Happy October my friends! You know what that means, right? It is the scary season and almost time for Trick or Treaters! Is your house decorated? Are your candy bowls prepped? Or is it just me all overeager over here?
I do believe we are ready. My house is decorated, the candy bowl is filled and we only need some Halloween guests to complete the setup.
Window Decorations
Why mess with something if it works, right? I love, love, love my window decorations and this year found myself adding to my cutouts again. My witches, bats and cats went up super fast and immediately transformed my house for the spooky season. The overall look will be the same as in previous years, but most cutouts are not in the exact same position as before. If you have not started decorating yet, this is super easy to get done and some of the cheapest decorations you can make yourself. I made my first set of cutouts three years ago already and can tell you all about it in this post Cheap Window Decorations for Halloween.
Decorating my Foyer
The first thing I did was to separate the foyer from Pieter’s office. Besides window decorations in there, I did not add anything else and wanted to section off the foyer by adding my homemade curtain.
I hung my DIY Halloween Wreath on the inside of my door. I like the black contrast against my white door and this way I can see it all month long. To the left of the front door, I created a creepy corner by posing my plastic skeleton in one of my potted plants and adding plastic bats and Halloween-themed picture frames to the walls.
To the right of the front door, you can see my other plastic bats at the top of the picture. These I hung from the upstairs bannister using pieces of fishing line. My second plastic skeleton got a seat on the bench and I would come by every day and change his pose. This is just for my own amusement since there are no kids in the house anymore who will notice this, and I doubt that Pieter pays my decorations much attention. Does your significant other notice these types of things?
I didn’t move any of my furniture around, but I tried to add a touch of spooky to all the pieces. I added some fabric and a lamp to the cabinet and decorated the surface and mirror behind it. Next to it on the floor, I arranged my new storebought sticks in a container and hung some smaller plastic bats from the branches. I do not have an electrical outlet here, so normally will have an extension cord from Pieter’s office. I have a brown one to match the floor and will also tape it in place as to not create a trip hazard in front of the stairs. This extension cord will stay till January so I can also use it for my Christmas tree.
Decorating the Living Room
Most of my energy was focused on the fireplace and mantel. More fabric was added here and my Sharpie artwork with spider and web replaced my normal artwork. I added a lot of plastic bats to the fireplace and the wall, arranging them from small near the fireplace to larger towards the ceiling. This creates the illusion that they just flew out of the fireplace and are taking over the house.
I didn’t plan it that way, but the light from our lamp cast some nice shadows here, adding to the overall effect. I bought my bats online and the package included three different sizes and saved me a bit of time this year. You can also make these yourself with some black paper and scissors.
Kitchen and Breakfast Nook
I still had a few items left in my Halloween bins, so attempted a Gory Grouping in a corner on my kitchen counter. How can a container full of eyes and skeleton hands not be gory? Stick some plastic spiders to the side of battery-operated candles and you are good to go. The last of my plastic bats and a single black crow got placed on the window in my breakfast area.
Decorating a Bathroom
My guest bathroom was very similar to last year. I changed out the pictures in my artwork with ones printed on regular paper in black and white, added plastic cockroaches everywhere, a table with some fabric and a couple of odds and ends from my Halloween bin. I just can’t wait for guests (and Pieter) to use this bathroom – imagine opening the door to this!
Pumpkins
Is it even Halloween if you don’t carve any pumpkins? Sidney visited earlier in the month (she’s a Freshman in college) and she and her boyfriend Jan carved pumpkins as a fun activity.
They did a great job and I moved their pumpkins to the front of the house to include them in my outside decor. Jan’s pumpkin deteriorated so much faster than Sidney’s and was all gone by the time Halloween night rolled around.
Outside Decorations
In 2020 we had a lot of time on our hands and created one-way Trick or Treater traffic for our visitors. We did a bit less outside decorating in 2021 and for this year only focused on the area by our front door. This is where we set up a table and chairs and handed out our candy. We moved a lot of the inside decor items out on the 31st. It was a bit cool, but we had a good time watching our neighbors out and about.
Ben got draped in some white fabric with bloody accents (can we say he was a “victim” for Halloween???) and managed to grab a quick photo before he removed his devil horns. He was not a fan of those.
I just had my candy in a big black container. No individual bags this year – we just gave out handfuls as our guests stopped by.
There you have it – all my preparations for Halloween 2022. Do you decorate for Halloween? And do you make all your own decorations or do you prefer to shop for items? Don’t miss my post about Undecorating Halloween!
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