Spookily awesome Halloween décor

It’s October! Yahoo! Do you know what that means? No, I’m not talking about pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks (though that is one of the highlights of the season, no doubt). I’m talking about the official start of seasonal decorating. Hooray for having an excuse to bedazzle the house in twinkle lights and break out all my favorite pieces that spend a good nine months of the year packed away for safekeeping! The best time of the year has officially begun! Are you ready?

We’re definitely knee deep in the Halloween spirit around here. The Bean and I were back in Missouri for a few weeks last month to visit family, and while we were there, my mom, sister and I decided to get a jump on the Halloween decorating. The decorations started with the little Christmas trees we used for the campfire baby shower the week before (we swapped the DIY bug ornaments for sparkly black bats). From there, the ideas kept coming, and we ping-ponged back and forth until landing on a look that we love. We think it feels fun, glam and a little bit eerie all at the same time, which is perfect for Halloween décor you’re planning to live with for the entire month of October.

Here’s how we got the look:

• Spooky portrait: The inspiration piece for the entire look was definitely the spooky image in the oversized antique frame over the mantel. No, our family doesn’t regularly showcase eerie portraits; this was actually a super easy (and amazingly inexpensive) DIY project. The image is a family Halloween photo from years ago that we changed to black and white and had blown up to a gigantic 36 by 48 inches at Office Depot. We had it printed on simple, no-frills paper and then used spray adhesive to attach it to a large piece of foam board. And get this: It cost a whopping $2.97 to print the image that gigantic. Amazing, huh? Office Depot is our new secret weapon. The frame my mom already had, so that was a freebie.

• Happy Halloween banner: This one took another trip to our newest BFF, Office Depot. I typed out all of the letters in “Happy Halloween” in a huge font size so four letters fit on each 8.5-by-11-inch page. We had the letters printed on an antique-looking cardstock, then cut out squares around each letter. Fourteen hole punches and twine loops later, and we had an entire banner put together for about 69 cents. (FYI: The font is American Typewriter, condensed light.)

• Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins: The assortment of pumpkins helped add texture, sparkle and light (the wicker pumpkins are pre-lit. Woot!). The wicker guys were from Target a few years back, and the silver pumpkins were 40-percent-off scores from Michaels this season. Pottery Barn sells similar looking gourds for at least four times as much (see them here). Theirs are antique mercury glass, look awesome and would probably last for the next decade, but if you’re looking for a less expensive alternative, the Michaels guys are a great option.

• Candles and cobwebs: Talk about easy peasy. Candles and cobwebs are a fast way to make everything feel spookier. We draped cobwebs from the frame and the candles, where they ended up looking kind of like smoke. A happy accident!

And now to recreate the look in our apartment! Here’s hoping it turns out even half as cool.

Have any of you started decorating for Halloween? What’s your typical game plan for the holiday? All out haunted house? Classic jack-o-lanterns? The remote control and a pillowcase full of candy? Do tell!

XO,
Katrina