HAUNTING UP OUR HOUSE

We are already in middle of October and that means Halloween is creeping up!  Not long ago I showed you guys my spooky finds while I was out shopping (see post here).  Like I said before I have never decorated much for different holidays or seasons but this year I am thrilled to so!  Today I am taking you into our house and the Halloween decorating I have done.  I am on a budget so I didn’t go too crazy…just added some things to the Dining Room, fireplace mantel and a little something to the coffee bar.

It started with finding a life-size skeleton that I would be able to spray paint gold to look similar to this guy from Grandin Road.  I just couldn’t fork over $99 for their skeleton.  Instead I found one at Target for $40 and since gold spray paint has a permanent residence in my garage he was mine!  Oliver, that’s my 4-year-old, decided his name needed to be Mr. Bones!  So here is Mr. Bones before and after!  Kind of creepy just hanging out in the yard, huh?

With the exception of the skeletons all of the Halloween decorations came from Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree.  In the Dining Room Mr. Bones is definitely the main focus.  And since he is gold I kept all of the accessories black and gold in there.  I painted paper mache “BOO” letters gold with different patterns of black for a little variety.  Leaving them all the same height on the table was too boring so I used small boxes and covered them with black netting.  The bobble head skulls were from the dollar store and I knew they would be great if they were only gilded! A black raven, mini pumpkin, witch hat and fun candles finished up the tablescape!

On the coffee bar this  $1 pumpkin became black with a gold stem.   My usual woven basket that holds my coffee pods was traded for a spider web bowl and filled with webbing and candy corn…YUMMY!! 

My biggest DIY project for all of the seasonal décor was the haunted houses.  When I saw theseat Pottery Barn I knew I wanted some on my mantel.  I purchased unfinished house in different sizes from Hobby Lobby and painted them.  They aren’t as fancy as the PB ones but at least I don’t have glitter everywhere!  The windows and doors were all open so I covered them with wax paper.  Toss in a flameless candle at night and they glow!  And at half off they only cost about $8…totally worth it!

And here are the houses on the mantel, which actually turned out to be my favorite!  The houses are sitting on a black feather boa and the skull and raven are on top of vases covered in faux webbing.  While I was at Target I saw a smaller version of Mr. Bones and he literally leapt into my basket!  Don’t you hate it when that happens?!?  In case you are wondering his name is Baby Bones…gotta love how kids name everything! 

I hope you like it all and I would love to see pictures of your Halloween decorations!  For me, this turned out to be a win…it was inexpensive to do, did not take too much time to put together and has gotten our household in the spirit!