Halloween is a time for carving pumpkins, eating candy, dressing in costumes, and decorating the home. If you’re here, it’s because you plan on hanging Halloween decor to impress all your neighbors.
Here are some tips to help you efficiently decorate the outside of your home so that your decorations can shine.
Decoration Tips for Halloween
We will now talk about the best tips for “killer” Halloween decorations, from choosing a focal point to using strobe lights.
Determine Your Focal Point
Check out Shine of Westlake and Shine of Dallas holiday lighting services for your next halloween decor.
A focal point is defined as the “point at which all elements or aspects converge; the center of activity or attention.”
For your home, selecting a focal point means choosing one spot on your house’s exterior where people’s attention should be drawn, and decorations should be strongest.
Many people choose the front porch as their focal point, but you can select whatever element of your home’s exterior that works best for your decorating needs. This includes a large tree in your front yard or some large Halloween decoration you set up, such as a blow-up spider or pumpkin.
To draw attention to this focal point, decorate it with captivating decors such as strings of lights, skeletons, fake cobwebs, and more. The majority of your decorating activity should happen on or near your focal point.
Clean Your Home’s Exterior
Leaves in the gutter and dirt all over the windows and exterior of your house impact your ability to put up decorations. It also draws the eye away from hanging Halloween decor and to the grime.
The importance of cleaning your home’s exterior extends far beyond the holidays and includes:
- Clearing out pollutants
- Preventing expensive repairs
- Ridding the exterior of allergens to keep your family healthy
- Time saver – power washing saves loads of time as opposed to manually scrubbing
Shine is proud to offer window cleaning in Dallas, Texas, and window cleaning in Austin, Texas. We also provide amazing holiday lighting services to help out with your yearly lighting decor . Contact us today to help your Halloween decorations “shine!”
Related: Can You Pressure Wash A Window?
Take Extra Time Hanging Outdoor Lights
Climbing up on the ladder and crawling across the roof may be fun, but it’s also dangerous. You want to spend as little time up high as possible. This means testing all your lights on the ground and changing out dead ones.
If you can, have someone there to spot you as you’re climbing up the ladder and walking on elevated surfaces. Use a sturdy ladder, and always rattle it around before climbing to ensure its balance.
If you just don’t have the time or energy to worry about the dangers of halloween lighting set-up, you can always contact your local holiday lighting professionals and ask for a quote.
Hide Extension Cords
Nobody wants to see extension cords tangled around the Halloween decorations. First things first, you’ll want to make sure any cables you use are made for the outdoors to avoid costly accidents.
Keep the cords out of main walkways or areas where kids will be playing. This prevents unnecessary wear-and-tear on the cords and potential injury if someone trips or steps on exposed wiring.
You’ll want to tape the extension cords off to the side or up high away from decorations using electrical tape. Plan your decor accordingly, so you’re maximizing space near the outlets with decorations that need to be plugged in.
Related: Best Time To Take Down Christmas Lights And How To Do It Safely
Use Strobe Lights
This decoration is often overlooked, but it can add a creepy feel to your Halloween scene. You can pair strobe lights for Halloween with a fog machine to create a spooky graveyard look.
If you’re into the full-blown scary Halloween scene, you can hang skeletons and bats, add fake cobwebs, or add other spooky decorations to your scene. Combine this with fog and strobe lights, and you’ve got a haunting set!
When pairing the strobe lights and fog machine, make sure the strobe light is pointed down or up at the fog. This illuminates the fog to create that spooky effect.
Use Jack-O-Lantern Lights
If you aren’t interested in creating a spooky scene with strobe lights and fog, that’s okay! Instead, opt for a cute Halloween scene with smiling Jack-O-Lantern lights or other inviting Halloween lights.
You can also hang adorable ghosts, happy skeletons, smiling pumpkins, friendly bats and monsters, and other hanging Halloween decor.
Who said Halloween has to be scary? Hanging Halloween decor that’s cute and inviting works well, too.
Don’t Do Too Much
Although it’s tempting to go overboard and hang every decoration you can find at the store, too much of a good thing is never good. Instead, keep attention directed to your focal point and choose the highest quality hanging Halloween decor.
If this is your first time decorating, start small with a few manageable decorations. As you progress, you can continue adding to the display slowly, ensuring it never becomes too much to handle.
Shop Used
Believe it or not, Halloween decorations are expensive. Luckily, you can find secondhand Halloween decorations at local thrift stores and on eBay.
Buying these items used results in far less of a sticker shock, and you’d be surprised the shape these decorations are in. Often, they’re as good as new. If you are looking to get new things at a cheaper price but willing to wait a little bit longer , you can also wait after halloween is over and come up with some really good sales at almost any halloween store.
Start Low And Work Up
If you’re eager to put Halloween lights on your gutter or decorate on the roof, make sure to start on the ground and work up. Doing so helps you get a better idea of what the final decoration scene will look like without forcing you to crawl up and down over and over.
As we mentioned earlier, spend as little time elevated as you can!
You can call your kids or a friend outside to survey your decorations once the higher ones are put in place. That way, if you need to alter the elevated decorations, you can do so without climbing up and down to look at the whole scene from afar.
Happy Halloween!
Now that you’ve got an idea of how you’re going to decorate your home’s exterior by hanging Halloween decor, it’s time to get started, so you’re ready for the holiday.
Remember to sit back, relax, and enjoy the final product!
To get the most out of your halloween decorations, contact our Shine locations in Dallas and Austin, Texas. Learn more today!
