Happy October! I’m SO excited to introduce my new beautiful website and blog just in time for Halloween decorating! I’ve never been much of a general fall decorator for two reasons. One, I absolutely love Halloween and since I still have little kiddos in the house, it’s more exciting for them to see the spooky stuff. And two, given the nature of my business, I am in full blown Christmas mode come November 1st so I mentally move from Halloween to Christmas with the blink of an eye!
To kick off my new blog, I’ve decided to do an Elegant Halloween Home Tour. Each week in October, I will showcase a different area of my home. And since this is Week 1, it only seems natural to start my Tour with the porch and entryway.
I decided to stick with classic Halloween colors this year: black, orange, yellow and white. I found this adorable candy corn wreath at JoAnn’s Fabrics of all places! I always seem to find the cutest and unique Holiday décor there. These wreaths are super light and the vibrant colors and oversized candy corn make me smile every time I look at them!
The left side of my porch is a mix of fun textures and patterns! Having very little ones, I have to keep my décor to things that aren’t scary so one of my favorite places to shop is Pottery Barn Kids! I bought this cute kitty came from there about 2 years ago and it’s definitely a family favorite! My 3-year old daughter Noelle absolutely LOVES it! She hugs and kisses her (apparently it’s a girl cat) every day. The big bright orange pumpkin on top of the hay bales is also from Pottery Barn Kids. It can also hold a light! The cute wooden Pumpkin Man was a great find from Home Goods in Philadelphia last year! We were visiting some friends for a weekend and my husband thought I was crazy for buying such a huge item (he stands 4 feet tall!) that would need to be shipped. Although the shipping ended up costing more than Pumpkin Man himself, he was well worth the cost!
One of my favorite prints to incorporate into my décor the past 2 years has been harlequin! These harlequin pumpkins from GrandinRoad are a perfect accent to bring a little bit of grownup sophistication to the mix. I am also a huge fan of black crowes (as you will see throughout my Halloween Home Tour) and those I also purchased through GrandinRoad. They come in sets of four, and although are a little pricey, they are a great filler for any Halloween display! Each one is in a different position, has realistic feathers and a realistic looking beak! What I love most is that they can be used no matter whether your décor is kid-friendly, elegant, or downright spooky!
The right side of my porch is larger than the left so I have this great space to put taller/larger decor. As you can see I’ve tied in more hay bales, crows, spiders and pumpkins to coordinate with the left side. The giant Boo pumpkin and the small white star pumpkin came from Pottery Barn Kids. The crows are of course from Grandin Road as well as the orange harlequin pumpkin. The most commanding of all the decorations is obviously the huge Halloween Countdown Sign. I saw one on Pinterest last year (so I can’t take the credit for the fantastic idea), I absolutely LOVED it and knew I needed one for my own porch! The one on Pinterest was considerably smaller and since I have such a big space to fill, I had my hubby make me a giant one! And by giant I mean 4 feet wide by 7 feet tall! (And special kudos to him because he built it in the 100 degree August Texas heat! Yikes!) To make this, I purchased several different stencil sets from Hobby Lobby, traced the letters onto the sign with pencil (in case I made any errors, which I did) then hand-painted the letters! A bit time consuming but super easy! I painted and hot glued a chalkboard to the sign and my kids fight over who gets to change the date! As you can imagine, all that arguing gets really old really fast, so by the time Halloween rolls around, I have taken over chalkboard duty!
And here is the view of the finished porch! The spooky cloths around the front door are simply cheesecloths that I tattered with scissors. It’s such a super cheap and easy way to “haunt” up a space! You will see this spooky cloths in other spots of my Halloween Home Tour!
Moving into my entry, as you walk into my home, we have a long wall on the left side that usually houses an antique buffet cabinet, a big arched mirror and two lamps. During Halloween time however, the space becomes home to this adorable Vampire Family and it’s probably one of my favorite areas! I hang spooky spider webs and a black feather wreath (purchased from JoAnns) on the large mirror. The Vampire Mom & Dad sit atop a big wooden stool while the Brother and Sister each sit on stacks of books. I incorporate both real candles as well as flickering light candelabras for a spooky effect at night! The Vampires themselves were purchased through Grandin Road. Although pricey, these were SO worth the expense! The dolls are HUGE and the detail on them is amazing! Each has “real” hair, black painted fingernails and a jewel necklace or broach. Their boots are made of a faux leather material and each face has a unique expression. I incorporated some glittered black roses as well as red roses to tie with the red jewels. Although the red doesn’t exactly tie into my traditional Halloween color scheme, my love for them overpowered my OCD nature.
And here is the view of the entire display! As you can see, the dolls are very large and make a huge statement in the space! Since our entry ceilings are so tall, and since the Vampire Family sits so tall, I knew I needed some height on each side for balance. I decided to go with a pair of tall spooky lit trees (purchased from Crate & Barrel) and also these awesome Trick and Treat signs (which I purchased on Etsy). Not only do the signs work perfectly in the space but on the back they are painted red and have the words Jingle and Bells in white. Sooooo, after Halloween I just flip them around and use for Christmas! Gotta love two decorations in one!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the first stop on my Elegant Halloween Home Tour and next week I will be featuring my Formal Living Area! Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler temps and pumpkin-spice everything! Have a great week!
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