# Question: how do I decorate the front of my house?



## DarthRader (May 19, 2016)

Not sure where to post this topic, but I live in a farm house and the front of it is very, very tall and completely unsafe to climb that high on a ladder, if I even had a ladder big enough that is. What would you do to liven it up? I have one small tree in the front yard and that's it! My front porch is really small, but I decorate my garage and hand out candy from there. We moved in our house October of 2015, and I only had about 2 weeks to move in and set it up. It just seemed a little bland to me. The yard had a graveyard and lights with pumpkins and an archway, but the house itself sat alone behind it all with nothing. What can I do!?


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## halstaff (Nov 18, 2009)

Do you have a picture of the front yard and the house? That would help us visualize what you are working with.


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## DarkOne (Oct 16, 2012)

Maybe make it look abandoned by making fake boards out of insulation foam painted to look like wood and attaching them haphazardly over the windows? You could just attach them crisscrossed together and attach them as one unit.


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## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

Check int " Photos and video's" for pictures of haunts done by the members here.
Most everyone here post pictures of their haunts and that would be a good starting point.
Also you may want to check out "Pinterest" and do a search for Halloween decorations.

http://www.pinterest.com/

There are alot of ideas here, but it will take some time looking.


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## DarthRader (May 19, 2016)

halstaff said:


> Do you have a picture of the front yard and the house? That would help us visualize what you are working with.


I'm new to this site, how can I post a picture?


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## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

One way is to open an account at Photobucket (it's free). Download you photos to there and then use the links to post your photos here.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

DarthRader said:


> I'm new to this site, how can I post a picture?


Once you set up an account, refer to this thread for guidance on how to post a picture and additional guidance on how to fix Photobucket embedding issues:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=40440

A couple other ways to liven up the front of the house is to make use of lighting and projections. Colored flood lights placed low on the ground and angled up toward the house can definitely set a spooky mood. Lights that "move", such as the fire and ice lights, give a speckled pattern of moving colored light that looks wonderful. Halloween vendors sell them, but we've also found them in a version called "kaleidoscope" at places like Home Depot (probably around Christmas time).

http://www.spirithalloween.com/product/88723.uts

http://www.homedepot.com/p/LightShow-Icy-Blue-Projection-Kaleidoscope-Combo-Pack-35955/206477614

Last year Home Depot sold lights that projected moving figures such as ghosts. We got one and projected it onto the side of our neighbor's house since it was a blank canvas and he was okay with it:jol: You can see the ghost images on the side of the house on the left side of the photo at 2:41 in our yard haunt video. You can also see the rippled look of the fire and ice/kaleidoscope lights on some of the night shots:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=42573

If you're willing to invest in a projector for videos, there are a number of great Halloween-oriented videos that can be rear-projected onto a white sheet or scrim in front of your windows. We start running projections in an upstairs bedroom window about two weeks before Halloween to get the anticipation levels building. Nice thing is, since it's inside, we don't have to worry about bad weather. Some examples of digital decorations can be found here:

Spectral Illusions (who is a member here):

http://www.spectralillusions.com/effects/

AtmosFEAR FX:

https://atmosfx.com/collections/atmosfearfx

Tips on how to set up a projection can be found here:

https://atmosfx.com/blogs/tips-tricks


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

Without seeing the actual house, you kind of have us guessing, so...
You might look at dramatic uplighting on the house to give it a spooky look, or, keep the lighting very bright, but focussed on the areas you CAN get to to decorate. With it getting as dark as it does at that time of year, viewers kind of become "blind" to the unlit areas, especially if you/your area, don't have much in the way of light pollution to backlight the house.


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## screaminscott (Oct 13, 2006)

I agree with the idea of using lighting for the house. You can also try creating shadows on the house with up-lighting. Try sticking branches in front of the lights to create a spooky 'haunted forest' shadow effect on the house. Or you can cut out spooky silhouettes to create shadows (or even print off transparencies on a printer or copier)


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## selling1309 (Mar 30, 2016)

When I lived in town I got ahold of some old fence pickets and "boarded" up my windows. You know four or five tacked across the windows at random angles. 
Then I got some blue flood lights and hid them behind some shrubs and tombstones and pointed them up at the house. The blue light "washed" the house giving it a real eerie feel. Add some fog and enjoy the night! 
You have to be careful with the fog tho. One year I put the fog machine on the porch and one of the parents came up to the door and couldn't see the steps on the way down and landed in the yard twisting her ankle!!! It was terrible but she was a great sport about it thankfully. 
Ever since then I just sit on the porch so they don't have to even touch a step. lol


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

fontgeek said:


> Without seeing the actual house, you kind of have us guessing, so...
> You might look at dramatic uplighting on the house to give it a spooky look, or, keep the lighting very bright, but focussed on the areas you CAN get to to decorate. With it getting as dark as it does at that time of year, viewers kind of become "blind" to the unlit areas, especially if you/your area, don't have much in the way of light pollution to backlight the house.


Lighting was sort of my thought, too. I made some simple 'can' lights with a cardboard tube, simple / basic light socket from the hardware store and a 3W color change LED, so I can remote control what ever color I want it to be. The small downside is each time power is reset, the LED bulb goes back to a default mode cycling through all colors and I have to use the remote to reset. Though I think they have bulbs that stay programmed now. Either way, I'd highly recommend LED bulbs as you can't hardly beat the saturated colors and energy efficiency.

You might also consider making some creepy cardboard cutouts to cast shadows on the house... a ghost, craggly hand / claw, or an old tree might 'liven' the place up a bit. You could even add motion to the cardboard, meaning the shadow would move too.

I'd have to disagree a bit on the light...unless your area is already heavily light polluted...but you said farmhouse, so that sounds like dark country to me. I think the biggest bulbs I use are 3W LEDs and I have those on low power most of the time. Everything else is below 1W. To me, shadows are part of the effect leading to spooky dark corners or hollows which you might not be able to see just what is there. Throw in some blinking LED eyes and fog to complete the creepy effect.

Another effect would be to fire off some strobes or other bright light to actually induce some mild 'flash blindness', then watch as your guests try to get reoriented in the dark...just as something jumps out at them.

At the top end, some people are mapping projectors to their house and projecting entire scenes on the walls, so you could have all sorts of things going on there.


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## Hsnopi (Oct 26, 2012)

I'm going for a combo graveyard pumpkin patch this year. Eventually I want a full haunted pumpkin patch!


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

Keep in mind that "blind" people ay blunder into/over things. The risk of injury to humans and props alike could be catastrophic.


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