9 Last Minute Halloween Décor Ideas
By Olivia Matos
October tends to be a crazy month, not only are folks still adjusting back into school and getting excited for the upcoming holidays but also are excited for all of the fall events like Brewfests, festivals, that new outfit with the buffalo print, boots and fur, and that oh-so cozy sweater. Before you know it Halloween has snuck up on you and you don't know how to decorate your home with such short notice! Here are some fun ideas to help!
1) Spooky face on your front door
Depending on the color of your front door, you can come up with simple yet spooky décor with just some poster-board. What color is your door? White? Cut out some black paper or spray paint some cardboard and tape up a skeleton or ghost face- just the eyes and mouth. A green door? Maybe a classic Frankenstein or an update with the Hulk. Red door? Maybe spiderman or deadpool! This will be a fun way to start your guests off in the Halloween mood as soon as they knock on the door!
2) Scarecrow
Another good front porch décor item would be a scarecrow, most of us have a flannel button-up and some jeans lying around. Grab a little burlap and buttons for a head and add a hat. If you get ambitious, make a scarecrow family. You don't need to stuff it with straw to make it look legit, use other clothes, blankets, sheets etc. and any personalized accents you like. You can tie it to your porch bannister or sit it in a chair! Doesn't matter where but this scarecrow is bound to scare!
3) Plastic cup Jack O’ Lanterns
You've probably already bought some plastic cups for your party anyways. Use some of the extra for these cute “Jack O’ Lanterns”. Flip the cups up-side down, draw some faces in marker on them and put some battery powered flameless tea lights underneath and place them around the house for fun.
4) Posterboard Bat Display
A few years ago in my work office we were definitely lacking in some Halloween cheer. To remedy that I found a bat template online, found some black thin poster board at the dollar store and got to work tracing and cutting, while slightly labor intensive this is an easy and fun Halloween decoration, I cut out various sizes of bat as well as a moon with a cloud (in yellow and black) and put up an entire wall display that made it look like the bats were flying into the distance. It was a great hit- and if you fold the wings in a few places it makes the bats look more 3-D, if you are careful with these they are easy to use year after year.
5) Toilet Paper Pumpkins
Since discovering this neat trick, this has been one of my favorite 5 minute décor crafts that you can use seasonally for fall decorations . Toilet Paper pumpkins only need 3-4 supplies. Use a roll of toilet paper and your favorite orange pattern piece of fabric- a fat quarter size usually will work best. Have fun with this- it doesn't have to be plain orange, and doesn't even need to be orange at all! Place the toilet paper in the middle of the fabric and wrap the fabric around the toilet paper stuffing the end into the top of the roll. Now to add your pumpkin stem, if you want a fancier scented pumpkin you can use a cinnamon stick, if you don't have any of those lying around- go outside and find a small twig or stick, break it down to 2-3 inches and stick it in the top, while you could stop there I always find that adding a few leaves to the top will really complete the look. If you have any fake leaves lying around use those, if not you can use real ones and stick them in with glue in the top with the stick. The best part of this is that they are easy to disassemble, you can of course use your toilet paper as you normally do and store away the leaves (fake), sticks and fabric for next season.
6) Monster Wine Bottles
It is likely you will already have wine being served, or bottled alcohol at your party. Why not jazz it up a little and make some mummy's or monsters on the bottles? Taking some ribbon, glue and googly eyes to one of the bottles will make a cute addition to your tabletop.
7) Signature Scent
Something you may not have considered before is having a signature scent for your event. Sometimes nothing can take me back to a particular moment like that one smell you just catch a whiff of. Consider a simmer pot on your stove wafting off fragrances of warm and cozy cinnamon, rosemary, orange slices and cloves. If you don't want to put something on the stove maybe you have essential oils, wax burners or candles that carry your favorite seasonal scent. Get these all set up for your party so they get your guests feeling nostalgic.
8) Window silhouettes
Using the same black posterboard you bought for #4 you can find some free spooky templates online and cut them out. These are perfect to mount in your window for some spooky silhouettes, it will add greatly to your Halloween curb appeal.
9) Halloween Hand Soap
The devil is in the details! Those detail oriented friends you have will love that you even decided to jazz up the bathroom or kitchen soap for them with this Halloween hand soap idea. Find a bulk pack of miniature spooky items, black cats, tiny skulls, eye balls or little pumpkins and dump them into your kitchen or bathroom clear hand soap bottle, mixing well. This is certain to make your friends think you thought of everything for your Halloween party large or small.
Happy Halloween!
