No joke, this is my first design with my new Tilemat from Letterfolk

I’ve never decorated for Halloween before, but there is something about being basically trapped in our house for 8 months that made me think, yea uh let’s go ahead and give ourselves a change of scenery. My style is quite simple, I like pops of seasonal color and honestly, I don’t think it’s necessary to spend a ton of money on seasonal decorations and then you also need to figure out where to store them the rest of the year. I’ve already mentioned that we have a relatively small house, so organization and limited clutter is how we are really able to make the space work well for a family of 3 + a cat and a large dog.

I’m drawn to a lot of the non-traditional decorations. I don’t know exactly why I am averse to the standard orange pumpkins, haystacks, and corn husks. But I wanted to push myself and see if I can make orange work in a way that still felt like my style. I came close, but it definitely needs some work. Perhaps next year I will go full out on some boldly painted pumpkins in other non traditional colors, but I didn’t have time for that shit this year.

Halloween Decorations for the Fireplace

I started with fireplace Halloween decorations and built around that. I LOVE the silver and gold geometric pumpkins that I found at Joanne Fabrics (on sale. even better). I honestly don’t love the combo of those pumpkins with real pumpkins but I went with it for the time being. I really liked the idea of finding this shiny kinda fringe yarn to make a spider web on the inside of the fireplace. I used these super sticky glue dots that I have used for years and they wouldn’t stick to the fireplace for more than a few hours before one would pop off. I’ll be rethinking a better way to do that going forward, but it was still fun to make.

The black sticks are actually branches from our apple tree that needed to be trimmed anyway. I pulled all the leaves off and spray painted them a matte black to make them look more creepy. I added a little bit of pulled cotton balls to give them a little more dimension and up the creep factor.

The terracotta vases (also on sale) are from Joanne Fabrics, my goal is to have something a bit neutral so I can use these at other points in the year instead of buying straight-up Halloween vases. I don’t usually go for terracotta but I liked that these had a bit of a modern spin on them due to the cylinder shape and geometric texture.

Modern Halloween Entry Table Decor

The entryway Halloween decorations are my favorite by far. I was able to stay a bit more true to my design style, they feel festive, welcoming, and not overly done. The wall is such a fun shape due to the slope of the post and beam ceiling that it is a nice canvas to work on. We were able to take a break from the smokey air and pick some pumpkins down in Half Moon Bay. They bring a little bit of extra joy because it was our kiddo’s first time at a pumpkin patch and we went and played in the ocean after. Using elements that are also in the Halloween decorations on the fireplace ties the spaces together pretty well.

Halloween Table Decorations

I’m not going to lie, this was a big pain in my ass this week. I thought I would be able to continue using similar elements from the fireplace and the entryway but nothing looked quite right on our walnut table. It just looked a bit sad and dull every time I took a photo. I went back out and bought some white Halloween cheesecloth (that means it has some pre-cut holes and shredded vibes to it) to give some movement and depth to the Halloween centerpiece. I tried a vase and the black sticks, it really just didn’t work. So, I switched to this black garland that I was able to shape and twist and laid it flat.