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Halloween Decoration Ideas – Vintage Halloween Decorating Ideas …

  • April 25, 2010 7:21 am
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While a lot has changed in 100 years, you may be surprised that the essence of great Halloween Decorating has remained almost the same. Unlike the 1900′s, we do have modern amenities like electricity, electronics and LED lights to bring more pizazz to our Halloween decorating. I invite you to use these vintage Halloween decorating ideas along with modern twists to create a classic and spooky Halloween scene throughout your home.

Outdoor Halloween Decorations:

If the place where the festivities are held is held in the suburbs, the lawn in front of house should be decorated with hanging lighted jack-o’-lanterns. The eyes, nose, mouth in each one should be different and as grotesque as possible. If there is a fence around the yard, put a jack-o’-lantern on each post. Drape black above the front door and, in the center over the door, hang a skull and cross-bones.

Entrance way Halloween Decorations:

Once inside the home, the entrance way should be in total darkness except for light coming from jack-o’-lanterns of all shapes and sizes on tables, and hanging from doors and ceiling, and around/in the fireplace. The entrance way should be draped in black and the person who opens the door should be dressed in black.

Living Room/Family Room Halloween Decorations:

Decorate the main rooms with jack-o’-lanterns made from apples, cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, etc. Hang them somewhere in the room or place on stands, tables, and mantles. Use also green branches, autumn leaves, apples, tomatoes, ears of corn and drape the room with red and yellow scrim and cheese-cloth. If possible, have a fire going in the fireplace.

Halloween Decorations for a Spooky Room:

The best place for spooky Halloween happenings is the garage, attic or basement. Have guests enter your spooky room immediately after hanging their coats. If you are creating your spooky room in a building detached from the house, build a large bonfire. The spooky room should be decorated with gruesome things – jack-o’-lanterns, skulls and cross-bones, black draperies, witches made out of cardboard and suspended from the walls, cats, bats, owls, etc. The shades and spirits should flit about. Use this room to tell ghost stories, play gruesome games or for fortune telling.

Dining Room Halloween Decorations:

The dining room should have festoons of nuts, branches of oats, strings of cranberries, autumn leaves, goldenrod, odd lanterns, yellow chrysanthemums and whatever else goes along with the theme. All the decorations of this room should be cheerful and suitable to the season. Charming maidens flit about serving the guests. For a festive Halloween table center piece use a large pumpkin with top cut off, pulp removed, and filled with water holding a large bunch of chrysanthemums or goldenrod. Bay leaves should be scattered over table and around the dishes. The menu card at each guest’s plate should be of burnt leather bearing a sketch of a witch. After all unmask, lights in dining-should be turned up and room made brilliant.

Some modernizations of the above could include solar powered jack-o’-lanterns, spooky sound effects and a skull with glowing red eyes. Enjoy putting your unique twist to these vintage Halloween decorating ideas to create a fabulous setting for your Halloween Party.

Halloween Decoration Ideas – Vintage Halloween Decorating Ideas …

Halloween Decorating Tips and Tricks

  • April 10, 2010 9:21 pm

Special Effect Lighting

Halloween is all about darkness, shadows and the lack of light. However, the right kind of lights really enhance what we may not want to see! Props such as skeletons, ghosts, or witches really come to life with a colored light. Place a clip on or swing arm lamp to shine on the prop at an angle. Try to find the best angle to be effective. Tape a cellophane gel approximately 2 inches from the light. You can buy color heat resistant plastic and gels at photo shops, film or theatre stores.

For a even simpler lighting effect, just use colored light bulbs which are available at hardware and electric supply stores.

Strobe lights, strobes’ simulating lightning strikes, or black lights add special effects is you wish to spend the money.

Creating Illuminated Images

You can create images out of things such as bats, spiders, witches on the wall of a dark room. Cut out the desired image about 1 inch long (small) from black paper. Center it over a flashlight and secure it in place with tape. Hold together two identical magnifying glasses in front of the light and experiment with until you get the right focus on the wall. Cut a piece of cardboard tube to fit the correct distance between the flashlight and the lenses. Tape the apparatus together and place on a sturdy table or chair which is out ofsight.

Sound Effects

Every haunting requires eerie noises. You can find soundtracks or creepy music, screams, howls, spooky laughter, footsteps, animals like wolves howling, owls hooting, cats and dogs etc. Check out the internet and local library. You can tape your own sounds like clanking chains, heavy footsteps or footsteps on dry leaves, screams and animal cries. Hide your recorder in a closet (door slightly opened) or an area where it will not be noticed.

Sinister Signs

Hang creepy signs on doors, gates, pillars to add to the haunted decor. Signs like “beware, stay out or else, skull and cross bones, enter at your own risk”. You’ll come up with plenty to keep visitors away!

Make these signs out of old boards painted with red blood to indicate that they were painted with blood.

Fog and Smoke

Electric fog or smoke machines can be purchased or rented. Most spew out mist or fog and do require dry ice of water. These are very effective in creating a haunted place.

Motion Effects

Place a motion sensor connected to a fan blowing under curtains or bed sheets.

Floating Ghosts

Put helium balloons with light weight white sheets draped over the balloons. Paint eyes on these sheets and let them gently sway on the balloons which are anchored to a heavy object ie. rocks if outside.

These are just a few of the many ideas out there that you can easily do or copy. Once you start, your imagination will inspire you to try even more. Make sure that you are also dressed to kill for this occasion. There are excellent Halloween Costumes to complement any frightful decor, because you definitely do no want to be the one “out of place” Halloween Night!.

Halloween Decorating Tips and Tricks