Welcome to my house at Halloween. If you like creepy as opposed to cutsie Halloween decorations (yay for you by the way), you're in the right place. Cheap Halloween decoration inspiration for your own haunted house this October.
There are two kinds of people in the world. Halloween people or Easter people. I am a Halloween person and I tend to get along with other Halloween people. You're my kind of crowd. Let's look at this scientifically: 100% of the food associated with Halloween is chocolate or potato chips. 100% of the food associated with Easter is gross or disgusting. That's really all the motivation smart people like you and I need.
The trick to cheap but impressive Halloween house decorations is to use a few key pieces for haunting up your house. They need to be creepy and/or elegant. A few carefully placed skulls and hits of black will convey that "I'm living in a very stylish Transylvanian home just waiting for my good friends Cruella and Dracula to show up for the party." Please wipe your feet.
Decorating for an Elegant & Creepy Halloween
Halloween Stuff
- Use skulls. Pop them everywhere and get the most realistic ones you can.
- BLACK GAUZE. Dollar stores have a ton of this stuff for really good prices and if you can only buy ONE thing for your Halloween decorating, make it black gauzy fabric.
- Chicken bones. Chicken bones are my favourite way to create some ghastly Halloween vignettes.
- Candles.
- Doll parts.
- Spiders.
- Black Feather boas are also GREAT. They're creepy but opulent feeling.
If you have a few of those things you're set for creating a haunted house feel in your home.
Let me walk you through a few of the rooms in my house for some Halloween decorating inspiration.
BOOOOOOOOO!!! Sorry to scare you like that but I'll be doing it a few times through this post so prepare yourself.
Halloween Decoration Ideas.
For a Halloween party or just for the helloween of it.
- Don't go cutesy, go creepy.
The mummified cat on the floor in the dining room is basically terrifying. Chances are you won't be able to find one exactly like mine, but just always keep in mind your goal is creepy not cute.
It was bought after Halloween, on sale, from Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada a couple of years ago for $10.
2. Candles and Bones.
Putting bones anywhere makes things automatically startling and "Halloweeny". Is that a word?
Here's my whole tutorial on how to clean your chicken and turkey bones for decorating.
The candelabra is one I own, but to get the same effect get some cheap candle holders, spray them black and group them together.
I really like these super-plain cast iron window candle holders that are $30 for 12 of them but I have no use for them so hopefully one of you will.
BOOO! Gotcha again. Heh.
3. Black Gauze.
Draped over tables, curtains, mirrors of the life sized oil painting of Margaret like you see here gives you more bang for your buck than anything else.
Your best bet for getting black gauze is from a dollar store.
4. Spiders.
Placing spiders on surfaces is the easiest way to use them but hanging them is even better. Just run a line of fishing line or string for a pendant light and attach the spider.
Big old spider from the dollar store. Cheap.
5. Books.
Stacked hardcover books with a Halloween theme (think Alfred Hitchcock, Edgar Allan Poe ...) are a subtle way to give the haunted house feeling without being kitschy.
If you're feeling in a DIY mood you can craft this book with eyes in it for a total cost of about $2. Read the tutorial on how to make Book Eyes here ... you can do it with a book, a drill and some fake eyes in an hour or less.
6. Skulls.
You need a skull. Skulls are to Halloween what Christmas trees are to Christmas. That's all there is to it. If you're desperate for some sparkle in your Halloween get a glass skull because it will shine and reflect light.
Skulls can be bought anywhere from Amazon to Dollar Stores but the best ones are usually found at places like HomeSense (HomeGoods). Dan Akroyd also makes vodka with a skull shaped bottle so look for that if you're having a party. Where everyone plans to drink a lot of vodka.
This skull I got from Homesense. That's Homegoods to you American folk. I love it. It's a candy dish but would work well as a festive flower vase as well. I love it so much because of the attention to detail. It actually looks like a real skull, right down to the spinal cord coming out of the back of the skull.
7. Doll parts.
Grab a doll and rip it apart. It's as simple as that. Dolls are scary in general if you ask me, but when you disassemble them they're downright terrifying. Just place the doll parts (head, legs, hands) in random places and prepare yourself for people to run screaming from your house.
The BEST dolls for this are vintage or antique dolls. You can get them cheap at flea markets if they're broken and not in great condition which is PERFECT and exactly what you want when you're decorating for Halloween.
8. Black Feather Boas.
Feather boas might seem a bit frivolous for Halloween but if they're the right colour they're perfectly dark and elegant. Drape them on paintings or mirrors.
Yet again, the dollar store for the win on your cheap Halloween supplies. One year I got black feather boas for $2 each at my local Dollarama. They carry them from as cheap as $5 on Amazon.
So as you can see with a few cheap things you can get a really good look for Halloween. In fact, if it weren't for the dollar store my house wouldn't be scary at all. Other than the actual cobwebs that are so big they seem to have pulsating organs, there'd be nothing scary in my house at all.
And no. I don't have kids. But that doesn't mean I can't partake in the season. I don't have to have kids to trim my house out to the best of my Halloween ability. Besides. How else am I supposed to catch one? A kid I mean. A kid with a pillow case filled with chocolate and chips. Lots and lots of chocolate and chips.
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Lynn Jackson
Great tour, my son is an adult, every Halloween I still decorate, the day after Thanksgiving , got my glass skull in Newfoundland at that time it was only place I knew where it could be bought, also I saved my turkey bones planted them in my vegetable garden an the next spring got my grandchildren to help me get my garden ready an we pretend to find dinosaur bones they just loved digging and finding them, Good Memories. HAVE A GREAT HA LLOWEEN KAREN!!!!
