This year our Halloween home tour incorporates a bright and colorful traditional Halloween color scheme and takes us back to the 50s for good old-fashioned retro Halloween decor ideas.
Halloween is a favorite holiday at our house and Halloween decorating is an event here. Last year my daughter, Hannah, created a witch's den on our mantel with vintage Halloween decorations. I created these dollar store DIY Jack o lanterns for decorations and an outdoor Halloween party table. This year we decided to brighten the color scheme and continue with a vintage aesthetic. This Halloween home tour has 1950s old-time trick-or-treating written all over it.
Halloween Home Tour
Take a guess where this year's theme all started. You are correct if you guessed the large retro Halloween art on the mantel. Hannah designed this fun retro printable and it is for sale in our Etsy shop. The color scheme and vintage vibe inspired all our Halloween decorations for this year.
Retro Halloween Mantel Decorations
Using one piece of art can make our whole design plan work together and unify your space. This art has orange, black, off-white, and yellow color schemes. Plus, it has a fun trick-or-treating friendly kids vibe. So here is how the mantel turned out. If you want more details on how we created this retro mantel, hop over to this blog post with vintage inspired Halloween decor mantel ideas.
Because the fireplace mantel is a focal point in our living room, all the other decorations are added details that complement the mantel. If you like my ghostly friend, check out my post on how to make this DIY sheet ghost holiday decoration in only four steps. So let's take a step back and look at the other table decorations around the room.
Halloween Living Room Table Decorations
The color scheme and the joyful Halloween retro vibe were the focus of all the end tables. On our table, between the chairs, we simply place books and these jolly stacked pumpkins. Is there anything cuter than pumpkins in witch hats? So much fun!
Next to the sofa, we brought out one of our favorite retro Halloween decorations of this Beistle Halloween design. We can imagine this vintage Jack-o-lantern, black cat, and trick-or-treating kid's design was on a Halloween card in the 50s.
Sitting beside the old card design is a black Jack-o-lantern that lights up on a stack of books. Varying heights of these three items is a design trick to make your decoration assemble balance and flow.
Under the television was the perfect spot for this large-mouth Jack o lantern, but he needed something to make him even more unique, so we filled his mouth and the chest counter with vintage brand candies or as close to vintage as we could find. It was the perfect addition. LOL!
Halloween Dining Table Centerpiece
Across the room from my living room is our informal dining room table. While visiting my sister, I saw these adorable ghosts. They had vintage written all over them. So we simply sat the ghosts on the table along with fresh pumpkins in our color scheme, and like magic, we had the simplest and easiest centerpiece I think we have ever made and adds a great Halloween touch to the dining area.
My sister said she bought these ghosts years ago at the dollar store. I will add a link here and share where I found them if I ever encounter any.
Don't these ghosts remind you of the ghost on the fireplace hearth? Repetition is another excellent designer trick.
Halloween Entryway Decor
Last is our entryway. Actually, I probably should have started here since if you were touring our house for Halloween, that is where you would enter. But for this tour, we will end up at the door. I kept the dried leaves from our fall decorating ideas on our entryway table. We then added old books to elevate this old ceramic Jack-o-lantern with ghosts.
I just thought that maybe this year was not only a 1950s theme, but Jack o lanterns and ghosts also seemed to be the focus.
The funny thing about this decoration is that I made it long before I was married, probably 35 years ago. For many years when money was tight, this was our only Halloween decoration. Boy, have things changed. Now we go all out on Halloween by reusing pieces from years past and trying to make inexpensive things, like the printable art in our Etsy shop.
Halloween Decorations for Bookshelves
I just thought of one more thing and, if your budget is tight, you will love this one. Look at this cute candle I found while thrifting. I picked this cute candle Jack-o-lantern up, put him in the freezer and popped out the candle. Then I placed a Dollar Tree tea light battery-powered candle inside and added a sweet decoration to our bookcases.
The funny thing about this decoration is that I placed it in a boo-basket to boo my little nephews and their mom for Halloween. I ended up spray painting the Jack-o-lantern gold on the inside and white on the outside so she could put him on her tiered tray.
Final Thoughts
I hope you have enjoyed this year's Halloween home tour. Everything was pretty simple, and we tried to keep the cost down by using things we already had and taking advantage of thrifting, Etsy, dollar stores, TJ Maxx, Homegoods, and making decorations. Hitting a yard sale, thrift store or estate sales are all great ideas for finding unique holiday decor.
Decorating for Halloween doesn't have to break the bank. All our printables in our Etsy shop are under 5 dollars, and we run sales all the time, so check out our Etsy shop for ideas for your holiday decorating.
Again, I hope you enjoyed this Halloween virtual tour and that it inspired you to decorate your home for Halloween. What theme will your Halloween decorations be this year? I thought of a few other fun themes you might enjoy:
- Haunted house
- Hocus Pocus
- Ghost stories
- Monster mash
- Mad Scientist
I'd love to hear your creative ideas. Happy Halloween!
Happy Decorating!
