10 Awesome Geeky Halloween DIY House Decoration Ideas

by Angela Alcorn

 

 

Who doesn’t love a great Halloween display? Halloween house decorations can be great fun and if your house can creep out the kids with something different each year, you’ll become a local legend in no time. Buying Halloween gadgets and props could be an option as well, but it is costly and comes with a risk of being the same as the neighbours. If you’ve got some geek smarts, why not use them to make something unique?

Do you know a little about engineering? Electronics? Programming? Bad sci-fi horror movies? Mix all of that up and you have a recipe for awesome geek decorations. Here’s a selection of Halloween house decorations which have been designed by geeks with a little too much spare time on their hands. Go science!

Light Displays

Use your knowledge of wire and switches to build complicated lighting arrangements. Control them manually, program your light sequence or work some sensors in to add a little excitement.

Popout

Sound Displays

Put on a little quiet creepy music to set the scene, then add sound effects to disturb and terrify your guests. Try your favourite horror movies for sound effect ideas. For music, there’s plenty of creepy organ music on YouTube. Why not make a playlist?

Popout

 

 

Remote Control

If you have a view of your yard, you can watch where people are and use a remote control to scare them at just the right time. Hours of fun!

Sensor Control

Over and above the basic electrical skills comes working with sensors. Light sensors, audio sensors and touch sensors can all be used to make your Halloween decorations just a little bit more spooky.

Popout

Programmed Sequences

Use some basic programming skill to control the overall sequence of events. Make some things constant, others every two minutes, while the occasional event only happens directly after something else (but only every fifth time). If this is done as well as the remote-controlled and sensor-controlled events it will be even better!

Automatic Movement

Hydraulics, magnets and propulsion are all easy ways to get things to move by themselves. Try making something that jumps up, squirts water, squirms or shoots across the yard.

Add Character

Look to bad horror flicks, B-grade sci-fi and creepy books to come up with characters and scenes which will scare the pants off your audience. Want something creepy spoken? Record some Poe.

Chemistry

Don’t forget your dry ice and liquid light!

Popout

Scary Paths

Make a maze or a drawbridge so that your guests have to walk by your scariest items. You know you’ve done really well when only a few kids are brave enough to make it to your door.

Geek Characters

If scary stuff isn’t your thing, you can just avoid the cliché Halloween decorations and turn your house into a geek’s paradise. The kids will suddenly find Optimus Prime a whole lot scarier.

Geek Pumpkins

If you just want to add a geek twist to a traditional Halloween decoration, have a go at some geeky carved pumpkins like cylons. The possibilities are endless.

Mix it up

For extra geek points, mix it all up. If you add one new item per year you’ll get there eventually. Make a partially sensor-controlled and part remote-controlled audio-visual display with spooky lighting, creepy music and sounds, things that move by themselves using hydraulics and magnets, mazes and the works. Feature scenes and characters from the most creepy books or movies you have ever found. Voila! The neighbourhood kids will be torn between the need to take a look and the need to be elsewhere very quickly.

You might also like these DIY projects for Halloween including recipes and costumes. Hope you enjoy creating something special this Halloween using these ideas for inspiration.