- 1. Let the pumpkins lead the way
- 2. Go faux for long lasting pumpkin decor
- 3. Adorn your door with a seasonal wreath
- 4. Choose dried flowers to skip from fall to Halloween
- 5. Build on an autumnal display
- 6. Create a scary atmosphere with spooky outdoor lights
- 7. Enhance your front door with spooky stickers
- 8. Light it up with candles
- 9. Set the scene with Halloween bunting
- 10. Dangle floating witch hats from a porch roof
- 11. Get creative with lanterns
- 12. Weave a web across your windows with a giant spider
- 13. Let nature do its thing
- FAQs
Halloween door decor ideas can help you to set the the perfect seasonal scene outdoors – and as it's where trick-or-treaters will be knocking, your front door decor should strive to provide a stand-out focal point.
Decorating your door is often the best place to start when starting on your outdoor Halloween decor. From traditional wreaths and garlands, to fun lights, hanging decorations and pumpkins, there are so many seasonal – and scary – Halloween decoration ideas to choose from.
We've gathered some of the best outdoor Halloween decorations and inspiring decorating ideas so you can transform your front door from the ordinary to the extraordinary for spooky season.
13 Halloween door decorating ideas to embrace for the season
From cozy candles to floating witching hats, our favorite Halloween door decorating ideas, and expert-approved design tips, can help you to create an eerie entrance into your home for Halloween.
1. Let the pumpkins lead the way
What better place to start than decorating with pumpkins? This spooky squash is synonymous with Halloween (as well as with fall decor and Thanksgiving decor, too). From traditional pumpkin carving ideas, to colorful pumpkin painting ideas and no-carve pumpkin ideas, it doesn't get more timeless than placing a pumpkin by your front door.
'Adorn each step up to your front door with pumpkins, mix the sizes and if the classic orange is too well, orange, then add in some pastel painted pumpkins to create a softer, more contemporary look,' says Lucy Searle, global editor in chief, Homes & Gardens.
Lucy Searle has written about interiors, property and gardens for over 30 years, starting within the interiors departments of women's magazines before switching to interiors-only titles in the mid-1990s. In 2018, Lucy took on the role of Global Editor in Chief for Realhomes.com, taking the site from a small magazine add-on to a global success. She was asked to repeat that success at Homes & Gardens, where she has also taken on the editorship of the magazine, which is the UK's oldest interiors magazine at 103 years old. Lucy is a serial renovator and also owns rental properties in the UK and Europe, so brings first-hand knowledge to the subjects she oversees.
2. Go faux for long lasting pumpkin decor
If learning how to carve a pumpkin isn’t high up on your priority list right now, bring the ‘trick or treat’ spirit to your front door decor by investing in some stylish faux pumpkins.
There’s no need to worry about them going bad before the big night – in fact, you can guarantee they’ll look just as good next year too. Shop some of our favorite faux pumpkin designs below.
Showcase autumn’s bounty with these hand-painted pumpkins and gourds, available in a variety of organic shapes and seasonal colors.
This stylish Halloween pumpkin has been crafted using rattan to give it texture and warmth. A lovely, rustic no-clean-up alternative to traditional candlelit jack-o’-lanterns.
This illuminated pumpkin offers an elevated alternative to candlelit jack-o’-lanterns, perfect for creating a more contemporary, cozy glow.
3. Adorn your door with a seasonal wreath
A classic seasonal decorating idea, wreaths are a great way to celebrate the changing of the seasons, and they can help to create a warm welcome (or spooky) welcome to your home. Either shop the best Halloween wreaths, or start from scratch and learn how to make a Halloween wreath from beautiful fall flowers and foliage.
Pair your wreath with a coordinating garland to complete the look, as shown on this colorful doorway with the Balsam Hill Autumn Abundance Foliage – perfect for fall wreath ideas and fall front door decor ideas, too.
