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It’s virtually impossible not to embrace Halloween when you scroll through this season’s Halloween decor on HomeDepot.com. Without even leaving my living room, I was able to dream up the spookiest, most eerie Halloween scene ever. Filled with skeletons, gravediggers and so much more. The theme of our Halloween this year is a graveyard. The springboard was Wally the Gravedigger and the playhouse my son and I built together. We have plans to transform it into a haunted moonlight tomb. Think we can do it? Keep reading to find out!

Wally the 6-Foot Gravedigger

Wally is 6 ft tall, waves his lantern in the air and actually moves his mouth as he regales you with his eerie words. I don’t know that you can see in photos, but the details are pretty absurd, even his hat has little sweat stains on it! Once we had Wally set up, the rest of the scene kind of fell into place.

Wally’s faithful skeleton dog sits at his feet surveying the scene. If he sees anything awry, his eyes glow fiery red and he’ll let out a bark! He’s also fully posable so set him up anyway you like.

Making the Graveyard Foggy

An ideal graveyard is foggy with the moonlight shining through to illuminate the tombstones. So I needed some fog. The fog machine would have worked all on it’s own, but why not take it up a notch and attach it to this wretched reaper. The reaper moves side to side so the fog goes everywhere!

DIY Gnarled Hands

Also, I used the plastic sheets to create dirty windows with gnarled hands scratching to get out! Then I traced my hand onto a piece of paper and spray painted it black. 

I used a piece of masking tape to mark off the outline of the window so I knew where to adhere the hands. For this I was hoping just to use spray adhesive, but it didn’t work so well. I ended up using clear packing tape which was an even better solution since it essentially weather-proofed the hands.

Then I used my staple gun to attach the plastic sheets onto the inside of the window.

Add Spooky Decor

My kids love the Victorian reaper – they call him the hawk. He’s hiding in the shadows of the tomb ready to welcome new souls into his lair. There’s a strobe light flashing inside the house giving the reaper an even more sinister feel. If the groping zombie hands weren’t ominous enough.

A string of lanterns helps illuminate the gravesite and the flickering bulb looks just like a flame. Such a great All Hallows Eve detail!

Rats. The shed turned mausoleum needed some rats scurrying all along the outside. Also danger tape — isn’t that the most simple, perfect little detail? I hammered tiny brad nails into the side of the playhouse and then just wrapped some wire around a leg of the rat to hang them on the wall. I secured the tape with staples.

Giant Skeleton Superstar

I’ve buried the lead because the star of this show stands at a whopping 12 ft and looks down with moving LED eyes to oversee his graveyard. If you can’t get into the Halloween spirit with a giant standing skeleton, then when can you? My 9-year-old helped me assemble this guy (box recommends two or three people, but it was super easy). The bones are made of light-weight plastic reinforced with metal rods. Once you’ve assembled the hips, you rest the skeleton on the packing box to connect the rib cage, arms and skull. A wire keeps the figure standing tall and a sturdy metal base secures into the ground. And did I mention his eyes light up and move back and forth and blink? Needless to say, we couldn’t be happier with this giant guy. Easy to assemble and so cool. I’m already planning where he’ll go next year!

I keep going outside and finding the kids sneaking into the playhouse to move the Victorian reaper around or to cuddle the skeleton dog. They ask me to turn on the smoke every night and you can see the giant skeleton from the other side of the yard. Needless to say, we love our gravesite and I don’t think I’ve ever been so pleased with the animatronic grave digger that we’ve named Wally.

This is my second year participating in The Home Depot’s Halloween Style Challenge. I was beyond excited when I was asked to participate again this year! Last year, I did a Pirate Themed Halloween. So, I couldn’t wait to hear what my theme would be this year.

Design Ideas

First up, I always try to design my space and get all of my ideas going. This year my theme for the Halloween Style Challenge was “cemetery,” so I started brainstorming right away. I participated in this year’s virtual Halloween showcase to see The Home Depot’s decor options. Once I saw all of the products that were coming out, my ideas really started to fall in order. My front yard has a white picket fence that I knew would be perfect for a cemetery space. So, I started with that and ran with it.

Let’s Do Some Shopping

This year shopping looked so different. Instead of in-store shopping, I did most of my ordering and selecting online. A few items really stood out to me this year. My kids wanted to help and selected all of their favorite items to make our space so spooky and fun.

We ended up getting so many amazing things. The big winner this year was the giant skeleton. The box says that it’s 12 ft, but seriously there is no way to prepare yourself for how big this guy is! So many cars in my neighborhood stop to see when they drive by. We also got a mausoleum, a haunted hearse, baby doll heads, a skeleton pony, and graveyard tombstones.

DIY Ghosts

I always love adding some DIYs to my Halloween decor. I wanted to make something different this year so I made chicken wire ghosts. The only supplies I needed to make these were chicken wire, wire clippers, glow in the dark spray paint, firm grip gloves and a mannequin.

I started with the 2-foot chicken wire and wrapped it around the mannequin. I used the wire that wrapped it all together to tie the back pieces together and I made a corset for the top piece.

Then I cut the 4-foot chicken wire into strips. I used three strips per ghost. I folded the wire like an accordion, then I twisted the top cut pieces around the bottom part of the skirt.

I made three of the ghosts the exact way I would make a dress, but with wire. Who would have thought? Once they were all assembled I spray painted them with glow in the dark spray paint in hopes they would be seen in the dark as floating ghosts.

