This post was most recently updated on September 23rd, 2019
I said last week that I wasn’t going to bother with much Halloween decorating this year, particularly a mantel. Ha! I should know better by now than to say such things! Even though our Fall mantel (with the giant peel and stick posters of our kids) could have stuck around through Halloween, I got the urge to change things up! I was a little sad to take down the giant photos, but they’ll find a place in our Fall decorating again next year.
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I’ve mentioned before that I’m all about cute Halloween decorating, not the gory stuff. Seriously, I see some decorations out there that scare the bejeez out of me, so I can only imagine the what they do for a toddler’s imagination! We still have young kids, and one in particular scares more easily than the others. So I’m careful not to make things too spooky around here.
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One sure way to whimsy up any decorating scheme is to add polka dots. I mean, seriously, what’s cuter than polka dots? I’m a polka dot lover.
Halloween decorating can get a little chaotic, so to keep the room feeling calm, I kept the mantel’s color scheme simple. I just used the just black and white stuff from my Halloween decorating stash. The sign was a fun HomeSense find (I used it in last year’s Halloween mantel too!). I found those black cat silhouettes at a dollar store last year. But to create a similar look, you could easily cut them out of black paper or felt.
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Instead of painting black polka dots onto my faux cream pumpkins, I used my circle punch and some adhesive vinyl. (I had some black Silhouette vinyl on hand.) That way, I can remove them and use my pumpkins again for Fall decorating next year.
I also punched out polka dots for the wall. I love how fun they make it all feel. Adhesive vinyl is a great way to add some seasonal spunk to a wall because it’s temporary and easy to remove.
If you don’t have a stash of branches on hand, I highly recommend that you collect a bunch on a hike, or after a big storm. These branches came from my parents’ cherry tree after a tropical storm last Fall, and I’ve used them for seasonal decor during almost every season since! Branches are a decorating must…and luckily you can find them for free!
So have you decorated for Halloween? I was never a big fan of Halloween until I had kids. But nowadays, we eat it up!
Later gators,
Kerri