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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Marie Vlasic
Love it Karen! Sophisticated and charming, which is what I'd like to do, but I always go waaaay overboard. I LOVE Halloween! If you'd like to see my "house tour", here it is: http://theyearoflivingfabulously.com/2014/10/15/victorian-gothic-halloween-a-home-tour-today-the-front-room-decorating-on-the-cheap-diys-tips-tricks/ Well, there are actually 3 Halloween house blog posts...like I said, I go overboard!
Brenda
Yes, I also wonder what the outside of your house looks like, "Halloweened up"
I looove that creepy web site......Karen, what items do you have from there?
How about making that creepy mermaid next year out of a Dollar Store skull and the bones of that whole fish you had for dinner last Friday???
Tanya
Just a couple nights ago I went to Michael's to look for some Halloween decor, The selection was okay, but they didn't even have little plastic spiders. I went to the dollarama next-door? Huge awesome selection. Love that place!
Sandra
FANTASTIC! Those mummified cats are simply wonderful. We don't have a Dollarama where I live. We have a really low class Dollar Store that carries nothing, NOTHING, like your Dollarama. If they did I would probably be inclined to hang out on delivery day just to have first dibs. Now do tell, what does the outside of your house look like? My front yard is a cemetary (I know, I know, everyone's front yard is a cemetary). You know you've done a great job when the neighbor dog stops and barks at all of the dead babies crawling out of their graves. My little bit of upgrade this year was repainting over all of the blackened eyes with glow in the dark paint. So disturbing! That and the baby I found this year at the Goodwill who is missing half a head!
Kat
Everything is just perfect! Except I missed seeing your black boa skull wreath on the front door. But you are probably doing a photo shoot of the front of your spooky house in another post.
Jeannie
It's the 1st photo.
Leslie
How on earth do you walk around your house at night and not get COMPLETELY freaked out??? It looks amazing, by the way.
Valerie
Fun, goofy question for Hallowe'en:
question:
Why don't witches get pregnant?
answer:
Because their boyfriends have hollow weenies.
Sandra
Hmmm sounds like a guy I once dated.
Teresa J
Bahaaaa lol
jainegayer
Your house looks elegantly creepy, Karen.
Dollar Store, here I come!
DanniS
Love, love, lurve the book with eyes that is definitely a must have! Also dont ever tell Melanie where you live lol that is seriously creepy stuff on that website!
Kim C.
Love it! I was at Dollarama yesterday and walked the Halloween aisle. Your tasteful sense of creepy helped out tremendously as I said to myself, ''What would Karen do?" Saw old perv hand there too and this time it made me smile. ;-)
Mary Werner
Your spider with the long leg that is reaching out for the skull stacked on books - is that dollarama also? That is the nastiest looking beast I've ever seen and would have a hard time going anywhere near it. I do not like spiders and that is the worst one yet! Love your decor - my sister in law leaves her Jack the Pumpkin King display up all through Christmas which, of course, is the creepiest thing. Except for her husband, my brother, who plays, ever so quietly, a child singing Christmas songs inside their darkened house on Halloween when the trick or treaters come. Great post and home decor! I did keep smiling all along the BOO way.
Karen
It is indeed Dollarama! ~ karen BOO
Debbie D
Boooootiful!!!
Tigersmom
I like to spell it Mwooooooooo haaaaa haaaa! The more purely phonetic the better, it seems.
I love how Margaret remains so elegant even draped in creepy cloth. Those mummified cats are fantastically life(actually death, I suppose)-like. The whole house looks great.
Can't wait to see the kitchen. My physical issue of Canadian Living that I ordered never arrived. : (
Nancy
I got it from an app. It's so ridiculous she wasn't the cover, are they crazy???
Ev Wilcox
Cats are really creepy-good! How do your cats react to them? I once put a wooden box turtle in with my guys and they BURIED IT! For real! They must have thought it was real or they would not have done that. Your house looks good and scary Karen! Will be waiting with bated breath for the kitchen reveal, though! Thanks for nice camera work today, as always.
Jody
I was really enjoying the house until the ginormous spider. Spiders are horrible creatures. What do your real live cats think of their mummy cousins that visit once a year?
Karen
The first year they weren't fond of them. At ALL. It was hilarious to watch them skulk around them. ~ karen
Suanne
Your house is so creepy....
No one could be sleepy
Due to floor creeks and howls thru the night.
But one fact that is true
Is..... we all envy you
For your ability to give us such fright!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN KAREN
Karen
Ha! Thanks Suanne!!! Love it. ~ karen
Su
The cats are creepy no doubt.... LOVE the candelabra with bones and the bones wreath.... you are seriously disturbed but my hero none the less.... cause you got everything on clearance after the holiday... happy haunting!
Darlene Cox
Karen
I really hate to bring this up - but, your header reads: "your Daily Post" I think you need to change this. sad to say, that is unless you plan to come back to Daily!!!
Karol
I pictured you wringing your hands and hunched over a little bit while you said... Muahaha
karen
1. I tend to spell it BWa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
2. Ok, science now has a 3-D printer and they're making dumb things like, oh, artificial limbs and heart valves... WHY NOT POTATO CHIPS???? When the bag is empty, one could just stroll over to the 3-D printer and make some more!!!!
Heather
Some people say that popcorn tastes like cardboard. Does that mean you 3D potato chips would taste like paper?
karen
oh goodness no! the 3-D printer in my head also has flavors and scents. Um, it's possible that I've thought about this too much??!?