10 Halloween Decoration Ideas – These Tricks Will Make Your Home Look Like a Treat

From classic pumpkins to cozy candles, garlands, wreaths and more, celebrate Halloween by making your home look spookily stylish and scarily inviting

(Image credit: Studio McGee | Pottery Barn | Terrain)

As the weather starts to cool and we begin to spend more time indoors, what better way to welcome in fall season than by planning your Halloween decor?

Transform your home for spooky season and make your space look more frightfully festive than ever with our collection of creative Halloween decorating ideas. 

We explore everything from stand-out outdoor Halloween decor, to simple home-made crafts and enduring shop-bought decorations that can be used throughout the year and time and time again.

10 Halloween decorating ideas for both indoors and outdoors

'It's so easy to take your fall decor and repurpose it for Halloween,' says Lucy Searle, Editor in Chief, Homes & Gardens. 'I usually go full force for fall, then slowly add Halloween decorations to my existing wreaths, pumpkins, and so on. Then, I take it all away again so that I'm Thanksgiving decor ready.'

1. Enhance your fireplace with seasonal decor

(Image credit: Neptune)

If you're unsure on where to start with your Halloween decor, there is no better place than a beautiful fireplace. Offering a sense of warmth, comfort and coziness, many of us will be gathering around lit fires during the cold winter months, and what better way to celebrate this natural focal point in a room than with eye-catching seasonal decor.

From inviting candles to pumpkin decorating ideas, garlands and foliage, let your creative Halloween flair run wild on your fireplace. We explore how to decorate a mantel for Halloween further in our dedicated feature.

2. Get your porch prepped for Halloween

(Image credit: Shea McGee)

Looking to go beyond the usual pumpkin carving ideas and Halloween door decor? Then go all out across your porch.

We love the contemporary white, green and orange color scheming of this Halloween porch decor, and how the pale palette perfectly complements the floral displays either side of the door.

You needn't buy a ton of pumpkins for this stylish look – simply carefully arrange a collection outside your door or across your porch steps, and if you wish, enhance them with gourds, flowers and foliage.

3. Put your efforts into an expansive pumpkin display

(Image credit: Stephanie Hoey Interiors/Kelli Boyd Photography)

Knowing how to carve a pumpkin to effect is one thing, but you can actually create way more of an impact with bold pumpkin painting ideas. Better still, these no-carve pumpkin designs need less effort and time to look fabulous. Simply choose a color scheme you love, perhaps one that matches your front door or your indoor room color ideas, and go to town.

'We are seeing a ton of pale blue coming through this year for fall trends and Halloween trends,' says Jen Ebert, Homes & Gardens' digital editor. 'It's a wonderful foil to all the fall colors you see around in nature and incredibly stylish, too.'

4. Curate a stand-out Halloween tablescape

(Image credit: Terrain)

'Of course you can crowd your Halloween table decor with fun motifs, such as spiders, bats and ghouls,' says Jo Bailey, stylist and Homes & Gardens' print editor. 'But for an adult-only All Saints meal, why not be a little more elegant? I love this Midnight Florals table runner and the coordinating serveware from Terrain. With the glorious candelabra and pretty pumpkins adding the perfect seasonal touch.' 

5. Get busy with flowers and foliage at Halloween

(Image credit: Alamy)

Floral Halloween decorations will make your home feel festive but elegant, too.

Whether you make a Halloween wreath from fresh flowers to complement fall planters or make a pumpkin planter for a look that combines both fall and Halloween, you can't go wrong if you stick to burnished colors that complement the nature that's surrounding your home.

6. Bring Halloween decor into your kitchen

(Image credit: Le Creuset)

Usually, we focus on Halloween decorating ideas in our outside spaces, living rooms and entryways, but who says you can't bring a taste of spooky season into the kitchen also?

We love the new Le Creuset Autumn Collection, and think the pretty pumpkin casserole dishes, serving ware and accessories will make for a perfect Halloween accent in a kitchen space – and they will be sure to fit in perfectly with your Thanksgiving table decor ideas, too.

7. Enhance your decorations with lanterns for a cozy feel

(Image credit: Pottery Barn)

Welcome guests and visitors with a beautiful Halloween decor display on your porch and add a touch of the cozy – to balance out the scary – with plenty of warming, inviting lanterns.

This stand-out Halloween porch has been adorned with foliage, wreaths, garlands, pumpkins and more. Finished with sleek Caleb Lanterns from Pottery Barn, which will illuminate the steps as well as the beautiful decor, these lanterns can also be used to make your home's entrance feel cozy throughout the year.

8. Embrace Halloween decorating ideas you can use all year round

(Image credit: Studio McGee)

There is no better time to decorate your home with plenty of candles than during fall, Halloween and winter.

Candles can not only help to make a house look cozy and warm, there are plenty of wonderful scents to choose from that can also make your home smell like fall, too.

Invest in stylish, enduring candle designs that can be used and enjoyed all year round, like these striking Orange Twisted Taper Candles from McGee & Co, and pair them with a beautiful holder, like the Rosario Taper Holder shown.

9. Have fun with a Halloween craft

(Image credit: Sticker Scape on Etsy)

Halloween decoration ideas, if made at home, should be fun, and something the kids can get involved with. 

The simplest of these Halloween craft ideas has to be bats cut from black paper. Perfect as Halloween window decor, they can be hung from tree branches outside or added to garlands, too; creating a spooky, easy-to-create display.

10. Create a warm welcome with rich, autumnal shades

(Image credit: Liz Marie Galvin, Anna Vanderberg)

Want to make more of an impact with your Halloween decoration ideas? Pick out pumpkins in bolder, deeper colors and in different shapes and sizes. Combine them with painted pumpkins – or faux pumpkin decorations – flowers, lanterns, and even autumn leaves, and arrange until you are happy with how they look.

Beautifully show on this front porch by interior designer, Liz Marie Galvan.

By Lucy Searle