Halloween is creeping closer, and if you entertain an eerie delight for decorating your living space with crossbones, coffins, cobwebs, and all things spooky and sinister, you will find the contents of this article a real scream! Trick out your home with these 10 spooktacular DIY Halloween decorations to treat guests at your next costume party!
Floral Skull Centerpiece
Alas, poor Yorick! A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy…now his cranium serves as a gruesome centerpiece to a wicked room – a grim vase for the daisies he’s pushing up of late.
Source: DIY Floral Skull Centerpiece by Erica of Honestly Yum
Potion Bottles and Book of Spells
Eye of newt, toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog – all these and more you need for a charm of powerful trouble. Stock your shelves with the vital ingredients of a witch’s potion-brewing practice, and conjure up a little hocus pocus with a book of spells.
Sources: DIY Halloween Poison Bottles by The 36th Avenue; How to Make Potion Bottles for Halloween by Katie of The Crafty Blog Stalker; DIY Potion Bottles by Magia Mia; Halloween Books by Lindsey at Better After; DIY Witches’ Spell Book by Andrea of Salty Canary; DIY Hocus Pocus Book by Mizerella
Floating Candles
Recreate the magic of the Great Hall at Hogwarts with these floating candles. Levitating beneath a conjured starry sky, these enchanted nightlights are perfect for illuminating a dark hallway with mystical charm that leaves guests spellbound; better still, a festive dining room with a rich table spread will now have the proper allure, as these candles cast a magical ambience that goes well with cauldron cake and a mug of butterbeer.
Sources: Harry Potter Floating Candles by Leah Leatherby on The Sway; Tutorial for Creating the Night Sky for Harry Potter Floating Candles; How to Make Floating Harry Potter Candles and Starry Sky Video by Pins and Things
Spectral Mirror
There is nothing fair about this mirror! Guests will check their complexions and be shocked to see the ghastly face of a spirit gazing back at them through the dark glass. You will enjoy spinning an elaborate tale about the ghoulish figure who is forever trapped behind the looking glass – or are they? Perhaps all they need is an unsuspecting victim with a vanity case to take their dismal place.
Sources: DIY Spectral Mirror from Country Living; DIY Haunted Ghostly Mirror by Rebecca E. Parsons; DIY Ghostly Mirror Tutorial by Mitzi; Antiquing a Ghostly Mirror for Halloween by Brenda Young
Eyeball Flowers
Unless you have a green thumb like Morticia Addams, skip the man-eating Cleopatra, and look after a bouquet of these friendly, all-seeing perennials. A vase of these ocular orchids makes an amusingly creepy centerpiece to your haunted space, guaranteed to catch the eyes of visitors.
Sources: Halloween DIY Creepy Eye Flowers by Jill Hayes; DIY Halloween Décor – Eyeball Bouquet by Kari Byington; Just Eyeball It: How to Make Creepy Realistic Eyeballs by Jen of EPBOT
“Trick-or-Treat, Smell My Feet” Candy Cauldron
What’s Halloween without candy? Serve up tasty sweets to trick-or-treaters and party-comers from this witch’s cauldron. Should the kiddies ask, tell them the witch’s last spell went awry when she tripped and fell in the pot.
Source: DIY Boot-I-Licious Halloween Décor by Toni of Design Dazzle
Skull Candle Holders
Cast a frightening glow from these bleeding candles, set upon the smiling noggins of Yorick’s companions. Better still, for a more dramatic effect, gouge out the eye sockets of the concrete skull with a hammer drill to make it unsettlingly seem as though the skull is shedding tears of blood.
Source: DIY Skull Candle Holder by Jenn from Endlessly Inspired; DIY Concrete Skull Candle Holder by Handan from The Navage Patch; How To Drill Into Concrete by Steffani Cameron on Bob Vila
Bat Mobile
Be you Batman, a chiropterologist (i.e., someone who studies bats), or a simple lover of these adorable flying mammals, you will go absolutely batty over this bat mobile! Perfect for filling the empty spaces below high ceilings, imagine a colony of bats circling the cobwebbed chandelier of your high foyer, dramatized with orange floodlights – spooky!
Note: Select “English” from the Google Translate dropdown menu, located to the right of Rebecca’s bat mobile article. The translation is not spot-on, but accompanied by the images, you will be able to recreate her bat mobile.
Source: DIY Halloween Bat Mobile by Rebecca
Skeleton Fairies
Poor little pixies! Some lost their way home in the night, flew into your spiders’ webs and met a fatal fright. Others your child caught, and like the fireflies he kept, their lights faded out one by one because air is important if you want to keep a pet. Worst of all, and it is sad but true, your cat caught one or two and left them on your front door stoop. So, now you have proof that fairies are real, so long as no more flutter near your home, where things this time of year are surreal.
Tutorial: I could not find an online source with step-by-step instructions for this DIY project, but the process is very simple. You can find tiny skeletons and butterflies at the craft shop or dollar store. Cut the wings off the butterflies and hot glue them to the back of the skeletons. Then, should you like to cage these deadly pixies, you can repurpose an old birdcage or lantern from the local antique store.
Source: Skeleton Fairies on Pinterest
Coffin Coffee Table
Lay your spirits to rest – no, your drinks, not the other kind of spirits – upon this macabre token of the brevity of life. Only this one time of the year can we jest about death; every other season declares it bad form. Funny thing it is to fear the end; you might try to hide, and you might try to pray, but we all end up the remains of the day – thank you, Danny Elfman!
Sources: DIY Coffin Table Video from Hallmark; DIY Coffin Table by Martha Stewart