4. Choose dried flowers to skip from fall to Halloween
'All of the floral elements shown on this stand-out outdoor Halloween scheme are either dried or natural' says Stephanie L Hoey, owner and lead designer at Stephanie Hoey Interiors. 'The accompanying decor was then either handmade or sourced locally here in Savannah. The hand-painted pumpkins are a great Halloween craft idea to do at home, too.'
The overall look of this Halloween porch is perfect for fall and for a more modern, calming Halloween scheme, with the use of natural materials and brighter color palettes establishing a wonderfully rustic, grounding and inviting scene.
Stephanie Hoey is an interior designer and founder of Stephanie Hoey Interiors, based in Savannah, Georgia.
5. Build on an autumnal display
Is Halloween just one night? Or is it an entire season? If you’re undecided, plan your Halloween door decor as an adaptation of your fall decor. That way you’ll have a design that will work all season long, and you can always add just a couple of spookier additions over Halloween week.
‘One of the best ways to celebrate the arrival of a new season is by decorating your front door and porch,’ says Kelly Lambert, senior merchant of seasonal decor at Grandin Road. ‘During the Halloween season, nothing is more festive than a spooky decorated outside space that is ready for trick-or-treaters. A statement wreath makes a front door feel inviting, and serves as the centerpiece of the look. Then, simply fill your planters with faux autumn urn fillers, and lay down a door mat with a fall graphic or autumn sentiment. To finish the look, pile on the pumpkins. A perfect design that can work throughout the fall season, for Halloween – and even for Thanksgiving.'
6. Create a scary atmosphere with spooky outdoor lights
Weaving string lights into your Halloween door decor will create an alluring, soft glow, ideal for making your house stand-out on All Hallows Eve, as well as making your home feel more inviting as the shorter days and longer nights begin.
When many of us think of garlands, we picture beautiful, rustic creations crafted from natural materials, but there are also many other modern garland designs that can bring both a natural accent and eye-catching illumination to your outside space – like this striking Maple Leaf design from Amazon.
7. Enhance your front door with spooky stickers
Whether you're looking for more subtle Halloween decorating ideas, or are looking to cover as much as your front door as possible, getting creative with fun Halloween stickers can create a great effect.
Renowned interior designer Shea McGee from McGee & Co. and Studio McGee, takes us through her outdoor Halloween design, which elegantly combines more calming palettes and cozy decorations with traditional Halloween motifs.
‘When it comes to decorating our front door for fall and Halloween, I like to start with a more neutral fall look base and then layer on Halloween door decor come October. A while back at the McGee home, we started with a mixture of pastel pumpkins and florals and then added in bat stickers, crows, webs, and skulls for a spooky addition.’
While fall color schemes are traditionally bursting with vibrant oranges and reds, a pastel scheme can make for a surprising and stylish alternative.
Interior designer, Shea McGee founded her iconic design firm, Studio McGee, with her husband Syd in 2014. They later launched their e-commerce brand, McGee & Co, and starred in their very own Netflix show, Dream Home Makeover.
8. Light it up with candles
Don’t leave the best fall candles to use for your Halloween table decor – adding them to your entrance can create a truly atmospheric welcome for trick-or-treaters.
'Fall has always been my favorite season,’ says designer Josh Young. ‘When we purchased our historic townhouse in the heart of Washington, D.C. I knew I wanted to create a dramatic and fun element for to our entry for Halloween to help welcome the season.’
Like Young, find the best candles for the job and light them up. ‘We selected a bunch of various pumpkins, guards, and heirloom pumpkins of various sizes to line our staircase. Incorporating hurricane candle holders on some of the steps really helped create a moody and inviting atmosphere. It's oddly enough become a popular spot for tourists visiting our Capitol Hill neighborhood, and it has certainly gained some love via Instagram.’
Josh Young is an artist, designer, and tastemaker based in Washington, D.C. A graduate of Italy's renowned Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Josh's six years spent in Milan heavily influenced and crafted his overall artistic style. Inspired by the fusion of Old World elements married with bold, modern-day techniques, he has been experimenting with an avant-garde approach to design since 2009.
