DIY Disney Haunted Mansion Halloween Decorations

If you love Disney’s Haunted Mansion, these DIY Halloween decorations will help you recreate the spooky atmosphere of the classic attraction at home, in your yard, or at a campground.

We transformed our entire campsite into an immersive Haunted Mansion walk-through using mostly handmade props, foam board, thrifted finds, lighting, and decorations we already owned.

Our setup included Madame Leota, hitchhiking ghosts, a haunted coffin, the portrait hallway, Constance Hatchaway’s attic, a ghostly carriage, and even Haunted Mansion-inspired costumes.

You don’t have to recreate the entire display, though. Choose one or two of these ideas for your Halloween decorations—or combine several scenes to create your own Haunted Mansion experience.

Haunted Mansion Theme at a Glance

• Theme highlights: Haunted Mansion entrance, Madame Leota, haunted coffin, portrait hallway, cemetery, Constance’s attic, hitchhiking ghosts, ghostly carriage, and Disney-inspired costumes.
• Main building material: Foam board
• Best special effects: Black lights, spotlights, glow-in-the-dark paint, fog, and projected video
• Decorating locations: Campsite, yard, porch, party space, or home
• Skill level: A mixture of easy decorating ideas and larger DIY props
• Best advice: Start with one focal-point scene and add lighting, sound, and smaller details around it

Now that you have an overview of the project, let’s take a closer look at each DIY Haunted Mansion decoration we created. From iconic Disney-inspired scenes to spooky special effects, these ideas can be mixed and matched to fit your own Halloween display, whether you’re decorating a campsite, front porch, or yard.

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Haunted Mansion Signs and Entrance Decorations

The entrance signs were one of the first things guests noticed and immediately set the tone for our DIY Haunted Mansion display. I designed and cut the lettering with my Cricut machine before mounting it to a tin chalkboard that happened to be the perfect shape for a Haunted Mansion entrance sign. Sometimes the DIY stars align! 😄

To make the entrance signs look authentic, I used the free Ravenscroft font, which closely matches the lettering from Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction. You can find it here at 1001 Fonts.

The next project was a pair of entrance columns that flanked the opening to our campsite. I built them from foam board using the same Ravenscroft font as the entrance sign, then generously covered them with joint compound for a rough, stone-like texture. I meant to paint them later, but honestly, the natural gray color looked so much like aged stone that I decided to leave them as they were.

I capped each column with a scrap piece of plywood and topped it with a vintage-style Tiki Torch lantern. (And if you notice the black shape behind one of the columns, that’s just the back of a Hitchhiking Ghost prop—it disappeared once it got dark.)

The next sign I made was the “Welcome Foolish Mortals” sign. This was also the Ravenscroft font but I made the scroll design inside Cricut Design Space. I applied the design to a piece of plywood that was from my old built-ins that I just demolished. I’m glad I was able to reuse it for something else.

And the last sign was “Beware of hitchhiking ghosts”. This was also the same font and applied to a piece of painted plywood. The hitchhiking ghosts themselves were made out of foam board that I painted black. Then I traced the images onto them using a projector and painted them with white glow in the dark paint.

Love creating decorations inspired by classic movies? You might also enjoy my DIY Nightmare Before Christmas outdoor decorations, including handmade characters and props for a complete Halloween display.

DIY Haunted Mansion Coffin Scene

The DIY Haunted Mansion coffin scene quickly became the focal point of our entire Halloween display and is still my favorite decoration from the project.

I built the coffin from foam board wrapped with faux wood contact paper and lined the inside with leftover fabric for an aged, haunted look. The simple construction held up surprisingly well, even through humid and rainy weather.

The coffin top was also made of foam board that I spray painted with beige stone paint over a black base to give it a stone-type look. I wanted it to look heavy and I think it worked.

I put a skeleton inside, holding up the top, a spotlight with a green bulb, and then surrounded it with dead flowers.

I got myself in a little bit of trouble when I asked in a town FB group if anyone had any dead funeral flowers. Evidently, that was offensive. (Hand on forehead) But, people who knew me quickly came to my rescue and turned the conversation around to how much fun I have with Halloween. Phew…sometimes my Halloween ideas need a little explanation! 😄

The final touch (not in the photo) was the fog machine! It just really made the scene super creepy.

Floating Chandelier for the Endless Hallway

One of the most recognizable scenes in Disney’s Haunted Mansion is the seemingly endless hallway with its mysterious floating chandelier. I recreated the illusion by hanging a chandelier with battery-operated candles from a tree branch using clear fishing line.

At night, the nearly invisible line made the chandelier appear to float in midair, creating one of the simplest yet most effective Haunted Mansion special effects in our Halloween display.

DIY Haunted Mansion Corridor Door

One of the creepiest scenes in Disney’s Haunted Mansion is the corridor lined with mysterious doors that knock, breathe, and seem to have a life of their own.

