Room for Improvement: Haunted House

WSVN -- We usually give a space a sense of style on Room For Improvement, but today we are going for spookiness, as we transform a back patio into a haunted house for a kids' Halloween party.

Martin: "Hello. Room For Improvement."

Aidriana: "Hi, Martin."

Martin: "Are you ready for a spooktacular day? Let's go see the space."

Martin: "So what ideas do you have in mind?"

Adrianna: "I want to throw a party for my goddaughter. She's nine years old, and I was thinking something with a Halloween theme."

Martin: "It's a big space. I'm thinking we could turn it into a haunted house of sorts."

Adrianna: "Oh, that would be wonderful."

Martin: "Not too scary, but not too childish either."

Adrianna: "Right."

To turn this space into a haunted house, I did most of my shopping at a home improvement store. I even found some branches around the yard to create an eerie backdrop.

Martin: OK, Adrianna. This is what I have in mind. We are going to have a treat area for the kids. This itself will be the main haunted house space, so we are going to make it spooky and eerie, and this will be the main focal point for the kids to go in through.

The tip here is we are going to take a garden arbor. We are going to build it. Then we are going to spray paint it black, and we are going to tie some branches and dead wood around it with cobb webs. It will make it a really spooky entrance for the kids.

We took the arbor and covered it with garbage bags. Now we are going to take these branches that we found laying in the yard, and we are going to tie them around the edge.

All right, our next project is to make our own tomb stones. Sometimes when you buy them pre-made they can be pretty expensive, so for $7 I bought this whole package. We can probalbly get eight of them.

While Adriania is working on the tombstones I'm going to start working on the haunted house. The cheapest way to do that is to buy black tarp and attach them to walls with black duct tape.

We are done with the plastic. Now it's time to make the haunted house really scary. Here's a great tip. Take a dollar mask and existing scarecrow and put the mask over it. It turns it into a gorey creature.

Martin: "What you do think so far?

Adrianna: "It looks great."

I think we are done with the trick portion. Now, let's work on the treats.

We dug up some treats from the grave yard. This looks amazing and pretty goulish too.

So, we have dirty cupcakes and mud pies. This is Oreo cookies crushed up to look like dirt. And we are going to have a goulish punch coming up too.

We're making a bloody punch. Now, let's go change.

Welcome to my haunted house.

Martin: "So this morning what started as a normal back patio has been transformed into a haunted backdrop just waiting for the screams of Halloween."

Martin: "You guys like dirt? Well, this dirt tastes good."

Our goal whenever we decorate a space is to give it the wow factor, but today I think the fear factor works just as well. Happy Halloween!

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