DIY Haunted House Tip #1: Give Your Haunted House a Theme with a Creepy Story

Before you buy a single spider web, craft your story.

Start by deciding who the main character is. Is it the biggest new jump-scare animatronic? A skeleton who you can dress in virtually any Halloween costume? Or is it one of the classics: a witch, a clown, or a scarecrow? You don’t need to spend much; you can put rubber bands on the bottom of a pair of pants, around a long-sleeve shirt, and stuff them, blow up a balloon or grab a sports ball, put a mask on it, add a hat, and you have a mascot for your haunted house.

“Starting with a story helps everything else fall into place,” says Dylan. “Once you know your theme, you know what you’re looking for, and you can start shopping for your own house. Dress up a skeleton, paint a cardboard box, and turn it into a tombstone. Get creative with what you already have.”

And don’t let the scale intimidate you.

You can choose a creepy corner in your home and use lighting, cobwebs, and hand-drawn glow-in-the-dark art to illuminate the space. Then add your favorite skeleton dressed to kill; stand them up by running a phone or ring light tripod through the middle, resting on the head.

So get that story set and start thinking about scenes in the house. How will your story unfold? These are our top Halloween themes from the past few years to inspire a story and theme for your own haunted house - WE go big! 

3 Easy Halloween Themes for Your DIY Haunted House

Nuclear Disco: The skeletons were having a disco party (we metallic spray-painted and mirror-balled skeletons, labor of love, but so worth it), when BOOM, a nuclear explosion hit. We created the middle part of the house with green lighting and repurposed characters we already had to fill the space, like clowns, mummies, and spiders from previous years. Once you made it through the nuclear explosion, there was a glow-in-the-dark Nuclear Disco happening, illuminated by neon glow-in-the-dark.

Kreepy Karnevil: The clowns have taken over the big top and are running sinister games and up to antics. For the setting, instead of the traditional maze-style haunted house with trash-bag wall partitions, we made it feel like a big top. This involved a center point and running circus flags and carnival lighting. Dylan had fun with the games on this one, like Throw the Head at the Face (a cheap plastic skeleton skull that you can throw literally at any face plastered on the wall; we printed out a clown face).  We unfortunately now own a lot of clowns. Just gonna leave that right there.

Zardy’s Twisted Maze: Scarecrows and mazes are the quietest kind of creepy. Zardy is a 2021 Home Depot animatronic, which we built this around, by buying corn stalks, bales of hay at the pumpkin patch, and creating all sorts of corners with creatures of Halloween. This year, 2026, Zardy’s Maze is coming back to life with a few new friends like Sinister Straw Man from Spirit Halloween… this time, the scarecrows lure you into what you think is a “pumpkin patch”  - turns out they are trying to steal your soul. Escape the reaper.

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DIY Haunted House Tip #2: Use Halloween Decorations to Engage the Senses

To make your haunted house feel like the pros built it, think about all the senses — touch, sight, sounds, smells, and leave taste for the trick-or-treat at the end.

Touch But Don’t Touch: Let’s start with a new one we recently learned at a “Behind the House” tour at Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) — touch. Yes, you should not touch the people in a haunted house. Just don’t. But that doesn’t mean things cannot touch and be touched, like chains hanging from the ceilings, a sheet wrapped and stuffed to appear to be a body, and my favorite, a simple piece of thread hanging, not in a group but individually. Try it, you’ll see what I mean.

Let There Be Light! But Also Shadows: “Lighting may be the most important special effect you have,” says Dylan. “Changing the color and direction of your lighting can completely change how a familiar space feels. Add sound, fog, and things people can feel, and suddenly they aren’t just looking at Halloween decorations. They’ve stepped inside your story.”

Lighting can be as elaborate as installing strip lighting on the floor or ceiling, string lights, or just grabbing a lamp fixture, taking off the lampshade, and popping in a color-changing LED bulb. I love the ones from Sylvania because they come with a remote; no need for WiFi, or GE has light bulbs with speakers built into them to play your spooky tunes. And don’t forget to create that spooky playlist. It can be sounds that go with your house or music. Use both to bring guests in with the sounds of the night. 

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DIY Haunted House Tip #3: Safety Before Scares

There is one part of building a haunted house that should never be scary: safety.

Before decorating, clear the everyday clutter out of your garage, room, or hallway and establish an obvious pathway for guests to follow. Keep cords and decorations away from walkways, be thoughtful about your electrical setup, and avoid overloading circuits. For extension cords loaded up outside, look at Twist & Seal Cord Protect; this prevents water from getting in the connections and the lights from shorting out.

Also, know your audience and adjust the scare factor based on the ages of the children and guests walking through.

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Our #1 Tip for the Best DIY Haunted House

You don’t need professional sets, the biggest animatronics, or an enormous space to build a memorable DIY haunted house at home. Start with a story. Choose a theme. Shop for your house. Engage the senses. Use lighting to transform the space. Add a few unexpected scares. Keep safety in mind.

But most importantly, create it together.

One day the kids are grown, and the house gets a whole lot quieter. So while you have these opportunities, take them. Have fun! Be creative. Build something together. Our haunted houses only last for Halloween, but it’s the most wonderful time of the year for us. 

For more DIY haunted house ideas, Halloween decorating inspiration, and creative family projects, visit BeTheBestHome.com and MrDylanEmery.com, and follow Kathryn Emery at @kathrynemerytv and Dylan Emery at @mrdylanemery.

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