This is my second time creating a DIY spooky pirate’s swamp cove for our Halloween display! We did it 2 years ago, but this time we did it bigger and better! Mostly all of the props were made by my husband and I and were sourced from free or inexpensive resources like Marketplace and thrift shops, or items I just found on the curb! Many things I am able to recycle and use for multiple holidays. A lot of the wood is scrap wood we have laying around and some is donated or free wood we found!

My goal is usually to create a spooky and unique display that is perfect for younger kids also and is not just filled with a ton of store bought props. I try to focus on detail and make it more unique! I begin thinking about Halloween around June or July and then usually start building a few things here and there in the beginning of the summer. By September, I am usually well into my Halloween build and I work on it a little at a time, sometimes every day! I have to start pretty early so I can get it all done in between my work schedule and other obligations.

Here are some things you might want to get for your spooky swamp cove:

Old fishing pole

Wood posts for a small dock

Thick Rope

Green laser Light and Fog

Old anchors, oars, fishing gear

Old fishing net

Moss

Skeleton fish/alligators

lanterns

Crates

Old shutters

100 year old chair I got off Marketplace

I happened to find a guy on Marketplace who was giving away big crates used to store water. They looked like pallets but were more of a crate but had no top and only came up about 3 feet. I created my own bait shop using the crate and made it look like a little house! I used some of the extra wood the guy had and then made my own roof out of these cheap shingles from Home Depot. I then added the shutters and old window I found off Marketplace and some extra details like moss and some spooky fish and a lantern. It came out pretty cool, I think! I was about to spend over $500 on a playhouse to turn into the bait shop, so I was really happy when this worked out with the free crate!

Free crates we used to hold up the facade and also used one as the bait shop

Finding inspirational pics on Google is important. Here was one I saved for the Captain’s Quarters

For the dock, I used cheap (about $2.50 per piece) of picket fence panels and cut them to shape and attached them to long pieces of 1 x 2 furring strips. I then cut up some posts that I got from Home Depot, stained them and drilled a hole into the top to add my lights. For the lights, I got these cool solar tiki flame lights off Amazon. I’ve had them for a few years, but had to get a couple more this year. They aren’t cheap but they do look cool. I got some rope off Amazon that worked out perfectly for the dock.

Fog is really important in a spooky swamp! You want to get at least 1 or 2 of these laser lights and position them low and sideways for the best effect! I wasn’t too happy with how mine looked this year but in the past, it did look really good! I was lazy this year and did not position the laser too great to get the whole effect. You also want to make sure you have some sort of tube for the fog to go through. I used one from Home Depot but you can make your own and it works even better. In the past, I used a thicker tube that had little holes in it and I spray painted it green and added moss, so it blended in. Another thing I did, was I added actual tree branches to the swamp.

I also created these tentacles using pool noodles. I bought the noodles at Dollar Tree in the summer time. The tentacles are a bit of a pain. I follow the tutorial on YouTube but I always wonder if there is an easier way to do it. This was timely and really not too fun! When you add some glow paint and a blacklight they look great.

My husband created a huge pirate ship using some free plywood that a local shop gave to us! His ship came out really awesome and it only took him a few weeks to build!

I purchased the fisherman and shark from Home Depot to go along with our swamp! It turned out really great!

I got the idea to make a spooky storm tunnel kinda at the last minute, but the tunnel actually became a huge hit! Kids loved running in and out of it!!! I followed this tutorial on Youtube to make the ceiling of it. We used a party tent structure that I got off Marketplace for free but it did not come with a tarp, so we just threw a large top on top and on the sides. We then added rope across the top on the inside, under the tarp. The tunnel wound up being about 13’ x 9’ or so. I got a bunch of chicken wire from Lowes. I think it took about 3 50’ rolls of chicken wire. I got some batting and followed the YouTube tutorial and inserted the clumps of batting into the 2” holes of the chicken wire. You have to grab only small bunches of the batting at a time because if you try to do too much, the batting will fall out of the holes! We learned this the hard way and had to re-do it bc it kept coming out! It took a few hours to do this step. So in the end, I had about 4 long pieces (13’ x 3’ or so) of chicken wire with the batting.

My husband then put the LED outdoor strip lights up top, below the tarp. He used the rope to attach the lights and some zip ties. He zig zagged the lights and didn’t follow a particular pattern. We then added the chicken wire to the ropes, using zip ties to attach them. This is how it came out! It was really pretty awesome looking and even with a ton of rain, the batting did not get ruined or fall out!!! In the tunnel, I added some hanging bats, lanterns and spooky storm sound effects and a scary guy and a jump scare scarecrow! And at the end of the tunnel, we had a scary dragon with fog coming out of his mouth.