Halloween is right around the corner and with it comes the chance to deck out your home, doorstep and/or front porch with an array of ghoulishly decorative delights. Falling as it does right in the middle of the fall season, Halloween is also the perfect time to build on all the work you may have already done to create a harvest or autumnal theme in your décor. Baskets of mums, we’re looking at you.
Halloween décor can be a fanciful, short-termed treat for you and your neighbors or guests but, of course, it has to fit into your style, budget, and overall interest in the holiday. Don’t feel pressured into going all out with a 12-foot skeleton, inflatable Frankenstein, and a two-story spiderweb if you’re not feeling it, is what we’re getting at. This is all about you and discovering what you want to do – and what you want to spend your hard-earned time and cash on. If that’s a big “nothing,” then so be it!
However…if you’ve shied away from Halloween décor in the past, thinking it perhaps too gruesome or childlike to fit into your typical tastes, we invite you to keep scrolling for some fresh ideas on the style. It’s not all ghosts and goblins anymore!
Gothic Noir
But while we’re on the topic of ghosts and goblins, let’s first dive into gothic noir. This combination of gothic literature and film noir brings the best of both – horror, darkness, fear, nightmares, paranoia – into your living space! Sounds inviting, doesn’t it?
This is obviously the most traditional of the Halloween styles – and the spookiest. Think animatronic ghosts, bats swinging on invisible fishing line, dim lights, dark shadows and flickering candles, spiderwebs, low moaning noises, tombstones, decay, and death. Nothing comfortable or welcoming here – except, of course, to the legions of trick or treaters who are going to target your house as first on the list. Fair warning: choosing this decor style means you’re going to have to pick up an extra bag – or ten – of candy on your October grocery store runs. If you’re a little bit of a gothic soul yourself and want to incorporate some of these elements into your year-round look, we love a black feather or black branch wreath hung indoors. Animal skulls and taxidermy (particularly of ravens), flickering LED candles, portraits with eyes that seem to follow you as you move, dark walls and somber wallpapers – all can combine for an unmistakably Victorian vibe.
Family-friendly Fun
Making a 180-degree turn away from Gothic, may we present our next Halloween décor theme: family-friendly fun. Not all kids (or families) like the darker side of Halloween – and for good reason. It can be scary and off-putting.
Luckily, in this day and age, we’ve got plenty of choices in how we choose to celebrate – and decorate. Your pumpkins don’t have to be jack o’lanterns in need of dentures – they can be cute unicorns (as pictured above). Or paint your white ceramic or plastic ghosts pale pastel colors to make them warmer and more welcoming. Instead of big gnarly spiders, use beautiful butterflies. Replace creepy sticks and forlorn branches with corn stalks and hay bales. Using bright or pastel colors is one way to “de-scarify” Halloween decor. Another way is to use cartoon elements – like googly eyes or grinning monsters – to lift the mood. Lights also make children (and adults) feel at ease, so be sure to string lots of sparkly lights between trees to illuminate the dark spots. Last tip? A speaker blasting The Monster Mash and Thriller is pretty much guaranteed to put big smiles on little faces.
Go Au Naturel
One of the most environmentally friendly Halloween décor style choices you can make is to choose all natural elements for your decorating. Sure, it may not instantly read as creepy as traditional Halloween decorating but the impact on the earth – and your youngest neighbors and visitors – will be a whole lot gentler.
Of course, typical Autumnal décor like mums, gourds, grasses, and pumpkins (and mums in pumpkins!) also fit into Halloween décor. To add a bit more holiday flair, we suggest the following:
- Sticks! No need to paint them; just look for forlorn, barren sticks to give a lonely and spooky feel. Throw them in vases, weave a front door wreath, or collect them with a black velvet ribbon for a front door swag.
- Hay! Don’t bother buying straw bales from big box stores if you can help it. Instead, go straight to the source to support local farmers (if you have any nearby) and use the strands to create hair for your jack o’ lanterns if you’re feeling particularly creative.
- Mosses and dead leaves! If you’re going for a more gothic, natural appeal, head to a local forest for mosses and dead leaves to scatter around your front porch and stoop. After all, nothing says abandoned cemetery – and Halloween candy! – like decaying natural elements.
Work With What You’ve Got
Similar to going au naturel, working with what you’ve got generally has less of an impact on the earth – and your wallet. Dig through your self-storage space, attic, or garage for wooden crates, earthenware, metal milking jugs, old materials (like burlap or velvet), dried flowers, and other knick knacks that give off an antiquated feel. Create small scenes or groupings like the one pictured above interspersed with carved (or whole) pumpkins, gourds and other autumnal elements and you’ve got yourself Halloween décor pleasing to the eye and the budget.
If that’s not creepy enough for your tastes, a few other elements to add in from around the house could include:
- Battery-powered twinkly lights to give a ghostly glow inside the Jack o’ Lanterns at night
- Black spray-painted fake plants (and pots) nestled in with the real ones to up the spooky factor
- LED color-changing strip lights repurposed to cast an orange glow at your front door (or wherever you choose) from nightfall until bedtime
- Old lanterns with flickering LED candles
- Scarecrows made of old clothes and stuffed with newspaper! If placed in just the right location, it’s almost guaranteed to spook the pants off a visitor or two.
Get Artsy With It
For the artists and crafters among us, Halloween is really a time to show your stuff. From costumes to cookies to décor, DIY projects suitable for every age group and skill set truly abound.
If you’re one of the lucky that can create something that others want to look at, this is your time to shine! Getting artsy with your Halloween decor means you have a virtually unlimited canvas that you can take as far as your imagination wants it to go.
Some of the best that we’ve seen recently (and while researching this article!) are listed below:
- Pumpkin dioramas (complete with moss and tiny gravestones)
- Wreaths made out of plastic snakes
- Wreaths made out of fake mini-pumpkins spray painted gold or white
- Wine bottles painted matte black with orange tapers stuck in the tops
- Painting or decoupaging pumpkins instead of carving them (keeps the squirrels away)
- Witch hat, bat, and ghost garlands
- Cheesecloth and spray starch ghosts
We hope we gave you a little something fresh to think about as we round the corner into Halloween. Of course, you can take your seasonal or holiday décor any direction you want – the only part that matters is that it feels authentic to you and that, at the end of the day, you enjoy both the process and the end result.
When Halloween is in our collective rear view mirror, you’ll want to pack and store all of the non-perishable outdoor decor items into sturdy plastic containers with a label on the outside. (We like to color code our containers for holidays – orange for Halloween, red for Valentine’s Day, etc.) Remove any batteries before storing and throw out anything that won’t last until next year. Halloween costumes should be stored in garment bags, while anything paper should be in archival boxes.
If you have any questions about how to store something, feel free to ask the experts at your local CubeSmart and be sure to let us know.