To recreate that eerie feeling, I built a towering 4-foot by 8-foot corridor door from painted foam board and topped it with an ornate metal scroll decoration. A vintage-style door knocker and handle from Hobby Lobby completed the illusion, making the oversized door feel like it belonged inside the Haunted Mansion itself.

Planning a Halloween weekend at the campground? My Campground Halloween Party Ideas blog post includes decorating ideas, games, activities, contests, and tips for creating a memorable celebration.

Haunted Mansion Cemetery Decorations

No Haunted Mansion display would feel complete without an eerie cemetery scene.

We include a graveyard in almost every Halloween theme we create, then customize it to match the year’s display. This time, my daughter-in-law and grandkids took over the setup and did an amazing job. If I hadn’t injured myself, I would have loved to make new Haunted Mansion-inspired tombstones featuring characters from the ride.

If you’re creating your own Disney Haunted Mansion cemetery, I highly recommend adding custom gravestones for that authentic look. And yes…these gravestones were made from foam board too! 😄

Haunted Mansion Portrait Hallway

One of my favorite areas to recreate was the Haunted Mansion portrait hallway, and it ended up being surprisingly simple to make.

I used a Haunted Mansion wallpaper shower curtain to cover a 4 x 8 sheet of foam board, creating the instantly recognizable wallpaper from the attraction. Between my daughter-in-law and I, we already had plenty of changing portraits in our Halloween collection, so all we had to do was hang them on the wall and highlight them with a spotlight.

I originally considered using a black light because I thought the wallpaper might glow, but it made the portraits difficult to see. Instead, I lit the display with a spotlight and moved my glowing eyes prop to another section of the path, where it created an even creepier surprise.

DIY Madame Leota Crystal Ball

Madame Leota is one of the most recognizable characters in Disney’s Haunted Mansion, so I knew I wanted her crystal ball to become a focal point of our display.

After researching several tutorials, I discovered that many people projected an image onto a sculpted head inside the globe. It looked amazing, but it was far more technical than I wanted to tackle.

Instead, I found a vintage black-and-white portrait that had the mysterious look I was after. I then enlarged it so it would fit inside the plastic globe. I attached the image onto a piece of cardboard so that it would stand up straight inside the globe. The hair was simply 2 yards of blue tulle and little strips of green tulle tucked around the face.

I set the globe on top of a cake stand and shined a black light onto it. It really looked like it was glowing! Under the black light, the entire crystal ball appeared to glow, creating a surprisingly convincing Madame Leota effect.

Then I spray painted some plastic musical instruments that I ordered on Amazon and hung them from the tree above the table. The black light reached these as well but the white paint I used wasn’t really glowing. So next time I will use glow-in-the-dark paint instead of regular white spray paint. I read that not all white paint glows. It has something to do with a chemical in the paint or fabric that makes it glow. Keep this in mind

The final touches were some tarot cards and other Halloween-type decorations on the table and I played a loop of Madame Leota’s seance that I found on Youtube to a speaker. It was amazing!

Constance Hatchaway Attic Scene

Constance Hatchaway’s attic is a really cool scene in Disney’s Haunted Mansion, so I wanted to recreate it as accurately as I could. The goal was to transform an ordinary campsite into a dusty attic filled with forgotten treasures, with the infamous ghost bride as the centerpiece.

In the attic, I used a bunch of stuff from my storage including, old chests, furniture, ladders, a folding screen, an old portrait of me from the 80’s glamor shots LOL, some wooden frames, an area rug from my dining room, and my Daughter-in-law brought a bunch of things from her storage as well. I think we successfully made it look like an attic.

My 13-year-old granddaughter Addison, who has always loved baking, created the wedding cake for this scene using a set of four plastic bowls. She covered each bowl with spackle and decorated them with edible rosettes from the grocery store, turning a few inexpensive supplies into the perfect haunted wedding cake.

I even considered using my parents’ original wedding cake topper. It had the perfect aged look, but after more than 50 years it was too fragile. Addison quickly talked me out of using it—and she was absolutely right. It would have looked amazing, though!

I made Constance out of my wedding dress and a dress stand that I had for a decoration in my closet room. I added a foam head to the dress stand and used a piece of white tulle for a veil. I posed her with a plastic knife and set an axe at her feet. For those of you who don’t know the story, Constance murdered many husbands. 🙂

The final touches were old books, lanterns, torches, a dead flower arrangement, and lots of little Halloween decorations like rats, an old tv that talks, an old phone that talks, and other misc stuff for effect. The only thing I forgot (I literally just thought of this) was spider webs. I usually have bags of the stuff that you stretch onto things but I didn’t see anything when I was going through my stash and forgot to get some! That’s on the list if I recreate this for actual Halloween.

