As the warm seasons draw to a close, and the days grow shorter, we may find ourselves worried about losing time in our gardens. But this year is different. This year, we embrace the autumnal transition, and there’s no better way than to celebrate Halloween with friends and family from the comfort of a garden building.
Luckily for you, we have compiled a guide to help you make the most of your Dunster home this Halloween. Exploring different themes, products, and activities – inspiring you from the front door, all the way to the back of the garden.
Porches
One thing that we love about Halloween here at Dunster House is the sense of community that it brings. The celebration spills out onto the streets; we open the door to our neighbours, admiring everyone’s spooky decorations. We believe that there is no better way to get involved than decorating the front of your home. A perfect way to begin the frightful festivities is by decorating your porch. We find that our range of porches are perfect for this, and starting by decorating the front of your home is a very simple but effective way to kick-start your Halloween, as it is a relatively small project.
Your porch is the first feature that people will see, so we believe it deserves some attention. An easy starting point can be by adding some carefully thought-out lighting to help guide your creative vision. Our Thunderdam Porches feature generously sized chunky posts and front beams, which we find are perfect for decorating. Start by wrapping and hanging Halloween-themed fairy lights or spooky flickering lanterns. A simple display with good lighting will almost always beat an elaborate display with poor lighting. The lighting decides how much and in what way we will see a display. By focusing on intentional lighting and not overcrowding decorations, you can construct an engaging and balanced display, without going overboard.
Top Tip: Hang LED candles on plastic string and suspend them from the wooden beams to give the impression of sinister levitating candles as they blow in the wind.
Once you are satisfied with your lighting display, it’s time to move on to the decorations. Your first instinct may be to hang up multiple decorations or ornaments; however, we often find that less is more. Try to stick to no more than three decorations. Something small such as a hanging bat or ghost always works really well, especially when accompanied by strategically placed lighting.
Most importantly, trick-or-treaters in your community rely on lights to know what doors to knock on. The most recognisable light of them all is, of course, the pumpkin.
Want to learn more about our Wooden Porches? You can find out all the benefits by reading our blog.
Garden Kitchens
Our line of Garden Kitchens are more than ideal for the Halloween season and are the perfect space for prepping and carving pumpkins. Making the most of the daylight with a group activity outside is a fun way to get Halloween started. The Garden Kitchen provides a practical workspace that keeps your home clean, by keeping the mess outside.
With a modular design, you can configure your kitchen to work for your needs, and with its premium stainless steel countertop, you can effortlessly keep your workspace clean and suitable for pumpkin carving.
As always, the most important part of your process is safety.
- Children must always be supervised by an adult
- Use specialised tools
- Prepare your workspace
- Keep your hands dry
The Garden Kitchens are very versatile, especially at Halloween. If pumpkin carving isn’t your thing, we have a wide range of activities that both children and adults will enjoy –
- Ginger-dead Men – Use the spacious worktop to prep and cut a series of sinister gingerbread treats.
- Halloween Paper Chains – Explore your creative side by making Halloween-themed paper chains. A fun, budget-friendly, and interactive way to provide yourself with decorations this Halloween season.
- DIY Slime – Easy to make DIY Halloween slime can be a really fun activity for children. Although it may be on the messier side, with a Garden Kitchen you can keep all that mess outdoors.
If you’re interested in one of our Garden Kitchens, but aren’t sure about what layout would work best for you and your garden, read our blog to find out the best layout for your garden
Addroom
If you’re not a big fan of trick or treating, or partying, and you’d rather just stay inside this Halloween, you’re not alone. Sometimes the best way to enjoy festivities, is from the warmth and comfort of your own home. Hosting a spooky movie night is the perfect inside activity during this time of year. With a range of Halloween films suitable for different ages, you can make it as light-hearted and spooky or as scary as you please.
We believe the Addroom is the most optimal setting to host such an activity. The added skylights and customisable windows and doors let in plenty of natural light throughout the day. However, when the sun sets this can also be used to create a spooky atmosphere. Better yet, you’re never too far away from the kitchen if you want to top up on popcorn.
If you’re looking to set up a softer, more child-friendly movie night, we’d recommend decorating to fit this vibe.
- Friendly decorations – Within the Addroom, arrange some spooky decorations, such as candles, ornamental pumpkins, or friendly ghosts.
- Atmosphere – To create a spooky but soft atmosphere, why not put glow in the dark plastic stickers on your windows or skylight.
If you’d consider yourself more of a horror lover, we’d recommend opting for some spookier, more atmospheric decoration choices.
- Utilise your garden space – If your Addroom has a view of your garden, lean into it. Place some scary decorations in the background, such as skeletons, scarecrows, or ghosts.
- The interior – In the UK, Spiders are frequently voted as the scariest and most unnerving theme of the Halloween season. What better way to take advantage of this than by draping fake cobwebs across your ceiling or hanging decorative spiders from the blind poles.
Log Cabins
If you own a Log Cabin, using it for Halloween festivities this year is a must. We’ve seen our Log Cabins used for a range of purposes, but at this time of year we think there’s no greater idea than decorating it like a haunted house. Invite friends and family over for a spooky celebration that they’ll never forget.
As we mentioned previously, you can always decorate your cabin to cater to your guests. So, whether you’re planning on hosting a children’s party, or adult get-together, our Log Cabins are the space to be.
A strong idea for a child centred evening would be a spooky scavenger hunt. Use your Log Cabin and the surrounding area to create a fun game where everyone wins. To create atmosphere, you can hide a speaker outside the cabin and play spooky ambient music during the hunt.
How to plan out a Halloween scavenger hunt –
- Select a Theme and Storyline – create a narrative that is referenced throughout the hunt
- Plan out the Locations and Boundaries – where abouts is your scavenger hunt taking place, does it stop at the end of the garden? Does it include the driveway?
- Build Clues and Challenges – using rhymes and riddles, write spooky puzzles that lead from one spot to the next.
- Gather Supplies – To keep it fair, you will need some medals for your players, at the end of the game you can give out awards to each team – best costume, funniest team name, determination etc.
If you’re wanting to host something a bit more adult centred, make the most of your Log Cabin and host a haunted house cocktail night. Having some friends over, dressing up, and preparing some Halloween cocktail drinks is guaranteed to be a good night. Better yet, if you own one of our Pub Sheds or opted for a Log Bar, then you already have the perfect setup for this kind of night.
Some Drinks you could make include –
- Vampire’s Kiss Cocktail – Vodka Chambord + Cranberry Juice
- The Zombie – White Rum + Spiced Rum + Pineapple Juice + Passion Fruit Syrup
- Bloody Mary – Vodka + Chilled Tomato Juice + Lemon Juice
Want more Halloween drink inspiration? Read our blog and explore a variety of delicious, easy-to-make Halloween drinks.
Conclusion
If you want to see more inspiration why not watch our Halloween Garden Buildings video and learn how you can make the most of your garden products this spooky season.
This autumn set your season off to a good start and immerse yourself in the festivities of Halloween. With ideas that can apply to lots of different areas of the home, we hope you found our guide useful. We hope you have a Happy Halloween.
More Information
If you’re interested in making the most of your garden and would like more information on our range of garden buildings, please contact us through our contact us page or by calling us on 01234 819452, or you can also send us an email to [email protected].
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