Artist Transforms Chicken Wire Into Ghost Decor That Looks Eerily Real With An Impressive DIY

If you're desperate for outdoor Halloween decor ideas and don't want to go with cheesy inflatable monsters or fake cobwebs, there are DIY alternatives. The supplies you need might even be in your garden shed right now. Instagrammer Brandon Hardy of @brandon.hardy.art shared how he transformed basic rolls of chicken wire into transparent dancing ghosts that will have everyone doing a double-take. "My soul would leave my body if I saw this," one viewer commented on the post. Despite its realistic appearance, this impressively spooky decor is easier to craft than you might think. It's part of Hardy's Out of the Ether Patreon series, but he also shares a tutorial about how to repurpose chicken wire for this Halloween display on his Instagram profile.

This homemade decor works so well because the openwork frame of the chicken wire is partly visible and partly see-through, just like the body of a ghostly apparition. Clever use of outdoor lighting also helps to create the illusion of movement as the hanging figures dance in the wind. To recreate this ensemble, you'll need gloves and safety glasses for protection from pokey wires, wire cutters or pliers, a roll of 1-inch poultry netting, black and silver spray paint, braided fishing line, and outdoor Halloween projector lights. Assuming you have the tools needed for this project, the total cost should be less than $100. How much chicken wire you purchase and how big you want to make the ghost figures will determine how many you can make with a single roll of wire.

Ready to make this surprisingly cheap and easy DIY Halloween decoration?  Since chicken wire rolls come in a variety of sizes, you need to choose the best option for creating large-scale, human-like figures. Consider getting a roll that's 4 feet wide to minimize the amount of cutting and twisting you have to do, and one that's up to 25 feet long since you need enough chicken wire to design multiple ghost figures. As Hardy says in his video, each component is essentially just a tube of wire. You'll measure and cut tubes to represent the heads, torsos, arms, and legs, sealing each tube by twisting the edges of the chicken wire together. Then assemble the pieces into a human shape and sculpt as needed.

The next hurdle is finding a way to suspend them in the air. Hardy mentions using a strong, black fishing wire that would be invisible to the eye. If you don't have anywhere to hang them up, situate them in your yard and spray paint the bases black and the upper torsos silver, a trick Hardy uses to give the appearance of floating mid-air.

The original arrangement looks terrifying enough when paired with spooky blue spotlights, but there are other ways to customize the figures to your liking. You could outline their forms with string lights to make them stand out even more. Put torn fabric around the figures' sleeves or clothing hems to create the illusion that a ghost is materializing right before your very eyes. Speaking of eyes, some creepy facial features would take the effect to the next level. These battery-powered LED glowing eyes serve as the perfect example.