The whole scene looked amazing under the blacklight…especially the wedding dress. I don’t know why but all of the photos with the black light looked really blue but in person, it just looked like it was glowing.

Projected Dancing Ghosts AKA Skeletons

One of my favorite scenes in Disney’s Haunted Mansion is the ballroom filled with dancing ghosts. It’s one of the parts of the ride that I remembered as a kid.

I wanted to recreate that effect but couldn’t figure out a practical way to build it. Then I remembered my Halloween projection DVDs featuring dancing skeletons. While they aren’t identical to the ghosts from the ride, they created the same magical illusion and worked perfectly for our display.

I purchased one of the projection screens from AtmosFX and hung it from our camper awning. With the projector positioned on the camper steps, the dancing skeletons appeared to float in mid-air, creating a surprisingly realistic ghostly effect.

The DVD is also from AmosFX and you can get them here. They are made to use with a projector to project onto a wall, with your TV, or on props or screens to make your decorations come to life.

Since this effect is best appreciated in motion, be sure to watch the full walkthrough video.

DIY Haunted Mansion Hitchhiking Ghosts

The Hitchhiking Ghosts are some mischievous characters in Disney’s Haunted Mansion that hitch a ride on your cart. They were one of the very first props I created for this display.

I projected images onto four pieces of foam board after painting them black, then traced and painted them with glow-in-the-dark paint.

Looking back, I wouldn’t paint the boards before tracing the images because it made the projection difficult to see. Thankfully, there was still enough detail to improvise and finish the ghosts successfully.

DIY Haunted Mansion Ghostly Carriage

The Haunted Mansion hearse became one of the biggest focal points of our entire display that we placed in the front of the camper, and it almost didn’t get built. I originally thought the project was far too ambitious, especially with how I was feeling at the time, so I nearly crossed it off my list altogether.

But my son Keith, and daughter-in-law Stephanie, weren’t ready to give up. While experimenting with ideas, my son started working on top of an 8-foot folding table, and suddenly everything clicked. The table became the perfect base for the carriage, making the entire project much simpler than we had imagined.

We used long metal pieces from an old gazebo frame to create the decorative sides of the carriage, then built oversized foam board wheels and duct-taped them to the side of the table so they appeared to support the carriage.

We even left enough room at the front for a skeleton driver, which completed the Haunted Mansion hearse effect.

If we had more time I would have added a top, back and front to the carriage, but I honestly think it looked great without it. Watch the entire video below and you will see the carriage at the end. It looked great at night with the spotlight on it.

Haunted Mansion Costume Ideas

To complete the Haunted Mansion experience, our whole family dressed as characters from the attraction. We mixed thrift store finds, closet pieces, and a few purchased accessories to create Disney-inspired costumes without spending a fortune.

My costume consisted of a green gown that I found for $5 at a thrift store. Funny story, It had a lace topper attached to the breast area. I cut the dress to remove the lace and arms, and was left with a simple green sleeveless dress. Then, because it was a couple of sizes too small for me, I cut the dress right up the middle of the back and sewed in a piece of black stretchy material so I could just slip it on.

Then, I realized that I sewed the fabric to the wrong side of the dress. (Hand on forehead again) In the end, I wore the dress backward and inside out…and it actually looked better that way! Sometimes the DIY mistakes become the best ideas.

To finish off the look, I purchased an authentic Haunted Mansion apron, socks, and a maid’s headband, and it all came together.

My husband’s costume was a green coat I purchased online. Then I grabbed a white shirt and black pants from the closet. Then we finished it off with a vest that I painted purple last year for another costume, along with a ribbon barrette that we used as a tie.

My granddaughter Addison, wanted to be the tightrope walker in the stretching room so we got her a petticoat and she wore that with a tank top and made some ballet slippers out of her shoes and some ribbon. To top off her costume she borrowed an umbrella from my sister-in-law.

My brother Jim, and my sister-in-law Tracy, dressed up as the graveyard keeper and Mary Gracey aka Constance Hatchaway. They created their own costumes, and I thought they captured the characters perfectly.

Watch Our Haunted Mansion Halloween Walk-Through

Bringing our DIY Haunted Mansion Halloween decorations to life was one of the most rewarding Halloween themes we’ve ever created. From the entrance signs and Madame Leota’s crystal ball to the Hitchhiking Ghosts, Constance’s attic, and the ghostly hearse, every scene added another layer to the experience.

Watching family and friends walk through the display and recognize their favorite moments from Disney’s Haunted Mansion made all the hard work worthwhile.

If you’ve been thinking about creating your own Haunted Mansion Halloween display, don’t feel like you have to build everything at once. Start with one favorite scene, add your own creative touches, and expand your display a little each year.

Some of our best ideas came from repurposing items we already had, proving that you don’t need a huge budget to create a memorable Halloween experience.

Have a favorite Haunted Mansion scene or DIY prop? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

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