For this week’s Kitchen Wisdom, are you ready to do literal witch crafts? With the help of some creative homemakers and do-it-yourself experts, Ryan Homes at Brunswick Crossing is giving you our favorite Halloween decorating tips:
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Give party balloons a ghoulish touch. Blow up ordinary white balloons, and then tie black string at the base. Wrap the blown-up white balloon in black tulle, and tie the tulle at the base with black string. For this ghoulish touch, check out Good Housekeeping’s gallery.
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Create dead plants. To add a deathly look to your haunted house, spray paint faux plants with black spray paint. Top it off with black sand for an extra scare. Get the look here.
Tip: You can also create Franken-tastic frights by blackening the front-door wreath and adding a raven. Talk about a new take on curb appeal.
- Adapt apothecary jars to the season. Every new home has existing jars, but many homeowners don’t think to fill them for decoration. Fill traditional glass containers with bold orange and yellow leaves for autumn, or plastic spider rings for Halloween.
If you’re feeling bold, use candy corn. If you’re worried about melting candy, use colored water beads instead like Country Living.
Tip: Fill coffee table bowls with no-fuss mini pumpkins. For an extra touch of October magic, wrap festive ribbons or lace around them using double-sided tape or douse them in silver glitter.
- Up your pumpkin game. If you have little ones, chances are you went to the pumpkin patch this year. Now that you’ve got a gourd that rivals Charlie Brown’s, what’s next? Instead of carving it into a jack-o-lantern, gut it and place a water-filled vase inside. Fill the vase with festive flowers for a long-lasting piece of fall decor.
- Warm up your fireplace. If you choose one of our new homes with an optional fireplace, fill it with fall gourds to use every inch of space for Halloween decorating. By moving the pumpkins into a less-expected locale, use the front porch for other decorations. For inspiration, click here.
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Recycle the spookiness. For environmentally friendly decorating, recycle clean baby food jars as spidery votives by using yarn, Elmer’s glue, water, plastic spiders, and an LED tealight. Get the DIY instructions from Good Housekeeping.
Tip: Recycle egg cartons by cutting every three spaces. Paint each section black, and add a set of googly eyes. Use a holepunch in the center space, and then thread an orange ribbon through. Hang the fake bat from your chandelier like Reader’s Digest.
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Batter up your wall. Marvelous Mommy offers a DIY tutorial for another spooky cloud of bats that you can tape to your wall. It requires only cardstock and a roll of tape at the grocery store.
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Use fake blood. If you’re hosting a Halloween feast, splash white cloth napkins with red paint or Kool-Aid to simulate blood. Thread a grocery-store twist-tie through a set of plastic vampire teeth, and secure it around the center of the “bloodied” napkin. Get the inspiration from Reader’s Digest.
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Eerie up the living room. Create a haunted look to your new home’s living or family rooms by draping white bedsheets over each piece of furniture. From chairs and coffee tables to couches and window curtains, this DIY project is frighteningly easy.
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Make scary hand soap. Bathrooms are often forgotten when it comes to decorating for the season. Kick your bathroom game up a notch by removing the grocery store labels, and adding your favorite small Halloween decorations to the soap. Unscrew the lid, and stir in everything from plastic eyeballs and bats to pumpkin confetti.
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Hand out candy-filled pumpkins. Whether you’re hosting a Halloween housewarming party or looking for a new way to support trick-or-treaters, this is the way to go.
Cut green and orange tissue paper into circles, place assorted candy in the center, and gather the edges until you pinch a perfect pumpkin. Wrap green tape around the top, and hand out the party favors of the fall.
