Time to get your costume scrapbook and pumpkin carving tools out because Halloween is coming upon us again. There is no night like Halloween that will encourage you to rot your teeth with candy and to dress in your wildest costumes. In addition to trick or treating, a long tradition that is always practiced is the construction of a haunted house and decorating your haunted house.
Many people love going to haunted houses whether for the sheer fun of being frightened to death or seeing what’s lurking around the corner. However, there can be so much fun decorating your haunted house and filling it up with your own crazy and clever ideas. Now if you do decide to create and decorate your own haunted house, you may then ask yourself, how do I plan it?
Plan the Path
One of the first steps you should take is to take a look around the structure of your house, the backyard, and even your garage in order to decide where you want your path to go. Do you see a lot of open spaces or several tight hallways? Do you want to focus on the outside or the inside? Your dream haunted house can be either big or small, but focusing on decorating a few rooms and creating condensed rooms will make your pathway much creepier. Also what’s fun is deciding where would be the scariest places that you and your “volunteers” can hide, so you can jump out and scare people!
Time to Start Decorating Your Haunted House!
Now when you figured out your path, you should think of a theme; scary movie monsters, a creepy funhouse of clowns, an insane asylum, ghosts in the house- a single theme is preferred and it will determine how you will be decorating your haunted house. Once you have that figured out, now it’s time to decorate. The way you want to decorate your haunted house is up to you and there are ways to create the perfect haunted house without spending too much.
First thing is to create a creepy atmosphere; lighting (or no lighting) is key to this, maybe by adding a strobe light or using different colored lights will set up a tone. Adding blood and little touches like skulls, creepy mannequins, dangerous “toy” weapons, or fake body parts can certainly heighten the fear factor of a room. Also, an effective way to create an eerie feeling to the rooms is by using a fog machine. Using fake blood for writing scary messages like “help” and “look out” sets the mood perfectly as well.
Furthermore, sound effects create that lasting effect on your visitors; creepy noises, screams will generate that fear as you walk through. Find a CD or record your own sounds on your computer to make your own frightening soundtrack.
The Rooms
Each room should consist of different actions. For example, one room could have a scenario where there will be a dead body on a table with broken limbs, blood and guts splattered all over the floor. Another room could pit a monster trapped in a cage with body parts around him. Haunted house attendants should have something to fear or engage in when they go through each. Subtle things like adding spider webs on your lamps, adding props like tombstones, skeletons, skulls and “beware” signs will create the “haunted house” atmosphere you are looking for.
The Big Mess After Decorating Your Haunted House
As Halloween comes to an end and the next day arrives, you will soon realize that you have to spend the whole day cleaning all your supplies, sweeping the floor, and putting everything back into place. But why take so much time cleaning up when 3 Maids is simply a call away. Our top-notch staff will have your house in order and in tip-top shape after only a day’s work. Your home will be back to normal “house mode” at least until next Halloween.