Looking for ways to decorate a spookier Halloween this year? Following these lighting ideas will make your house coolest on the block.
1. CHOOSE THE RIGHT COLORS
The first step to getting awesome Halloween indoor & outdoor lighting is choosing the right colors. Blue, green and purple floodlights add the perfect spooky atmosphere for your front yard Halloween cemetery or haunted house.
Adding orange and red lights as the accent colors to contrast with the blue and green (these colors are opposites on the color wheel) creates a more haunting visual effect, and they are usually bright enough that people can still see where they are walking.
2. USE COLORED HALLOWEEN LIGHTS
Change the bulbs in your courtyard and porch to red, orange and purple colors, which still can provide light for people coming to and walking from your house, but they don’t overwhelm the spooky atmosphere as white lights do.
You can also add some roadside Halloween lights in your garden to:
① look spooky (of course)
② lead way or mark boundary for people like trick-or-treaters
Among all the roadside lights, those with batteries and ground spikes are my favorite because they are economic and safe, they don’t have wires so they don’t trip people over.
3. USE STRING LIGHTS
Traditionally, string lights are often used for Christmas, but now they are becoming more popular in Halloween decoration, with different light shapes like skeletons, bats, ghosts, pumpkins, etc.
String these along fences, over arbors, or over bushes as you would do for Christmas…but again, it usually works best not to use white bulbs.
4. PUMPKINS
Whether you use a real carved pumpkin or plastic ones, no Halloween scene is complete without at least one pumpkin. Jack-o-lantern is the core character of Halloween forever.
Try to place the pumpkin lights in unlikely places so they will be a bit of a surprise, like behind the gate, at the corner of your house, in the tree hole, etc.
5. USE CREEPY WHITE REFLECTORS
The next idea for Halloween lighting is to use white reflectors of light, like a piece of white cloth, white cotton lines to simulate spider cobwebs, white skeletons, etc. They don’t illuminate but they reflect other lights to make themselves look creepy.
It doesn’t matter what color of light you are using, it will show up better when it is being reflected by a surface that adds texture and spookiness to the scene.
6. LIGHTING WITH SPECIAL EFFECTS
Moving Lights
Static lights are less spooky than moving ones, for example, a rotating spotlight with changing colors definitely will increase its visual effect, or a flying phantom that is projected to the windows or walls will make it more terrifying.
Flicker Lights
In classical horror movies, a haunting house often has flickering lights, especially when ghosts are coming. Replace your indoor bulb to a Halloween flicker light which flickers all the time or when motion is detected.
Misters and Lights
Use misters and lights to create a “boiling” effect, which may often be seen in movies when witches are crafting mysterious potions. Also, misters and lights can be put in Jack-o-lanterns for more spookiness.
7. LIGHTING TECHNIQUES
Up-Lighting
Place a spotlight at the bottom of whatever you want to light, and then point the light up to highlight your object. Like the flashlight face trick, any object would look different with an uplight, especially with blue or purple lights.
Back Lighting
Backlighting can be an effective way to show off Halloween props like crows, bats, skeletons, etc.
If you have props that work well as silhouettes, lighting the scene behind them will make them stand out.
Hopefully that you’ve found some Halloween lighting inspiration that you can use in your own decoration.