Do it yourself Free
One weekend, a sheet of plywood and some string lights. Costs almost nothing and still stops traffic.
| Spot | What to get | How big | How many | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A |
Giant PVC Spider
Build it
The star. On the lawn at the bottom of the steps, off to the side of the walk. Ground level, not up on the landing. The landing is small and a big piece up there blocks your own front door. This one works just as well mirrored to the other side of the walk, so if a tree, a slope or the way you come and go says the far side is better, swap it and swap its partner with it. What matters is that it is beside the path and not standing in it.
|
3' 6" H | 1 | $34 |
| B |
50 in. Lighted Spiders, pair (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
2 pieces
Sidekick, left. Left of the steps at ground level, close to the first riser.
|
1' 3" H | 1 | $25.99 |
| C |
Hairy Spiders, 6 pack, 30 in. to 12 in. (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
6 pieces
Sidekick, right. Do not put these on the lawn. The legs bend, so they belong on things people pass within a foot of: the rail, the step edge, the mailbox, the door frame, the underside of the porch light. Three sizes in the box, so graduate them, biggest nearest the door and smallest furthest out, as though they came from somewhere. Never space them evenly and never in a line. Two together and one apart reads as infestation; six at equal intervals reads as bunting. They are flocked fabric on wire, so they will take a shower and will not take six weeks of rain. Bring them in after Halloween or write them off as a $16 annual.
|
n/a H | 1 | $19.99 |
| D |
Purple Solar Path Stakes, 10 pack (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
10 pieces
Walk and stair rail lights. Up both sides of the walk, then wrap the stair railing. Lighting the rail is the one move that makes a raised entry look intentional instead of steep.
|
1' 3" H | 2 | $55.98 |
| E |
Orange Incandescent Mini Lights, 300 count (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
300 pieces
Roofline. Full gutter run. On this shape the roofline is genuinely high off the ground because the whole house starts half a story up, so borrow a taller ladder than you think you need.
|
2" H | 2 | $51.98 |
| P |
Stretch Cobweb, 14.5 oz, with 150 spiders (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
0 pieces
Under the porch roof. STRETCH IT FURTHER THAN FEELS RIGHT. The single thing that separates a good web from a bag of cotton wool on a rail is how thin it is pulled: keep going until it is almost transparent and you can see the porch through it. A dense white clump reads as packaging. Anchor it at three or four points and let it sag between them rather than lining the wall with it. Corners, the underside of the roof, across the top of the doorway, between a post and the rail. Real webs span gaps; they do not wallpaper. There are 150 small spiders in the bag, so put a few IN the web rather than all of them on the floor. One bag covers a porch several times over, so use the rest on the shrubs.
|
n/a H | 1 | $7.99 |
2 things need an outlet, about 2.2 amps all together. That all fits on one 15 amp circuit, you are fine. Outdoor GFCI outlets only, and leave a drip loop in the cord at every plug so rain runs off instead of in.
You will also need
The cord is the part everybody forgets, and stores run out of them at the peak of every season. Outdoor rated only, and plugged into a GFCI outlet.
- 1× 25 ft Outdoor Extension Cord, 16 gauge (opens in a new tab) 2 plug-in pieces across 1 spot $16.98
- 1× Outdoor Timer with Photocell (opens in a new tab) Switches the whole display on and off on its own $14.98
- 1× AA Batteries, 8 pack (opens in a new tab) 6 AA needed, none included $8.99
About $40.95 of hardware, on top of the $195.93 of decorations. Buy it once and it comes back out every year.