Eight Tips on How to Make Your Place Look Like Hogwarts for Halloween

Let’s confess – who wouldn’t want to spend Halloween at Hogwarts? It’d be the most awesome experience ever! Daily life at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is already full of magic, so we can imagine how mysterious it must feel around Halloween.

Sadly, we can’t physically go to Hogwarts ourselves. But what we can do is bring that atmosphere straight to our homes. We’ve got some magical tips on how to make your place feel and look like Hogwarts at Halloween!

 

Decorate with lots of pumpkins.

Well, it’s Halloween, after all – what did you expect? You most probably remember that in the Great Hall, hundreds of jack o’lanterns were not only put on the floor but also enchanted to float in the air. Since you’re not allowed to use magic outside Hogwarts and can’t make the pumpkins fly with a spell, we recommend putting them on the highest shelves to create the illusion of flying pumpkins. But you can also create a little patch, just like Hagrid did. In that case, don’t forget about adding a scarecrow!

 

 

 

Display your magical supplies.

Since you’re turning your house into the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, you must have all the necessary magical supplies for your classes, mustn’t you? Make sure to add lots of old books, magic wands, brooms, cauldrons, and little corked bottles filled with potion (or maybe just your favorite beverage, if you’re planning a party). Anything that feels magical enough will work.

 

 

 

Get some flying bats.

Don’t worry – you don’t have to catch live bats and make them fly in your apartment; that would be too barbaric, and Hermione wouldn’t approve (though Hagrid might!). But you can either buy or make garlands with bats and hang them from the walls. A little life hack: If you hang them from the ceiling and turn a fan on, you’ll have your harmless flying bats that definitely won’t bite you.

 

 

 

Create a wall of magical texts.

Many inhabitants of Hogwarts read magazines and newspapers – mostly the Daily Prophet, which always has the most intriguing headlines and terrifying live photos. If you have a blank wall that looks too boring, you can print lots of pages of the magic newspapers and stick them to the wall. You can even add some of Hogwarts’s famous portraits if you happen to find them in stores. Hogwarts textbook covers will work as well.

 

 

 

Hang candles from the ceiling.

This is the decoration you can have not only for Halloween but also all year round – or at least until Christmas. At Hogwarts, the candles are enchanted so the wax won’t drip on the floor (or, more importantly, people, because that would hurt a lot). In the Muggle world, however, you can buy special floating candles or regular flameless ones and hang them from the ceiling with a string. This is a great way to make your place super cozy. You can still put some regular candles on the shelves, windowsills, or floor.

 

 

 

Put some writing on the wall.

Remember the writing Ginny left on one of the corridor walls about the Chamber of Secrets being opened? That definitely had some spooky Halloween vibes. We’re not suggesting to do the same and ruin your walls because that’d be too reckless. Instead, you can write the words in the same font on regular paper, paint them dark burgundy so it’ll look like blood, and stick them on the wall with a double-sided tape. It’ll look no less impressive!

 

 

 

Create some spooky ambiance with black candles and hangings.

If you’ve read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, you’ll remember the very peculiar party Harry and his friends attended on Halloween. If not, here’s some context: On October 31, Nearly Headless Nick was celebrating his 500th Deathday Party. He decorated the dungeons with lots of black candles and black hangings, which looked very spooky. So if you want your place to look less cozy and more mysterious and ghostly, you should probably take a cue from Nick’s ideas for decorations.

 

 

 

Play mysterious music.

This isn’t really a decoration idea, but it’s probably the best thing that will make your room feel like the Great Hall or any of the four common rooms. Make a playlist with all the soundtracks in the Harry Potter series, and play them whenever you want to “Apparate” to the most magical castle ever.