9. Set the scene with Halloween bunting
'A quick fix for those last minute decor ideas, is to invest in Halloween bunting. Choose a simple (yet stand-out) large 'Happy Halloween' design like above, or opt for smaller garlands that can be strung across your door, like this adorable 'Boo' Garland from Terrain,' says Jennifer Ebert, digital editor, Homes & Gardens.
Jen is the Editor (Digital) of Homes & Gardens online. Before starting this position, she had completed various interior design courses at KLC Design School, as well as working across Ideal Home, LivingEtc, 25 Beautiful Homes and Country Homes & Interiors as an interiors writer.
10. Dangle floating witch hats from a porch roof
When planning your Halloween door decor, think about using all the levels at your disposal. If your porch has a roof, use it to suspend spooky decor, as demonstrated in this example by lifestyle blogger Lianne Carey.
‘Halloween is such a fun time as a parent,’ says Carey. ‘We love to combine a little bit of spooky and fun with our fall porch, in just the right amounts. The floating witch hats are my favorite touch, along with lanterns to illuminate the path at night.’
Carey’s front door hosts quirky ideas from top to bottom, including spiders crawling over the roof supports, tonal pumpkins on the floor and a severed skeleton to greet guests.
Recreate the look and shop these Black Floating Hats from Pottery Barn.
11. Get creative with lanterns
Of course, you cant beat the warming glow of candle-lit lantern, but to surprise your guests and modernize your decor, consider giving your traditional Halloween door decor elements an unexpected twist.
These spooky black metal lanterns instantly transport you to 19th century candlelit nights – but instead of using them solely for candles, consider filling their glass cases with organic autumnal decor like in this example. Pile up vibrant leaves, pine cones and miniature gourds for a daytime look instead. Other twists on tradition include making pumpkin planters for autumnal flowers.
12. Weave a web across your windows with a giant spider
Got any arachnophobes in the neighborhood? They might want to look away now.
Going oversized with your decorations is a great way to deliver a fright from afar. This example is sure to achieve just that, with a huge spider crawling over the front door, with it's web trailing across the house’s front windows.
Think about bringing your door and Halloween window decor schemes together under one theme for a cohesive and authentically spooky design.
For scary spider decorations, shop these designs from Walmart.
13. Let nature do its thing
If all-out ghoulish isn’t really your style, take a subtler approach to Halloween door decor by focusing on an all-natural scheme.
In this example, pumpkins ranging from miniature to mammoth line the staircase, interspersed with fall planter ideas. This low-key design is elevated by the details: the railings are interwoven with dried cotton stems and spindly branches laden with orange berries, which give the impression that they could wrap their clutches around a trick-or-treater at any moment.
FAQs
What do you put on a door for Halloween?
It’s Halloween, so fulfil your wildest nightmares when it comes to door decor. While you’d usually want to create a warm welcome for guests, the holiday is a great excuse to spook them out instead. Adding a wreath to your door is a traditional piece of fall decor – but think about adding model spiders, skulls or miniature gourds painted with Jack O’Lantern faces in time for the witching hour.
Fake cobwebs work well for coverage over such a tall space as a front door, and can form a great backdrop to bigger decorations fixed to the doors, like large model spiders, dangling skeletons, such as this scary skeleton from Wayfair, and more.
How do you wrap a door for Halloween?
When it comes to wrapping a door for Halloween, you have two options. You can purchase a ready-made door wrap, like these door covers from Amazon, printed in some form of ghoulish pattern or design – in this case, you should simply follow the instructions for the product you buy.
Alternatively, you can get DIY with it – and how you put it together is dependent on the final look you want to achieve. You can create your own layered design using colored cut-outs, or take a single sheet of pale weather-proof fabric and use dye to paint on your own design, employing stencils if you need them. Be sure to measure it up for your door beforehand, and to cut out slices for your mailbox, door handle and doorbell if necessary.
Another way you can enhance your front door for Halloween is with a unique, customizable sign. We think this Trick-or-Treat Neon Sign from Etsy makes quite the spooky (and chic) statement.
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