Halloween Decor on the Mantel

Two posts in one day! Why the heck not?

With the exception of Christmas, I don't really decorate for holidays.

I find, and I think you'll agree, that holiday decor easily veers off into "cute" and/or "tacky" territory pretty quickly. And, if I haven't mentioned before, we live in a very small (under 800 sq ft) house, so even if I was way into decorations, I don't think we'd have the room to store much. With that said, I decided this year I was going to do some decorating for Halloween, Ceci style.

How'd I do? Too busy? Not scary enough? It's probably both, but I'm still pretty happy with it.

I didn't want to buy a bunch of new things I could only use for a few weeks per year. (Because of the aforementioned lack of storage space, but also because there are too many other things I would rather spend money on.) In the end, I think I spent 3 dollars. A buck each for the birds, and a buck for 2 little white pumpkins. Everything else was from around the house. I just picked up items that were either spooky, had interesting texture, or were fall colored. I don't use a lot of bold color, so fall colored ended up being pretty neutral.

I used:

• 2 old books
• 2 decorative balls similar to these from Pier 1 (they look a little brain or worm like, no?)
• 3 bottles from the kitchen (with free printed labels found here)
• 2 mercury votives similar to these from West Elm
• a beaver skull and a raccoon skull (what? you don't have these lyin' around in your house?)
• 2 vases turned upside down covered in cloth napkins for the skull stands
• a vase filled with seeds pods, cinnamon sticks, and wheat
• 3 candles in orange and white
• a vase wrapped in rope and filled with a bunch of corks I've hoarded collected
• a woven basket/bowl
• faux birds
• mini pumpkins
• spooky branches

And it looks pretty good at night with the candles lit too.

It was fun. And since the pumpkins won't last forever, I've only added 2 little fake birds to my stash. Not too bad. Might have to change it out for a general Autumn look soon.

 

Do you decorate for seasons? Do you have animal skulls lying around the house?