Styling My Cemetery

My favorite part is always putting everything together. It is where the real magic happens! Once I had all of my big items into place, I brought in the extra details. I added pallets to all the tombstones and stuck bones and skeletons inside so it looked like they were coming out of them. On the fence, I added little baby doll heads to each pike, which ended up being the perfect addition to the fence. I hung all of my ghosts in the trees with wire and wooden dowels across several branches. I used spider webbing to add an extra element of spookiness. Everything came together so well!

While styling the space, I had the best idea to add trick-or-treat bags to the other side of the fence. This year things are obviously so different, but this way no one has to come in contact with anyone. The kids can check out the yard, grab their bag and go. Trick-or-treat from 6 ft, I think it’s going to work so perfectly!

Final Reveal

So here it is, my final Cemetery Themed Halloween Style Challenge. I had the best time making this space. I always win brownie points with my kids as well for going all out for Halloween. We had such a fun time!

Special thanks to The Home Depot for inviting me to participate in the 2020 Halloween Style Challenge. I had an incredible time styling, DIY-ing and making my kids’ dream Halloween yard. It was a lot of hard work, but the end result was absolutely worth it!  I am beyond grateful for this incredible opportunity. To see more on this project head over to my blog at Eye in the Detail.  You can also follow along with all my projects by following me on Instagram.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to decorate for! So when The Home Depot invited me to participate in their Halloween Style Challenge, I was thrilled but also scared. I usually stick to a particular theme for Halloween. But this year, The Home Depot pushed me out of my comfort zone and tasked me to decorate with a cemetery theme. I’m so glad they challenged me to try something different! It was so much fun to combine our usual theme of spiders with this years theme: cemetery.

Planning and Shopping

I decided to shop online this year and The Home Depot’s website made it easy and fun! The Halloween portion of their website is separated into different themes. This makes it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for. I enlisted my husband’s help to shop and the second he saw giant skeleton, I knew it was getting added to my cart. We ended up planning our entire front porch design around it. Thankfully, The Home Depot had everything we needed for our design in one place. From the wreath, to the welcome mat, to the wood for our DIY trick or treat sign, it was so convenient to get everything we needed in one spot.

DIY Trick Or Treat Sign

I always have a welcome sign on my front porch. But for Halloween, I like to switch it up a little. This year, as a nod to the cemetery theme, I decided to make a coffin shaped trick or treat sign. Check out this how-to guide on The Home Depot’s website to see how I did it!

Decorating the Front Door

I attached the spider web to the door using a staple gun, but you could use a stapler or heavy duty tape. I dressed it up with a spooky skeleton wreath and added cardboard strips with the words “keep out” painted on them to mimic wood boards and even painted on some fake bolts to make it more realistic.

Building upon the spiders on the wreath, I added a spider and a web above the door and attached them using a hot glue gun. I layered a posable skeleton with the wood sign and since its arms and legs move, I was able to position it hugging the coffin sign to add to the fun factor. Layered outdoor door mats help create a welcoming entryway.

Adding Animatronics

To intensify to the spooky cemetery feel, I added a cemetery statue to the right side of the porch. Since he’s animated, he’s sure to delight all of the trick or treaters when he comes to life as they knock on the door.

Last but not least, I included an animated reaper at the entrance to the front porch to up the spooky factor. Having two animated characters is sure to delight all of the trick-or-treaters this year!

The Full Reveal

Nestled beneath mature oak trees, yet set high on a hill, our home is – how shall I say? Oozing with haunted vibes. For Halloween this year I felt it was only appropriate to turn our front walk, and the adjoining front yard, into a haunted graveyard scene. Matching the haunted aesthetic our home already lends itself to during the holiday season. I did all my Halloween decor shopping online this year. The Home Depot had everything I needed to create the spookiest haunted graveyard.

Setting the Scene With a Ghostly Welcome

To reach our front door, you must take a winding path covered in oak trees and dogwoods. Which leads to the front porch and front yard. I wanted to set the haunted scene right from the beginning of the walk. So I added a ghostly animated doll to greet our guests, beckoning them to play hide and seek with among the oaks.

Guests who do stay and play must disregard the warning signs to turn back, because no trespassing is allowed. The warning signs are made from old pallet wood with hand painted letters using red paint. An oversized spider web is the backdrop of our ghostly setting, with scattered pumpkins, lanterns and hay bales completing the Halloween scene.

As guests continue up the path, a haunted hound barks at a frightened skeleton who hides behind a tree for safety. To create the skeleton, I used extra bones from my bag of bones, and secured them to the tree using screws as ledges.

The Haunted Cemetery

Our courageous guests will continue to follow the path of pumpkins. They will be led past our front porch and directly into the haunted graveyard. Upon arriving, they’ll be greeted by the ghastly gravedigger. Warning that trouble lies ahead for those continue to wander through his grounds.

Past the gravedigger, an awakened skeleton bursts through his crypt. Ready to join the rest of the awakened dead lurking through the graveyard.

Behind the crypt and mausoleum stands the regal cemetery statue, hourglass in hand, counting down the hours of the lives of those he watches.

Deeper in the woods, three floating reapers join together, raising the spirits of the dead with their chanting incantations.

Our haunted graveyard was an absolute blast to put together. With just a few easy steps, we’ve created a scene to frighten even the stoutest of souls. A big thank you to The Home Depot for sponsoring this project. All of these fantastic Halloween decorations can be found in store or online at The Home Depot. The Home Depot has everything you need to style your home or party this Halloween! For more decor ideas, come visit me at House on a Sugar Hill.