Condemned Building Halloween Decorations

More than ever, we need a little bit of fun in our lives. Though trick-or-treating and Halloween parties may be postponed or completely scrapped this year (happy 2020 y’all), we can still enjoy the season with treats and decorations.

Last year, we decorated our porch window with spooky and haunting silhouettes. This year, we decided to make our little apartment windows mimic a creepy, old condemned building. Let’s get our spine-chilling and blood-curdling Halloween decorations started!

Supplies Needed For your Condemned Building

Before making your harrowing haunted house, you must gather all of the appropriate supplies! Below is a list of everything you need for your condemned building Halloween decorations.

For the Boarded-Up Wooden Planks:

Large and thick foam board
Paint brushes
Acrylic paint
Velcro or double-sided command strips
Serrated knives or pumpkin carving kit

For the Shattered Glass Effect:

Frosted glass “privacy” window film
Scissors

For the Condemned Building Look:

Caution Tape
Tape

Making Your Halloween Decorations

This project is best used for covered porches, because the decorations are not waterproof!

The Boarded-Up Window Planks:

Step 1: Start with your foam board. Cut your board to your desired width. The length needs to fit the length of your window panes.

Start making the condemned building decorations by cutting the foam board. — First, cut your foam board to fit your window panes.

Step 2: Shape your foam boards into the desired shapes. Cut the sides and ends of the board to look more distressed. (We also cut a claw mark and knots in the wood.)

Hint: Serrated knives work the best. We also used the serrated tools in our pumpkin carving set to get our desired look.

Then, add knots, grooves, and holes into the wood.

Step 3: Paint the entire foam board with brown acrylic paint.

Paint the "wood" brown. — Paint the “wood” brown.

Step 4: Once dried, create shadows by dry painting (do not wet the paint brush) the edges, slashes, and knots with black paint.

Afterward, add black paint to create shadows to the condemned building Halloween decorations. — Afterward, add black paint to create shadows.

Step 5: Add dimension to the boards by adding a slight gray tone to suggest bark over the brown. Once again, this should be done with a dry paint brush.

Optional: Add a little bit of red paint to make a bloody drip to your boards. We added the red paint to our claw marks.

Step 6: Then, add a little, tiny bit of green paint to add a mold/mildew effect.

Creating our condemned building Halloween decorations

Step 7: Finally, using the velcro or command strips, attach the boards to your windows!

The Shattered Glass Effect:

Step 1: Using scissors, cut different triangular and shard-like shapes out of the frosted glass window film.

Making shattered glass windows for our condemned building halloween decorations

Step 2: Next, peel the frosted adhesive layer from the clear protective layer.

Step 3: Place your different shards and triangles around the edge of your window panel to give your window the broken glass effect. Rub the pieces so they lay completely flat against the window pane.

The Condemned Building Look:

For further effect, add caution tape around the outside of your porch. You can also add some spider webs, ghouls, and ghosts. Also, if you would like, you can go a step further and make your your front door distressed with a bit of dirt!

Finally, if you would like, make your door distressed by adding some dirt and grime.

Happy October and Halloween Y’all!

These old, condemned building Halloween decorations are fun to do with kids or all on your own. We hope you have fun setting up your Halloween decorations. Let us know what you will be doing this year in the comments below!

Though we were making a condemned building, we couldn't help but add pretty, glittery pumpkins and mums! — Though we were making a condemned building, we couldn’t help but add pretty, glittery pumpkins and mums!

We have a great guide to pumpkins if you need help picking out your pumpkins for cooking, baking, and decorating.

Also, if you want to start making Halloween treats, try making our alcoholic, drunken candy apples (for adults only) or our kid-friendly tempered chocolate Halloween treats and decorations.

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