Take A Peek At Our Halloween Decor (And Share Your Own!)

 

Do you decorate for Halloween?

If so, do you limit it to a few carefully-chosen decorations or go all-out? Do you change your decor up every Halloween or use the same things year after year?

Sarah and I thought we would share a few glimpses at how we’ve decorated our homes this year. Enjoy!

Meagan’s House:

We make a Big Deal out of our front yard at Halloween (well, I can’t exactly take the credit – it’s my husband’s and brother-in-law’s doing) so I have started going a lot more subtle indoors. For one thing, a huge section of our basement is now occupied by skeleton pirates and their ship, a life-sized mausoleum, and various other spooky – and did I mention large? – items that make up our outdoor “haunt.” Our Halloween bins are stuffed to overflowing with costume pieces, and every year they get fuller. I finally had to draw a line in the sand and just quit buying more stuff.

That said, we definitely get into the spirit both indoors and outdoors. 

  One great way to make an impact without a lot of “stuff” is to buy similar pieces and incorporate them in unexpected places… like these black, sparkly birds that decided to take over our coffee station this year. (They move around; last year they roosted on the wine rack.)  

I love vintage Halloween decorations and often find that they are the best conversation-starters, too. I picked up this black cat candle holder with tissue-paper wings at an antique store – it’s become one of my favorites, and never fails to elicit comments.  

  Sometimes it’s really worth it to invest in slightly more-expensive pieces. I cringed at the price of this metal house when I got it at Target five or six years ago – I want to say it was around $30, which seemed like a lot to spend on a decoration that comes out for just a few weeks a year.

But it’s really held up, even after spending 11 months at the bottom of a stuffed bin, and it adds a lot to whatever corner I decide to put it in. 

  Here it is…the one little corner of our outdoor space that isn’t reserved for the boys’ “haunt,” our front-door stairs. Right now, my Martha Stewart Living-inspired patterned, painted pumpkins are there, but I’ll probably move them inside when the front yard gets totally taken over by spooky stuff.

 

Sarah’s House:

We moved into our house a little over two months ago, so I was still deciding where our everyday decorations were going to go when it was time to drag out the fall decorations! I also remembered that last year I threw out a bunch of Halloween stuff that I didn’t love, so we have a lot less to work with this year. Still, it’s been fun to arrange what we have, and also to think ahead to next year when we’ll have had more time to settle in.

Our entry table (below) has a mix of real pumpkins (the orange and the tiny white ones) and fake, which I think is a fun way to add variety to a tablescape. I love the natural look of the brown ones, which were a Target dollar section find last year. I picked up the wreath at Michael’s on clearance this year, and after realizing it is too petite for our large front doors, decided to hang it here.

  Our neighborhood goes ALL OUT for Halloween, and the front yard displays range from modest to amazing, but it seems like everyone does something out front. This year we’re sticking with “friendly fall” look instead of the spooky stuff because Violet is at that age where the scary stuff is terrifying. I loved the look of a fake fall garland around a neighbor’s front door, so we stole that idea and added our regular-ol’ pumpkin patch pumpkins along with some potted mums that I picked up at Trader Joe’s.

   

I almost didn’t include the photo below at all, because it’s hardly Halloweenish, but that’s maybe just part of the point. I had just finished decorating our mantel when fall came around, and I didn’t feel like starting from scratch for the fall holidays. So I added a few small pumpkins to what was already there and called it a day. Sometimes subtle is okay, too.

(I also decided to let the kids go crazy with fake spider webbing on the fireplace screen, so you can see their irregular and sparse handiwork in the photo as well.) 

  No need to over-do it, right? Simple and doable decorations make the holiday fun, memorable and manageable for Mom.

If you’ve posted your Halloween decorations online, please put a link in the comments so we can check ’em out!

(Feeling panicked because it’s a week until Halloween and you haven’t so much as stretched a web across a corner? Don’t worry, there’s no law that says you have to decorate. But if you’re feeling inspired and want a few easy – really easy, promise – ideas, check out this post featuring 3 super-simple Halloween decorating ideas.)