When it comes to decorating, this time of year can kind of be a head scratcher. Do we decorate for fall? Or just Halloween? A little of both? And if so, when do we start putting up the spooky stuff? If it was up to my 6 year old, we would of had zombies adorning our yard back in August!
Personally, I like to do a little of both (Halloween is mostly for my kiddos!), but I don't have the time, nor do I want to spend a lot of money completely redecorating for TWO different occasions between October and November. You feel me? So how do I manage to do a little of both on a budget with out stressing myself out?
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First and foremost, interior-wise IF I decide to decorate for Halloween in addition to my fall decorating, I limit it to just one space in my house; our entryway. It's a small space to decorate but big enough to make an impact, and think about it....it's the only place your trick or treaters will see anyways. This year I actually didn't even drag out any of my indoor Halloween stuff. I had a difficult enough time finding inspiration for our entry table in my fall tour, that once I settled on a set-up, I wasn't interested in changing it up. And I'm OKAY with that. You can see how I have decorated it in the past here , here, and here. The double bonus to limiting your Halloween decor to just one space is that when it comes to clean-up time after the holiday, it's one easy sweep! You don't have to walk around your house finding and packing away bones and black cats ( I mean unless you're some kind of creepy-serial-killing-cat-lady).
The second personal strategy I follow when it comes to decorating for both Halloween and fall, is what I like to refer to as my "porch capsule". You know how in the fashion world they talk about wardrobe capsules, where you purchase a few essential, timeless pieces that can be mixed and matched to create a wide variety of outfits? Well, that's essentially what I do with my porch during the Autumn season!
Fall Porch Decor
So here's a quick glance at my fall and Halloween "porch capsule" this year. The mums and pumpkins are what I consider my wardrobe's staple pieces, they're timeless (I mean how can pumpkins ever go out of style?!), and most importantly, they can represent both the autumn season and Halloween holiday. So when it comes time to transition my fall porch to Halloween and then back to fall, my staple pieces get to stay and all I need to do is swap out a few accent pieces. It's like a template! And it makes life soooo much easier!
PS. Just ignore the weeds and random rocks that my 2 year old was throwing into my photoshoot. She insisted they needed to be in my photos and there's only so many battles I can fight a day🤣 Also, you'll notice some pics have the little pumpkins at top and some don't. I had to take pics at two seperate times because of lighting issues. Soooo...no your eyes aren't playing tricks on you!
Speaking of accent pieces, for my Autumn porch I went with two large lanterns on both sides of the door. I LOVE lanterns on porches this time of year!
And then of course, what's a porch with out a pretty wreath and a fun doormat? These two items are probably the most interchangeable items you can find when it comes to decorating your porch for the different seasons. I didn't grab a close-up of our doormat, but it's the same blue "welcome" one we used in the summer. I love shopping my own home and reusing things where I can. I bought it from Target, but it doesn't look like they're selling it anymore.
The multicolor harvest wreath on our front door was a recent purchase from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I rarely ever shop there but I had to use up an old gift card and I was pleasantly surprised by their fall selection.
Halloween Porch Decor
So now let's talk about our Halloween porch, which I just decorated this week. I like to up the spook factor on our house about a week and half to two weeks pre-Halloween.
As I mentioned earlier, the staple pieces remain. Naturally, our pumpkin collection has grown a little over the month of October (if you have an Aldi around, they have the best-priced pumpkins EVER! Like $2 and some change!), but as you can see the mums and them are pretty much in the same spots as they were for our fall-decorated porch.
I did a quick switch-a-roo on the wreath and the doormat. If you follow me on Facebook, then you may have seen where I shared that I made our Halloween wreath this year. Five minutes is all it took me! I just attached a small, wooden "boo" sign, and a bow to a black grapevine wreath and called it a day.
The cobwebs in the corners of the portico were my way of bringing in some natural elements into our Halloween decor.🤣
I exchanged the two lanterns for a large black one that we had sitting on our back patio. The spider is attached to it with some clear nylon wire I had on hand. To the right of the door I used one of our large planters to display a pot of mums and black twigs I picked up at the local hardware store. My MIL sent us the witch's feet a few years ago AND my 6 year old seriously NEVER forgets about them. It's like the first thing he asks about every time I drag out the Halloween decor.
All in all, it only took me about 15-20 minutes to transform our porch, and that includes the making of the wreath and the wrangling of the weed-throwing 2 year old.
NOW....let's talk about dim spiders! You didn't think I would forget about those, did you?
The large spiders on our home have been discussed a few time on my Instagram and Facebook pages. (In case you didn't see, there was a misleading vendor on Amazon and everyone thought they were ordering giant spiders and they really ended up being as big as my 8lb dog. It was both comical and annoying) Luckily I found these other ones on Amazon (thanks to a fellow decor pal who referred them to me) and I love the way they turned out.
This picture was taken before I switched the porch over to our Halloween decor. I'll have to grab a full size house picture sometime this week now that we're all ready for the 31st.
So that's my formula for decorating for fall and Halloween! Simplify, use only your favorite items, and sit back and enjoy. Remember decorating for the different seasons should be a joy, it shouldn't feel like a chore!
Sources
Front Door Color: Benjamin Moore Rhine River
Shutter Paint Colors: Benjamin Moore Chelsea Grey
Multi-Color Harvest Wreath: Bed, Bath, and Beyond
Bronze Lanterns: Menards (last summer) Similar ones here
Red and Blue Glazed Pots and Red Plastic Planters: Menards
Blue "Welcome" Door Mat: Target (no longer sold)
Halloween Wreath: DIY black grapevine wreath-Michaels
Large Black Lantern: Target
Small and Black Spiders: Amazon
Witch Leg Yard Sticks: Similar
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