Tara Fletcher-Gibbs
Those cats! Eeeeek! Most disturbing thing I've seen in a while... but I think the most important part of this post is THE KITCHEN REVEAL ON MONDAY!!! AAAAAHHHHH!
Where's a Tardis when I need one!
Christy
The mantle is a home run! The mummified cats look like they are going number two.
Pati Gulat
Number TWO !! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!! Or was that MUAHAHAHAHA ????
Tracie Berry
Extremely ghoulish, and oddly tasteful....kudos, Karen. I'm just so envious of your energy....but totally love it!
chris aka monkey
i would suppose because muhhaaha is not a real word you can spell it any dam way you want, i would be creeped out in your house those cats are not for the faint of heart.... but i love the skull sitting on top of a short guide to a happy life..you have a weird sense of humor or is that just chip withdrawals? xx
maggie van sickle
Good job Karen and did that glass skull hold vodka at one time because I have seen vodka holding skulls in the LCBO in the past. Just wonderin. Happy Boo to you.
Karen
Hi Maggie! No, it really is a candle holder, but I DO have that glass skull Vodka. :) I even went to the States to buy it about 4 years ago because you couldn't get it here. Still has some Vodka in it! ~ karen
Cred
I remember that post where you travelled to the states for the bottle of Crystal Head. I bought the mini bottle recently and recalled your sojourn. Although, I thought it was because it was far cheaper there. I didn't realize it wasn't sold in Canada at the time- doesn't make sense since it's made in Newfoundland.
Love that skull and the mummified cats. Your entire Halloween setup works perfectly in your house. Many of us would have to work harder without the painting of Margaret, the open fireplace, wood floors and other original features of a century home. Beautiful and creepy!
Scott
Strange that you couldn't find the Vodka there. Its distilled in Canada by Dan Aykroyd. Crystal Head Vodka.
Jake
If you are not going to drink it I finish it up for you. Let me know.
Amber
I was so sure the Halloween thing was going to be about Freshwater Fish. I mean, you've got the book, right there under Hubert the candy-dish-human-skull, and fish have googly eyes and tend to be predators and they are kinda weird if you think about it... Makes sense, right?
Linda S. in NE
Yup, they're predators alright...just ask Fish Pedicure Sister!!
Olga
Your house looks very creepy now. I know you mentioned several times that this is 150 year old house, and I just noticed that you have wood floors. Does your floors squeak in a creepy way? That would totally freak me out with all the sculls around haha
Melanie
Mummified cats? Available, but not cheap. The rats are a better deal.
NOT for the squeamish: http://www.headsandtails.co.uk/Exotic&unusual/Exotic.htm
And now I'm sorry I even felt the need to look that up.
Karen
And as it turns out I own not one, but two of the things shown for sale on that page. Which says a lot about my devotion to ick. The MOST hilarious thing on that page is right down near the bottom, after the mummified cats but before the selection of heads, is the ever so terrifying "basket of fruit", lol. ~ karen!
Heather
Mounted Lioness in driving mode????
Grammy
Screw auto correct. It's wash 'em down. I don't care what you do with your email.
Grammy
OK -- where are you hiding the chocolate? I know you're not going to give it to the kids, so where is it? Of course you know that potato chips and a Snickers bar constitute a well-balanced meal, don't you? Wash 'email down with a Pepsi and you're set for the whole day.
Auntiepatch
That would be a diet Pepsi, right?
Grammy
Yes! It balances everything out. Right?
Auntiepatch
Of course!
dana
I LOVE that mummified cat next to Margaret. That skull really looks real. I have been looking for one and none look as authentic as that one. And you say the fella left? Or did he stay and become part of the decor? Lol! The little skeleton garland is really cute.
gloria
A couple of those cats are in poses that look like they are about to hurk up a hairball. Is this intentional?
Sandra
Walking into a room and finding a furball is way scarier than those mimmified cats. Is it terrible that I always hope my husband finds it first so he can clean it up? Gag-O-Rama!
Maria
That 1st 'cat' looks like a gargoyle! Love it. Love the silver round pedestaled table and stuff on it! Want one (table that is). Spiders? I'm running out of the house on those! Great job.
Debbie
Urban dictionary can't spell maniacal, but it seems to have bwah ha ha down pat. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bwahaha
Katie
Those cats are just wrong. DEAD wrong. (<---see what I did there?)
Seriously, though. They'd freak me out every time I saw them. I make my husband squish things that freak me out, so he'd probably be pretty frustrated by those...
Heather
I'm with Katie - those cats just creep me out!
Dee
Spoooooky! What fun. Hope you are having a party to give your friends this treat too.
Laura
BOO!
Jamieson
maybe try it with a B? As in Bwuahahahaha. Or not.
Maybe you enjoy Halloween so much - despite avoiding child rearing - because of your affinity for us Gays? It is our Christmas, after all. I'm not taking away from what it means to everyone else of course, but for some reason we Gays particularly embrace the season more than the average adults. Or another plausible reason you like Halloween is because you're a creepy weirdo (tho we love you for it).
sara allen
Or maybe she lust loves the holiday like many of us do.
sara allen
*just
Jamieson
I suppose, though your theory doesn't seem nearly as scientific/silly as mine.
rita
Love it.