Dollar Store Indoor Halloween Cemetery

I change my Halloween decor each year. My new idea this year was to make each room a theme and the kitchen was a cemetery. I also incorporated lights for that extra spooky fun! My kitchen ceiling is vaulted so I have lots of room on top of my pantry for this cemetery which is about 3 1/2 feet high & 6 1/2 feet wide. I spent $10 on this scenery which is a lot of bang for the buck.

Dollar Store items :

($3) 3 styrofoam headstones

($1) 1 brick wall backdrop

($5) 5 skull fence sections

($1) 1 bag spider webbing

Supplies I had from previous projects- so no cost for these supplies:

acrylic craft paint- black, grey, blueish-green grey, light green & white (choose colors you like that resemble marble)

wide paintbrush and a skinny paintbrush

glue gun

clothespins, spring loaded kind

pushpins

packing tape (if needed for a little extra security)

LED puck lights with remote (I bought from Amazon three years ago for another project)

(free) cardboard boxes from Costco to create the marble base for the headstone. Pick boxes you like best. For this project I made three headstone pieces so I have a total of six boxes for my display. I used three tall chunky boxes & three low boxes (for the low boxes I used Costco’s stackable produce boxes or similar would be a box that a case of soda comes in)

Total cost

$10

I used pushpins to attach the backdrop to the wall.

I flipped the low box upside down and painted only the sides because the “top” would not be seen. To get the marble look on the tall boxes I painted diagonal strokes alternating black, grey, blueish green-grey & light green to resemble the pattern you would see in marble. Overlap some strokes to blend. To paint the white “veining” I used the skinny brush and white paint in a jagged stroke motion. Let boxes dry.

To assemble the marble base, I hot glued a chunky box on top of the shorter box. I did this for a total of three marble bases.

*Note: For a more interesting look the middle chunky box is vertical for height & the other two I glued horizontally.

Hot glue a styrofoam headstone to the top edge of the marble base. I did this for three headstones.

I stretched spider webbing over the headstone to the marble base for that Halloween, old cemetery look. After the three headstone pieces were completed it was very easy for me to carry them up the ladder to arrange on the top of my pantry.

Top of my pantry fit three fence sections across, one fence section on the left & one on the right side of the cemetery. The stakes were removed from the fence because they were not needed. (My husband cut them off with his bandsaw but can be cut with good scissors or try snapping them off). How to keep the fence upright? This is what I came up with. I hot glued a clothespin in two places to the back of the fence where it would not be noticed. I glued the clothespin upside down so the “ legs” of the clothespin help to stand the fence up. A second clothespin was clipped to the base of the “leg” of the first clothespin for support. Now the fence is steady and stands up better. Since the pantry doors are always opening & closing, for extra security I put a piece of packing tape over the second clothespin to secure it in place.

I used two LED puck lights in front of each marble base. The remote for the lights allows you to pick the colors and motion setting. I chose the fade setting and really like how the changing colors cast upward shadows.

*Afterthought, just for extra spooky fun I would place a bluetooth speaker in the cemetery playing spooky Halloween sounds to go with the lights.