out how to do something like this on our driveway without having to use a tent wh in gets the city code enforcement people involved

Unfortunately I don't have any day pix. It's a canopy that just has a roof. We stake it into the yard on the sides of our driveway. Then we duct tape black tarp to the ceiling and side poles to make the walls

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jdubbya

· #11 · Sep 7, 2015

Our drive has always been part of our walk through, until last year when we erected the haunt structure in it. It's a long drive that takes you past a covered patio where we had a scene, and then onto the garage where we had another scene. Here are a few pics from the past years
Foam castle façade spanning the drive as a portal to the walk through (2006)

last year's structure

Our pallet corn maze from 2013. This was a big hit and a lot of fun!

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LairMistress

· #12 · Sep 7, 2015

kloey74 said:
Unfortunately I don't have any day pix. It's a canopy that just has a roof. We stake it into the yard on the sides of our driveway. Then we duct tape black tarp to the ceiling and side poles to make the walls

This shade canopy gave me an idea. I don't know how well Dollar Tree tarps take spray paint (I'm guessing, not well), but I'd like to get a canopy, and turn it into a mausoleum for my ghost lady. She's not a FCG (yet), she's static.

Alternatively, sheets could be used for the sides and back. It wouldn't be 100% realistic, but nothing in my scene really is.

oaklawn Crematory

· #13 · Sep 7, 2015

I'm going to create a choke off point in my drive to keep out the bystanders and funnel the ToTs to the front porch. I hope to accomplish this with several new sight gags/scenes.

I'm still in the concept phase.....

Not sure if its going to be practical.

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cbhaunt

· #14 · Sep 7, 2015

We have same size of driveway. We have our towers and pic/wood fence going across it with the gates 'open' so we can get cars in and out still.
On Halloween we will remove cars, angle the gates inward to funnel people where we want.
On the driveway itself, we spread leaves all over ... And two Breathing Graves with tombstone attached to the wooden frame ... And we built coffins to make a 'waiting pile' for the gravedigger to bury next. The coffins could act as small pathway too, making ToTs run around them (many don't here tho).
One year we had a funeral on driveway with tombstones on grass each side. Then had skeletons and zombies on aisles of chairs and a coffin on a table at end of drive with a pop up skeleton in it. That year was a great success.

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Jenn&MattFromPA

Discussion Starter · #15 · Sep 7, 2015

These are great! Exactly what kind of feedback I'm interested in!

I'm intrigued by those of you who use your driveway as a display space, covering the ground with leaves. This concept could take my display in a really different direction... I've been thinking about the possibilities.

My ultimate goal with our Halloween display is to make the house & yard look more like an entire decrepit, haunted old abandoned cemetery & manor, rather than disjointed areas. Doing something with the driveway would really help to accomplish that.

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OctoberDream

· #16 · Sep 8, 2015

Last year we set up a fire in the driveway.

It was fun. I just had to keep the little one far enough away. While the Tot went through the haunted house the parents warmed up by the fire. We even put out some pretzel bites for the grown ups.
Fun was had by all.

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booswife02

· #17 · Sep 8, 2015

This year I plan on using my Hubbys Harley in the driveway. He was concerned about leaving it out on the street and I didn't want it in the garage as this is my first year doing a garage haunt. So I decided to just incorporate it in. Use it as a prop. Im going to put a skelly on it and dress him up a bit, motorcycle boots, bandanna, etc...
Now the garage opening I am actually going to leave open due to safety laws. I would have to get a permit to block off any part of the garage door so Im just going to trace it in lights and put props on either side of it. It will leave a nice wide opening and shouldn't have any issues with safety.

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bbills03

· #18 · Sep 8, 2015

Set up the fire pit w a cooler & hot cocoa for kids. Hand out candy & just interact w neighbors there. I live in a suburb of ranch homes all on top of one another so not much can be done in our driveway. You all are so creative though love the ideas!

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Saki.Girl

· #19 · Sep 8, 2015

My drive way will have a tunnel 30 ft long you walk thur this year and the front part will have a Hurse I have a very long driveway

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Jenn&MattFromPA

Discussion Starter · #20 · Sep 8, 2015

bbills03 said:
Set up the fire pit w a cooler & hot cocoa for kids. Hand out candy & just interact w neighbors there. I live in a suburb of ranch homes all on top of one another so not much can be done in our driveway. You all are so creative though love the ideas!

We actually do put up a fire pit on our driveway now, along with some table & chairs. But, we only do this for guests of our open house party, rather than everyone who comes to TOT. This is because we kind of block off the driveway area now so that it's not accessible to TOTers - we have them walk a pathway in the yard, rather than coming up the driveway. Our driveway isn't in the best condition - a bit crumbly, plus we have an incline that goes up to the front yard that isn't safe for people to walk up. Plus, my kids are little and so are a lot of family members kids, so we like keeping them farther away from the fire pits unless they really have supervision.

I love the thought of opening the area up to everyone once my kids are older and we don't have to be quite as hyper-aware of where they are in relation to the fire. I think it's such a great way for the community to gather and be friendly. Do any of you have any issues with TOTers getting too rowdy or not being safe around a fire pit?

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