Halloween Scene Ideas: A Haunted Mansion in a Spooky Swamp!



Greetings, all you gals and ghouls! It's our favorite time of the year here at Studio 71 - HALLOWEEN! With that being said, I have a fiendish assortment of props and scenes to share today. Our Halloween Scream Scene is a spooky, haunted mansion set back in a creepy, swampy forest. (Bear in mind, I have smaller children who aren't so into the "scary", so these are gore and horror free.) Have a look!

We begin our tour of the Haunted Mansion in the overgrown gardens outside. This large rat seems to have stolen a bone from somewhere nearby. (Lol. The rat is electronic and can be triggered remotely.) The sign warns to continue with caution.


We stumble on the mansion's private cemetery, overgrown and forgotten. A weathered skeleton has been uncovered and stares out from the dead grass. Perhaps this is where the rat found his bone.



Near the front door of the house we find a strange little garden gnome. He seems to be watching for something. Could it be us? Perhaps he's looking for the snake that's under the porch. Either way, he seems unaffected by the large spiders crawling around, or the giant centipede that's caught in their web.



Finally, the entry hall, with its dark and brooding decorum. A large, hairy spider has taken over, shrouding everything in cobwebs. Candles flicker, their pale light casting an eerie glow.


 Here we find the master's hat and keys. Was he, perhaps, a mortician?


Here we also find a lady's ring and scarf. Can we assume that they belong to the manor's mistress? She seems to have had a fascination with spiders.


Many of the decorations used here are not intended as Halloween decor but fit in so perfectly with the rest of the scene. Since this is #decoratingonabudget, a lot of the props here are hand made or recycled from other things. The rest can be bought at thrift shops and discount chains for fairly little coin.

The next Halloween Scream Scene installment will be a thoroughly witchy kitchen, complete with seance table and cooking cauldron. Stay tuned!

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