spook-tacular dining room

(...these Halloween titles just keep getting better ;-) right?)

I love Halloween, and I love being able to take a normal kind of room and make it spooky. This year in our apartment, I built off of decorations I started using last year. On a side note related to the above spooky intro picture, when brainstorming blog titles, my favorite idea was 'Life in 3D', since in our building we live in apartment number 3D. Because we're only living here until next summer though, I wanted the blog to outlive the apartment :-)

 So anyways, back to Halloween. I was inspired by Young House Love's approach to Halloween decorations, which is to make it quite festive and spooky, but to make it work with what's there all the time, so it looks spooky but still fits in with what you already like to live with. I love those bloody candles they made, and might try them before the month is up. Here is what I've done so far:

 The dining room table went from sweet and hinting at fall , to classy cobweb with apple green accents.

 To keep it festive but in line with the existing decor, I used lots of black, kept the apple green accents, and put black place mats on top of slightly larger turquoise ones for a pop of the main color in the room.

 I used all things I already had except for the large crackled silver candle holder, which I bought for $9 at Home Goods. I loved that it wasn't specific to Halloween, and while it looks spooky wrapped in cobwebs and playing home to a large fuzzy spider, on it's own it's neutral enough to use throughout the year. I also liked that it gave the arrangement some height that it was lacking prior its addition.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but almost everything that is black is also glittery, including the word 'Boo' which was a dollar store find that I think was intended for scrapbooking, and the spiders in the milk bottle, which I covered in glue and then doused in black sparkles last year. I love black glittery things at Halloween! Stretched spider webs between the various elements was the perfect finishing touch, since before that everything was looking kind of dis-jointed.


I made another Halloween scene on the shelf in the dining room, using the same elements: black and glittery, hints of apple green.

 

The witch on the wall is covered in black glitter, and was one of my few new purchases this year ($4 at Target!). Beside it is a black glittery tree I made last year by spray painting some branches I found outside, and an empty spaghetti sauce jar in matte finish black spray paint. Then I doused the branches in more black glitter. The pumpkin in front has a small light inside that glows and fills the room with a creepy face at night. I'm considering spray painting the whole pumpkin black (especially since it was $5 from Target last year, so if I really hate it, no biggy). If I decide to give it the spray, I will definitely share pictures!

 You might be noticing something popping up throughout the room (besides black glitter!). Spiders kind of became the unofficial theme without planning for it. What can I say, not only are they black, but look great sparkled! I knew I wanted more spiders than what I had in the milk bottle, but couldn't find exactly what I wanted pre-made. One trip to Joanne's for pipe cleaners, puff balls, and black sequins, and I had these cute little babies:

 

Spiders are definitely not my favorite things to have in the apartment, but they're so cute when they're covered in sequins! They were super easy and fun to make. I just wrapped the pipe cleaners around a black puff ball chopped them off at the length I like, did a little bending, and...spiders! I glued the sequins on top with some clear glue. 

My creepy, but still cute and sparkly little creatures make an appearance all over the room, including in the bowl of green apples:

 And on a web stretched around the vases that were already on the shelf. I also added a piece of brown fabric with roughed up edges that help it stand out a little more.

 Of course I'm never done with any projects I do. I'd love to get a flame-less candle to go inside the silver candle holder. I think at night it would look so neat glowing, but since I have spider webs stretched across it (and a curious cat), a real candle is out of the question. I also looked at a set of flame-less tea light candles that I would love to scatter throughout. Maybe one in the center white vase on the shelf, in the black tea light holders on the table, and inside of the black jar to shine up onto the sparkly branches. The flame-less candles I saw at Target were too expensive though, so they may need to wait until I can find a good deal somewhere.  And because I don't like looking at one thing for too long, it's quite possible these decorations could be moved or adjusted before the end of the month!