Our Favorite DIY Halloween Decorations For Your Apartment!
A long time ago, when Halloween was a Gaelic tradition known as Samhain (October 31st is still considered the Wiccan New Year), “decorations” served a profoundly superstitious and fearful purpose. For example, people would carve turnips to hold lights as a deterrent for evil spirits. Now, some people call it “spooky season” and use Halloween decorations to attract their neighbors and friends’ attention. Many of us might not even notice the ancient symbolism of many typical Halloween decorations. Times sure have changed, haven’t they?
Whether you’re a Samhain purist or just want to set the mood for your fourth viewing of Hocus Pocus, adorning your living space is the perfect way to get into the Halloween spirit. We hope these DIY Halloween decoration tips for your apartment result in a BOOtiful place to live this October (or longer if you’re into that).
Who Says You Have to Carve a Pumpkin?
It’s hard to beat the classics. Purchase some small, decorative pumpkins from your local farm or store to place around your apartment. Since these are often too small to carve, you can break out the paintbrushes to add some personality.
Here’s another fun way to give your tiny pumpkins some color. Unwrap a crayon of your choosing and set it near the stem. Since crayons don’t need high heat to melt, use a low-heat blow dryer to send colorful drips of wax down the sides of your pumpkin. Melting crayons can get messy, so make sure you put down some newspaper to catch any rogue drippings.
The Purrfect Halloween Pillows
Perhaps you’re “lucky” and have a black cat living with you year-round at your McKinley pet-friendly apartment. No need to decorate then. But if you don’t have a cat, you can create some using black decorative pillows. Give your cat some eyes and a nose with three buttons (we assume you know where to place them) and embroider white whiskers to finish the creation. Don’t let the pillow cross your path.
Black cats are associated with Halloween due to a long-held superstitious belief that they bring bad luck, though they are said to bring good luck in Japan. Either way, cats are associated with witchcraft, which is why they remain a Halloween icon. Thankfully, most shelters refuse to adopt black cats before the holiday to prevent people from using them temporarily as decorations.
Spooky Door
Want to bring some Halloween scares to your apartment complex? Connect with your McKinley apartment neighbors and challenge them to a Halloween door contest. Utilizing construction paper, streamers, fake spider webs, and whatever comes to mind, give your apartment door a scary makeover. The more participants you get, the creepier your apartment complex will be for Halloween. Host a friendly “contest” on Facebook (make sure you tag McKinley) and encourage people to vote for their favorite. Please keep your Halloween door decorations courteous and respectful to your neighbors.
An Edible Halloween Decoration is The Best Decoration
Okay, the Halloween decoration itself won’t be edible, but what you place inside will. Create fun monster friends using glass canisters filled with colorful candies. Grab some construction paper and cut out eyes, mouths, horns, whatever other characteristics you want your monster to have, and glue/tape them to the canister. Fill the container with a solid color sweet (i.e., purple M&Ms) and watch your nightmare come to life! Don’t worry, you can always eat your creation if it gets too scary.
Orange and Black are the New… Black
Besides green and red, is there a color combo that elicits a holiday more than orange and black? Orange and black represent many things associated with Halloween, including pumpkins, fall leaves, fire, shorter days, and our connection with the afterlife. A simple way to give your apartment Halloween vibes is adorning it with items in orange and black. Replace the pillows on your couch with ones in the holiday colors, hang homemade Halloween streamers, but please don’t paint your walls.
Purple is now considered a Halloween color. No, it’s not to honor the late great Prince, but rather to keep children engaged in the holiday. That’s right since blacks and oranges aren’t palatable to many kids, purple has entered to make Halloween decor and iconography a bit more appealing to the young crowd. Learn more about it here in Scientific America. That being said, you now have purple to work with in addition to orange, black, red, and yellow.
Gather Around the Halloween Tree
Apartment renters need to be smart with storage, which is why it’s challenging to keep decorations for every season. Many residents have a small, reusable, holiday tree that they set up for a not so spooky holiday in December, but there’s no reason why it can’t come out of the storage bin early. Whether you DIY or purchase them, Halloween themed ornaments, lights, and streamers can turn any Christmas tree into a Halloween tradition. Here are some DIY Halloween ornament ideas. Ray Bradbury would approve of this DIY Halloween decoration for your apartment.
Have You Ever Felt a Bat Before?
Please don’t touch a bat. Instead, make your own using felt. You can purchase pages of felt at local craft stores. Use a stencil or, if you’re adept at this kind of thing, cut out your rendition of a bat and hang it on your wall.
If you want to give your Halloween bat decorations a 3-D vibe, consider using black cardstock, which can have a slight fold down the middle so the wings “fly” off of your wall. Not confident in your bat drawing skills? You can find many cut-out templates for download online.
The Scariest Decoration of All
While these DIY Halloween decorations for your apartment are sure to give your neighbors a chill, the scariest adornment of all might be that ubiquitous candy corn sitting stale in a glass bowl on your coffee or side table. According to Better Homes & Gardens, candy producers make 35 million pounds of candy corn annually. I mean, c’mon, who eats those things? Yikes.
Have fun, stay safe, and get creepy for the Halloween season. That’s what the holiday is all about, but keep your decorations within apartment policies and respect your neighbors. Please share how you’ve decorated your McKinley apartment this October by tagging us on Facebook. Want more ideas for your McKinley apartment? Check out our DIY section.
