When it comes to decorating for the holidays, I have a tendency to over-do it. It’s easy to over-do halloween decor in a 600 sq ft apartment, there’s barely room for anything to begin with! This season I reeled myself in (a little), and decorated as minimally and impactfully as possible. I created a few guidelines to keep my overly excited Halloween decor brain in check: stick to a plan, keep it cohesive, practical placement, keep it cheap, and still have fun (duh). Impact-Site-Verification: 40f1e5bc-7e17-4a14-be20-bd62649021a1
The plan:
- All decorative elements will be black, white, grey, and orange. Gravitate style towards modern and simple. The colors and style of all the holiday elements should mesh with each other, and with the rest of the apartment.
- Decorations need to be practical. I don’t want to have to move something every time I go to use a table or open a door. This is why it is important for me to have a plan, otherwise I will wile out and purchase and display anything and everything that strikes me as cute in the moment.
- Cheap, cheap! Blogging about my Halloween decorations don’t pay the bills, ya’ll. But it can actually be fun to be low on cheddar: a slim budget is the mother of creativity.
Lastly, before I went buying anything, I looked to see what I had already, and took pictures with my phone of the things that could possibly work with the plan. That way, I could cross reference anything I considered buying with what I had already.
Alright,
let’s take the Halloween Decor tour!
Welcome!
This is my front door.I made the witches brooms out of sticks I foraged in Central Park– spray painted them white, and wrapped them with black washi tape to create the stripes. They are held together by black yarn and hot glue, and hung by a black ribbon that attaches to an upside down command hook inside the door (like this). The ‘bristles’ of the brooms are made of black tulle, held on the sticks by more black yarn and hot glue. Easy peasy! And cheap. Woop woop! There is endless color customization potential with this craft. Try it!
Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!
a halloween mantleTo give the pumpkins a more modern look, I added matte black and white spray paint. I mixed it up by painting just the stem on some, and others the entire pumpkin. I also did a ‘dipped’ look on the large pumpkin, inspired by some of my favorite items from CB2.
Getting these pumpkins painted was a total clusterf*ck.
Usually I spray paint on the roof of my building, which isn’t supposed to be accessible. What can I say? I’m a rebel. A crafters gotta craft. So, I took my box of pumpkins up the stairs to the rooftop, where to my disappointment I found a new lock had been installed. (The roof of my building is also where my husband proposed, so, HOW DARE THEY.)
The only other place to paint is in front of the building. There’s a small area behind the trash bins where I decided to set up shop. I ducked down, applied a good coat of paint, and then went on my merry way back upstairs to my apartment. I figured I should’ve leave a note on the box, so I wrote one, and returned downstairs not 10 minutes later.
The pumpkins were GONE. It was trash day.
Luckily the nice trashman was still there, and he helped me rescue the pumpkins from the big black trash bag he had put them in. It makes sense after all, the poor man didn’t know they weren’t trash, they were out with the trash with no note!
Anyway, it all turned out fine in the end. I finished painting and left a note so my project was undisturbed. CRAFTERS TRIUMPH AGAIN!
Anyway, speaking of CB2, (before that long story), the one major Halloween decor purchase I made this season was the black and white candlesticks, which I am just in love with. I also love these, which are featured in my Halloween Goodies guide. I feel that taper candles are kind of a must for a spooky halloween mantle, giving off those haunted mansion vibes.
The framed silhouettes are made from black and white cardstock, and they are by far my favorite decoration this year. I cut out the silhouettes by hand with a craft knife, used a glue stick to paste them to the white background, and added a layer of cardboard for a firm backing. The frames are from Target. I bought them last halloween and they had skeleton silhouettes in them. I painted them matte black to match the pumpkins, and hung them with command strip velcro –which is the greatest invention ever! I use it to hang everything.
I’ve put up bats made of black cardstock every year for the past 4 years, and I’m still not tired of them! I guess you could say they’re my Halloween Decor staple. For one thing, they’re very inexpensive and easy to make. They’re paper! Cut them out, fold them up, stick ‘em on the wall. And they look so enchanting flying up the wall. I like to flock them toward a window or skylight so they look more true to life. As a side note, I have only seen one real bat in my whole life, and it was at a wildlife center. But I’ve seen a lot of movies.
I used a 5 ft strand of battery operated wire lights under ‘spooky fabric’ gauze (both from Michael’s craft store) as the base for my mantle, and the candle behind the pumpkins is a jar candle from TJ Maxx. The mirror is always there, and it is from Target.
Cozy Pillows and dancing skeletons
in the livingroomThe two striped pillows I made myself!
Changing the covers on throw pillows is an easy way to make things look festive, and is especially practical because it doesn’t add anything to the space volume-wise.
But there are two problems with festive throw pillows:
- Most of them come with a pillow insert. I don’t need the pillow insert, AND, I don’t have space to store it off-season.
- Every pillow with or without an insert had an average price of $40. Girrrrrl, I can’t afford to buy something I need for $40. How am I supposed to pay $40 for an 18 sq inch piece of fabric?
Not to be deterred, I went on Amazon to see if I could find some inexpensive fabric for purchase. (NYC has everything in the world you could possibly need, including the amazing Mood of Project Runway fame, but not a single cheap-o fabric store. If you know of one, please tell me.) Lo and behold, I found this gem. 2.99 per yard, baby!
I sewed 3 throw pillow covers (the ‘eek’ pillow on the bed and the two striped pillows on the couch) myself for around a total of $15 including zippers. I’m not going to fluff it, making these was time consuming. But I sewed them while on vacation back in September, so it was chill. Plus, the best part about making things is you get to make them exactly how you want!
Stripes and mice
in the kitchenOn top of the fridge is a battery operated marquee light from Target that I purchased 2 years ago.
The mice are cut outs from Martha Stewart Crafts.
Eek! Spiders
in the bedroomOn the bed is the ‘eek!’ pillow cover that I made, using felt for the cursive letters and thin black yarn for the visible stitches. The ampersand marquee light is there year-round and is from West Elm. I replaced the clear bulbs with orange bulbs from a set of halloween patio lights that I happened to have. I have to credit this as my most resourceful Halloween decoration.
spooky
specimens
Additionally, all three of these framed goodies are also from Target’s dollar section too, $3 a pop. Dammit don’t you just love Target?
Well,
that about wraps up the Halloween Decor Apartment Tour.… Now it’s time for me to start thinking about Christmas.
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