Whether your style is less is more, more is more or somewhere in between, let creativity be your guide when decorating for this Halloween.
What Does Halloween Mean?
For many people, Halloween presents an opportunity to tap into the terrifying, take a walk on the wild side or just create a killer costume or exciting experience. No matter what your goal is on Halloween, the holiday presents the perfect opportunity for creativity and fun.
Halloween is one of those holidays where you are free to express yourself in an exaggerated way without being judged. Look for inspiration from your favorite scary films, books or even music. If you plan to host a Halloween gathering, deciding on a theme can help you choose how to create the Halloween scene of your dreams.
This year, there are some stylish and unique Halloween trends as well as some traditional options that will make you the talk of the neighborhood. Whether you want to decorate indoors to simply get into the spirit, decorate to elevate a Halloween party or if you want to create an outdoor graveyard or haunted house to tempt and trick the trick-or-treaters, there are tons of ways to not just get your point across but also be a Halloween boss.
Depending on What Is Trending
This Halloween, the trends are all about chic and but still about shriek with a focus on styles that can be spooky or scary but with a more mature, edgy and sometimes industrial appeal.
Top categories for stylish Halloween décor are industrial and modern twists on old classics, Hollywood true-crime films, the magical, mystical and superstitious and lastly, contemporary yet creepy black and white.
Industrial Halloween Scene
Halloween searches are trending toward industrial style with popular searches for items like concrete, steel, copper and metal.
For industrial style, look for skulls and other typical Halloween symbols like pumpkins and spiders made of unusual materials like concrete as well as chic galvanized metal signs and decorations, industrial gauges, chains, steampunk pumpkins and cast-iron pots and furniture.
Think about it, abandoned warehouses are scary as is, and some of the best haunted houses are set in warehouses. Recreating a warehouse atmosphere could be as simple as a large empty space, chains, tools and some fake blood.
A Good Time with Hollywood True-Crime
Although humanity has always held a grim fascination with true-crime, it is best to stick to fictional characters to avoid offending anyone. Using photos of actual murderers or their artwork diminishes the magnitude of the crimes and the sorrow of those who have lost loved ones in such a tragic way. Luckily, Hollywood has no shortage of terrifying make-believe true-crime characters.
To truly celebrate Hollywood’s true-crime films in style, fake blood, eyeballs and skulls can be combined with pictures of Patrick Bateman from the film American Psycho, or for an even darker, more traditionally frightening figure, there are pictures of Hannibal Lector from Silence of the Lambs. To give it a more supernatural spin, Pennywise from Stephen King’s It can even be found as a wreath for the door, and there are Sleepy Hollow Inn and Bates motel signs you can buy or make.
Halloween Fun and Fortunes
For the more fantastic and magical Halloween, there are Ouija board signs, ravens and crows, white barn owl figures, bottles with tarot cards, signs for fortune-tellers, unicorn statues, gargoyles and gorgeous spell books filled with blood read flowers, you can purchase to coincide with a spellbinding Halloween display indoors.
Some other choices for the magical and mystical are potion bottles, vintage amulets, dream catchers and twisty magic mushrooms, and the best part is that if you like these items already, they don’t have to be limited to Halloween. Who doesn’t need a little more magic in their everyday lives?
Black and White Done Right
If you want more stylish Halloween swag, consider decorating in a black and white motif, which is very straightforward considering some easy Halloween décor in black could be cauldrons, spiders, black cats, bats and crows. Combine those with some white pumpkins, skulls, ghosts and some white jack-o-lanterns for a trendy yet terrifying display.
DIY That Won’t Make You Cry
Like the old saying goes, some people believe that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, but others can be shy when it comes to DIY. Luckily, DIY can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.
If you want a simple DIY, consider painting your pumpkins an off-white color to blend with any décor, or you can opt to paint them with textured metallics to add interest.
For an even more spellbinding display, paint some pumpkins with glow-in-the-dark paint to light the way to your Halloween holiday fun.
Milk jugs or large water jugs can be repurposed into ghosts, pumpkins and other scary characters with a sharpie marker, some paint, a knife, rocks (to keep them from falling over) and a string of lights.
