How to Decorate the Front Door for Halloween

Your front door is the first representation of your home to incoming guests. The front door makes a statement about you and the place you dwell. When it comes to Halloween, you want to use the front door to make a bold statement of celebration. There are few places like the front door to make the definitive statement of how much fun Halloween can really be and how much it means to you!

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

1. Start with orange paper. Cover the entire door. This orange paper will become your canvas on which to create your Halloween masterpiece. A simple pumpkin door hanger may do, but that's likely to overpower the door. You want to start simple with plain orange paper. Glue to your door or tack it to the top of the door.

2. Write a variation of "Happy Halloween" to welcome guests and future trick-or-treaters. Write anything that expresses how you want your visitors to experience Halloween. "Have a Howling Halloween" is a popular variation. If you live in a very culturally diverse area, consider writing it in several languages.

3. Express the theme for your holiday decor with your door decorations. If you want to theme your Halloween to a celebration of Disney villains, you want to put an evil witch and Ursula on the front door. If you are going with classic monsters of yesterday, put a clear drawing of Frankenstein out to greet trick-or-treaters.

4. Put a collage of Halloween treats on your door. Trick-or-treaters can know what to expect at your home if you display the treats they'll likely get at your door.

5. Put an orange-and-black themed dry erase board on your door. This lets visitors around the Halloween season leave you messages.

6. Consider decorating your door with a theme of "elegance." For this, you would use a store-made Halloween wreath. Place fall flowers, a pastel orange plate or even a miniature broom on the doorway. A door decorated this way can set the mood for a lovely and serene house, yet still let others know that you are in this holiday for some enjoyment and fun!

7. Paint your door in orange and black stripes if you are really up for adventure. Make sure it's temporary paint, or you may have some people from your neighborhood's beautification committee knocking on your door! Highlight this sort of door decor with a few carved, lit pumpkins lighting the way to your festive doorway.

8. Decorate your door using ghost silhouettes. It's quite easy to make these. Use dark paper if your door is painted white. Use white paper if your door is painted dark. Cut out all kinds of shadows that could be cast of ghosts, gremlins and horror movie monsters. These should all be side shots so that they are easily recognized in silhouette and shadow. Glue these to your door and set up a back light. That's sure to create some frights and some fun to the trick-or-treaters that come your way!