Halloween lighting ideas: turn your home into a haunted house

Halloween lighting ideas: turn your home into a haunted house

24 June, 2024

Bewitch your trick-or-treaters and give your guests a fright by turning your home into your favorite type of Halloween haunt — a ghoulish graveyard, a witch’s den, or a monster’s mansion — all with the right indoor and outdoor Halloween lighting ideas.

Outdoor Halloween lighting ideas

The outside of your home is where you set the stage for Halloween, so use smart light to bring your house to life (or death, depending on the type of Halloween decorations you like!).

Normal vs Spooky outdoor lighting with Philips Hue

Use Halloween pathway lights

Only the bravest trick-or-treaters will dare to approach your door when you use smart light to illuminate the path. Outdoor lightstrips are a favorite for Halloween, as you can snake them along winding paths and set them to any color — try orange, purple, or green — to creep out your Halloween visitors.

Highlight your spookiest decor

Create a cemetery in your front yard with DIY gravestones, and then place Lily spotlights in between them. With their powerful beams of light, Lily spotlights can create interesting shadows — making your outdoor Halloween decorations that much more dynamic.

Trigger your lights with motion

Normal vs Spooky dining room lighting with Philips Hue

Set up an outdoor motion sensor that turns on your lights as someone approaches. Make it even creepier by only turning on one or a few lights that highlight your scariest decor. For example, tuck two spotlights under bushes or leafy plants beside the door. When people approach, the area will be flooded with light and shadows.

Create spooky Halloween window lights

Place a lightstrip on the windowsill and cover lightly with fake cobwebs, which will diffuse the light underneath. Then, attach Halloween silhouettes to the window: a bunch of flying bats or a witch riding a broom, for example. The lightstrip will cast light upwards, illuminating the display. 

Bright idea: Bring sound into your Halloween decorations with Philips Hue + Spotify! Create a new Entertainment area with your Halloween lights (including your window lights), and then tap the Sync tab in the Philips Hue app. Play any Halloween song or sound effect, such as thunder or ghostly noises, and your lights will react to the sounds. 

Indoor Halloween lighting ideas

Whether you’re just waiting for the next group of trick-or-treaters or throwing an epic Halloween bash, you can transform your home to be just as eerie inside as it is outside. 

Normal vs Spooky pumpkin lantern with Hue Go

Upgrade your jack-o'-lantern

A jack-o'-lantern is the centerpiece of Halloween decor, so go big this year with an extra-large pumpkin — large enough for a Hue Go portable lamp to fit comfortably inside. Unplugged from the charging cable, it’s well suited for a pumpkin. Want it on for longer? Simply run the cord through the back of the pumpkin to keep it shining for hours on end. 

Bright idea: If you miss the flickering of candles in your jack-o'-lantern, use the Candlelight effect in the Hue app to simulate the brightening and dimming of a tealight in your pumpkin.

Skeleton Halloween decoration hanging on the wall illuminated by an eerie orange light.

Hang a skeleton in front of a Signe

A skeleton is one of the most popular Halloween decorations, and they can really make a spooky statement when placed in a corner of the living room. Complement this Halloween decoration with the Signe floor lamp — with its long, slender light, it can be hidden perfectly behind the spine of a skeleton. Drape a few cobwebs or tattered linens above and around the skeleton to add a few shadows to the setup.

Bright idea: In the mood for a little Halloween prank? Program a Hue motion sensor to turn the floor lamp on at night. When an unsuspecting person walks by for a midnight snack or trip to the bathroom, the skeleton will light up — and give them a midnight fright.

Light up paper bats with a lightstrip

If you don’t already have a lightstrip in place, one of the best locations for it is along the backside of a long side table or buffet — the lightstrip faces the wall, spreading light around and upwards. Not only does it create a beautiful effect for everyday lighting, but it also provides the perfect spot to showcase holiday decorations, including a swarm of paper bats.

Illuminate spiderwebs with a Bloom

You can’t go wrong with a few spiderwebs and some creepy-crawlies, but you can make them even creepier with smart light. After hanging the cobweb and dotting it with spiders, place a Bloom table lamp right behind it. The Bloom often faces the wall, but this time, you want to face it outwards: position it toward one of the largest spiders so that it casts a shadow across the room.

*When a bulb displays "Up to" a certain number of lumens in its specifications, it displays the maximum lumen output of the bulb. It shows how bright the bulb can get at 2700 K (White bulbs) or 4000 K (White ambiance or White and color ambiance bulbs). Learn more about brightness