Bloodcurdling screams, buckets of candy, and ghoul inspired costumes, are all part of the fun that comes with Halloween. A key part of the holiday is decorating your home. Whether you decide to go into full eerie decoration mode, or you’re just interested in adding flashes of terror, a great way to spookify your dwelling is by decorating your windowsill with silhouettes. Using a mixture of colored lights, string lights, and shadows, here’s your guide to creating a creepy windowsill.

Step One-Choose Your Spooky Silhouettes 

To begin your spooky scene, you’ll first need to decide what type of silhouettes you want to use. For example, maybe try a skeleton waving, with a black cat in the corner, a menacing hand reaching out, ready to grab its next culprit or get extra terrifying with a threatening character holding a chainsaw. The possibilities are frighteningly endless. Depending on time and your level of creativity you can either purchase precut silhouette window clings or use downloadable templates, heavy black paper and an X-Acto knife to trace and cut the shadows. The number of silhouettes you need depends on the number of windows in your home and whether you want one or more shadows per windowsill. After cutting the designs out, use enough tape around the edges of your cut out to seal them tightly to the windows.

Step Two- Sheets and Blinds and Curtains, Oh My!

After applying the shadows to different windows you have several options to help create the background for your silhouette. If you currently have blackout or dark colored curtains over your blinds, you’ll want to remove them so that the shadows can show up clearer at night. Draping a white sheet over your windowsill will help your shocking shapes show up better when paired with indoor lighting. Fairly sheer white curtains will also create this effect. If you don’t want to invest in curtains or sheets and you have white blinds over your windows, pull them down to reach the full length of your decoration.

Step Three- Ghastly Lights 

Once you have your sheet and silhouette set up, you can have a little fun with the lights. The lights you chose depend on the effect you’re going for.  For example, if you want to keep your window silhouette slightly sinister and sharply outlined then you need only turn on the lights in the rooms where your décor is set up and watch as scary shadows terrify everyone.  However, if you’d prefer to create a more interesting effect, consider using Christmas string lights. Try hanging them downwards or stringing them from corner to corner across the window to create an interesting design that highlights your supernatural show.

Although you can choose whatever color you like best, consider going with amber-orange colored string lights to keep with those traditional Halloween colors of black and orange. Another option for string lights is using Christmas light stringers with chasing effects. This means that the lights will flash on and off in a consecutive sequence. Paired with some horror sound effects or music and you’ll probably be one of the most hair-raising houses on the block (bonus points if you can make your figures move). Finally, if you want to illuminate the entire room with color, consider twisting in a colored light bulb in each room. Maybe use a blood curdling red for macabre upstairs windows, ghost-friendly green for downstairs windowsills or go really chilly and use black lights throughout the house.

You’ve successfully created your very own spooky sills. All that’s left is gathering a few treats, putting on your costume and a little toil and trouble. How are you decorating your windowsill for Halloween? Let us know in the comments section below and as always, you can drop us a line on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest!