DIY Haunted Mansion decorations for a door or window

I look at how I created my DIY Haunted Mansion decorations for a spooky-themed door:

A few years ago I had a friend living in an apartment complex. This complex had a competition every year in the month of October to decorate your apartment door for Halloween. He wasn’t going to do anything, but when I heard about it I asked if I could decorate his door!

I decided to go with a Haunted Mansion theme. I like Halloween – but I don’t like anything too scary, overly creepy, or gory. The Haunted Mansion is a good vibe for me. It’s a little spooky but also fun (and funny!).

Plus, there are so many great details you can put into something Haunted Mansion themed. I started with many more ideas than what ultimately fit on the door!

In fact, I had such a good time with it that I decided to re-create some of it when I did a cruise during the Halloween season. I kept some elements, but also added a few different things when it was for the cruise door.

So I’m going to walk you through exactly how I put together my DIY Haunted Mansion decorations for the door the first time around! Then I’ll share how I adapted it for a Disney Cruise Line door (as well as other ways I’ve used some of the items I’ve made!).

I ended up going with some purple mesh ribbon that I found at Dollar Tree (you can find similar here). I didn’t end up covering the whole door (just the top half). Part of this was because I didn’t want to go back and buy more when I ran out! But I decided the “graveyard” section at the bottom didn’t need wallpaper since it was outside, of course.

I used a few temporary hooks to attach the ribbon along the sides of the door, and I also just taped it together in places.

Creepy Wallpaper

The next part of the creepy wallpaper, of course, is the creepy eyes! This required a little bit of experimenting, but I was happy with how it ultimately turned out.

I actually started with toilet paper tubes, which I cut in half. I then drew the shape of eyes onto them. If you look closely at the creepy wallpaper, there are several different styles and shapes of eyes. So I made a variety.

After that, I cut out just the parts that would be the “whites” of the eyes. I just used markers to color the tube purple. You could also paint it or do this however you wanted. Finally, I mounted the 1/2 tube to a piece of purple cardboard so I could easily attach them to the door.

My idea to make them light up was to put glow sticks inside (that’s why I wanted a tube shape!). I just folded them in half and tucked them inside. It actually ended up looking pretty cool when it was darker!

I got a simple wooden sign and painted it purple. To make the letters, I used my cricut machine. I found a Haunted Mansion inspired font, and then I used the machine to cut out the letters onto vinyl. It was easy to transfer to the wooden sign!

I just flipped them over and decorated the backs. They were white on the back, so I painted them gray first.

I considered a few different ones, but ultimately decided to go with Madam Leota, Dear old Fred, and Cousin Huet. I knew I wanted Madam Leota since she is one of the most iconic, but I was a little nervous about drawing her face! The others were more simple designs.

I sketched everything out with pencil first. Once I was happy with it, I went over it all with sharpies. I was pretty happy with how they turned out!

I brought the tombstones with me to decorate our cruise ship door the following year. Since we had a stay at Port Orleans French Quarter before the cruise, I also put them out for display in our window!

Madam Leota had cracked in my suitcase on the way to Disney World and the Cruise, but I taped her together from the back. While not ideal, I thought it came out okay since they are old, creepy looking tombstones anyway.

Since the stateroom doors on Disney Cruise Line are magnetic, I just attached all of the decorations by adding magnets on the back.

I was going to include my original “Welcome Foolish Mortals” sign, but I think I had misplaced it. Instead I quickly made new ones with some wooden squares I had by just painting them purple and adding the words with stickers.

I also used one of the squares to replicate the clock striking 13. I used markers for this and basically just did it freehand (sketching it out in pencil first, of course!).

Finally, I added a bat to the top of our door. This was a decoration that I had purchased at Dollar Tree and just added magnets on the back.

While the main point was to advertise the library and our October reading challenge, I couldn’t resist a Haunted Mansion twist on the whole thing!

My graveyard included tombstones with puns as epitaphs in the style of Haunted Mansion. These ones I wrote myself to be a play on things that were book or library related.

Above that is a nod to the stretching room portraits. I re-created them using children’s book characters. The tightrope walker became Angelina Ballerina, the man on the barrel of dynamite was Willy Wonka, the old lady was replaced with the Queen of Hearts, and for the quicksand portrait I used the Cat in the Hat with Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Madam Leota gets her own section in the window too, where she predicts how many minutes we will read this month! I purchased a cheap crystal ball decoration (just made of plastic). The base was removable so you could add lights, but instead of lights I printed a picture of Madam Leota and put it inside the ball.

The last section of my window was a haunted library. I used miniatures and made small books to put in here. If I had time, I would have done a small cross-stitch of “Tomb Sweet Tomb,” but this “home sweet haunted home” sign that we already had was good enough!

The middle of my display has a sign I made by adapting the “Welcome Foolish Mortals” phrase. Instead, we have “Welcome Bookish Mortals.”