If you’ve been around here for a while then you know that the Haunted Mansion is one of my absolute favorite rides at Disney and many of last years spooky season tutorials were centered around this iconic ride. So naturally, most of my Halloween decorations center around this theme like my Haunted Mansion inspired candlestick, my Haunted Mansion wreath, and my “Welcome Foolish Mortals” sign. So of course I had to take it a step further and create this Haunted Mansion inspired garland, and I’m going to show you how to make it as well, so let’s get started!
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WHAT YOU’LL NEED
This garland is super easy it just takes a bit of time, patience, and a few supplies. Just so you are aware when you are getting supplies, I used 30 feet rolls of deco poly mesh ribbon and it makes it all the way up my flight of stairs easily, so make sure you have enough tulle and ribbon to stretch to fit wherever you are going to put it in your home. Here’s what you’ll need to make yours:
• Purple deco poly mesh ribbon (I used 2 rolls)
• Black deco poly mesh ribbon (I used 2 rolls)
• Black and white damask ribbon
• Black flowers and black roses
HOW TO MAKE YOUR HAUNTED MANSION GARLAND
To start, take your purple deco poly mesh ribbon and bunch it up about 2-3 inches from the end to start. Then take some floral wire and wrap it around that bunched area. Make sure you leave some extra floral wire sticking out for later like the picture below.
You will repeat this process of bunching and wrapping the ribbon with floral wire all the way down the roll of deco poly mesh ribbon. I put floral wire every 8 inches or so all the way down but you can decide how long or short you want each section. After you have the first roll all bunched and tied off it’s going to look a little sad like the picture below. Don’t worry, we will add more stuff to it to make it look more full.
Next, take your second roll of purple deco poly mesh ribbon and repeat the same process except this time you will want to use the floral wire from the first strand you have already tied off. Use the extra floral wire that’s sticking out from the first step to wrap around the second strand of ribbon. That way they are secured together without the wire getting too thick. You can see below how I secured my first section.
Repeat this process all the way down until the second roll of ribbon is completely attached to the first. Just be warned, this poly mesh ribbon sticks to itself VERY easily so you will probably have to untangle strands from each other. Try to avoid touching the ribbon to itself as much as you can.
Next it’s time to add the black deco mesh! This is going to be the same process as the purple. Start about two inches from the end, bunch the ribbon up and wrap it with floral wire. Leave a little floral wire hanging out so you can attach it to the purple strand.
I used the extra floral wire from the black strand to get it really stuck to the purple strand. Then I did the same with the second black strand so I now had two black ribbon strands hanging off of my purple base. To start your garland, attach them in the same spot at the top but DO NOT attach them in the same spot going forward.
Now this next step is how you are going to get more dimension to your wreath. You want to connect the two black strands together in a different spot than the purple ones! I took my floral wire and connected my two black strands in the gap between the purple strands. That way as you work down the strand you will have alternating black connections and purple connections. You can see in the picture below my black ribbon strands are secured together above where I connected my purple strands together.
Once you’ve got your purple and black deco mesh strand done, it’s time to add some tulle. The tulle I used was a darker green and the roll was gigantic! Like 100 feet long so I didn’t even get close to using the full roll.
Because of the size of the roll of tulle, I cut mine into smaller chunks so it was easier to thread through the garland and also to try and prevent it from sticking to the mesh ribbon and ripping. Tie the tulle around then end of the garland and just start threading it through. I just randomly went in and out of the gaps between the black and purple mesh ribbon all the way down the ribbon. Any time I ran out of tulle I would tie it off in one of the spots the ribbon was connected and then get a new piece and keep going.
Once I went down the entire garland I went back and did the same thing again, trying to get the green in different areas that I had missed the first time to break up the black and purple.
For more spooky season DIY’s, click here!
Below is what the garland should look like once the green is strung through. You can see some of the tulle sticking straight out from the garland, that’s where I tied each piece off. I decided to leave it instead of cutting it short because it just added some extra dimension that I liked.
Next, it’s time to add the ribbon! I tried to get different colors and widths to fill out the garland a little more. I got some 1 1/2 inch wide purple grosgrain ribbon, dark green 1 inch satin ribbon, and 1 1/2 inch black and white damask ribbon. This damask ribbon is my favorite because it reminds me of the wallpaper in the Haunted Mansion and the black is also velvet so it adds even more detail to the garland! You really can do any size ribbon you like, this is just what I did personally.
I cut the ends of my ribbon so it has the two points like the picture below. I wrapped the floral wire around the ribbon, leaving about two inches at the end, and then attached it to the end of the garland. Then it’s all about weaving in and out of the garland however you like! Just like with the tulle, I cut chunks to make it easier to weave the ribbon in and when I ran out I would secure it to the garland using floral wire. Always secure the ribbon to areas where there is already floral wire so you don’t have random wires sticking out of your garland.
I ended up weaving each color of ribbon through the garland twice so it looked less bare. You could easily do more if you wanted to depending on how full you want your garland to look.
The last step is to add a few black flowers to the garland. I chose to do black roses and black chrysanthemums because they give me that spooky kinda vibe. You could use any kind of flower you wanted, this is up to your preference and what you like.
I cut the stems off of each flower and then used hot glue to secure the flowers onto the garland in random places. I would say between 10-15 of each kind of flowers would be enough, but you could add more if you would like or you could even go for bigger flowers if you want them to be more noticeable.
Now all that’s left is to hang it up! I decided to use the extra damask ribbon I had to hang it because I am so obsessed with it. I just cut 2 feet pieces of ribbon and threaded it through the garland, wrapped it around my banister and tied a big double bow to secure it.
And there you have it! A Haunted Mansion inspired Halloween garland perfect to display on your stairs, your mantle, or even your front porch! If you need to find any of the supplies I used again, you can find everything you need here.