Latex gloves can be filled with Halloween treats as party favors. To make them part of your Halloween décor, fill them with flour mixed with enough water to make it pliable yet firm enough to be able to hold its shape. You can attach them to the wall or place them on tables. Severed hands can go wherever you would like to frighten someone.
Take apples and hollow them out like a jack-o-lantern and use tea lights to illuminate them. You can even take a lemon to rub on the edges to prevent the apple from browning.
A bundle of upside-down butternut squashes can be made into skulls the same way that pumpkins can be carved. Dangle them in doorways or even at the front door.
To make everyone wonder if you have a body to dispose of, simply take some garbage bags, fill them with newspaper to make the shape of a human head and body and combine the body parts with duct tape.
Décor that Won’t Bore
To add color without compromising on ghoulishness or fright, adding florals and/or greenery is an option. Crawling vines and ivy, florals in darker, more ominous colors, overflowing ferns and venus flytraps can complete most Halloween looks and add that special spark of color and life to your scary display.
There are many beautiful flowers in deep purple or orange colors that can capture the mood of the season. To coincide with a Halloween theme, the arrangement’s container can add a little something scary when it has a skull or witch theme. If you aren’t as into creepy but still want to celebrate the season, try a fall-inspired arrangement incorporating pumpkin shapes and colors.
If you would like to add some flowers or green to your Halloween scene, let our florists at Conroy's Flowers Bakersfield in Artisan, CA, help you select the perfect arrangement to suit your Halloween style.
Halloween décor has come a long way and can be as simple or extravagant as you want. There are life-size witches, ghosts, dragons, silhouettes of witches and cats and even tombstones that look real enough to make your neighbors wonder.
Props are sure to deliver scares when they are animated, and the options are practically unlimited. There are animated zombies who moan while their heads spin, animated mirrors, crawling hands, bats that swing and haunted cameras, typewriters and books.
For an easy life-size prop that you don’t have to purchase, use wooden tomato stakes to give your creation structure, add shirts and pants stuffed with straw then top with jack-o-lanterns to create a scare-crow-style couple. They can sit together in rocking chairs or stand side-by-side in pails of sand waiting to scare trick-or-treaters.
Light the Way.
Lighting options for Halloween can be artsy or elaborate. For more decadent décor, choose understated hanging lights, pre-lit garland or broomstick markers, but for more flamboyant displays, consider creepy hands holding lanterns or bright neon signs.
Instead of traditional candles, there are realistic and rechargeable battery-operated candles that can be used for your Halloween decorations, which gives you endless options for creative lighting without the danger that candles present, especially when used indoors.
Décor for Your Door
For an easy yet creepy wreath, get some plastic snakes and a plain grapevine wreath. Start with the largest snakes and wind them through the wreath. Use glue to attach the snakes if necessary and add as many snakes as you can.
If you want a ready-made creepy wreath, there are plenty of wreaths adorned with skulls available in stores and online. To make your door look like it might be a doorway to Halloween heaven, consider skeletons flanked with florals attached to your door and eerie urn-shaped vases with dark florals and ferns to go on either side.
Crows, pre-lit skulls, jack-o-lanterns and plastic spiders can all be lovingly arranged for a dark and foreboding doorway and gravestones can be placed around the walkway to the front door.
Consider a sign that says, “Keep Out” if you want to go all out with your door. Cardboard can be cut to look like wooden slats. Paint “Keep Out” across one of the cardboard slats and glue bolts on all four corners to make it look like wood. Tape these cardboard slats to your door to turn your house into a creepy haunted house with very little effort on your part. Stretch some spiderwebs across to make it Adams-family-ready.
To give trick-or-treaters a good fright, an animated eyeball doorbell might be right up your alley. The eyeball glows and moves as guests are greeted with maniacal laughter and one of the greetings, “Welcome,” “Good Evening,” “Enter at your own risk” or “You rang.”
Even though the beginnings of Halloween consisted of the belief that the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was lifted, the holiday has become more lighthearted and fun.
Studies have shown that decorating can lift your mood. Your Halloween décor may not lift the veil between worlds or attract any real-life spirits, but if it can lift your spirits, why not go for it? When it comes to décor, there are tons of ways to commune with your spiritual side and express yourself. Take a test drive with your dark side this Halloween, and if you need help navigating, let your creativity be your guide.