It’s here! Dec-O-Ween week is here! This is my first time hosting a blog hop of any sort, and it’s been so much fun reading everyone’s posts and seeing the great Halloween decor they’ve all come up with. Make sure you take the time to check out all the other posts after you finish here!

The kids and I had a surprisingly tough time coming up with a theme this year. In the past we’ve done “The Raven,” Miss Havisham’s wedding feast from Great Expectations, and haunted camping. But this year inspiration was hard to come by for some reason. We eventually settled on a dead presidents/haunted White House theme, what with this being an election year and all.

But I just wasn’t having much luck figuring out how to execute the plan. We could do presidents with bleeding eyeballs or something, but beyond that? When it got to the point where I was googling how to build a model of the White House out of cardboard, the whole thing started to seem too much like a nightmarish social studies project, and I gave up. I was also a little worried it would come across as some sort of political statement, which wasn’t the idea at all. Then Ari helpfully suggested that “haunted nativity” might be a less controversial theme. Thanks, Ari. But no.

I think we struck gold with what we finally ended up with though: Decomposing Composers! Spooky and fun with the bonus that it’s a Monty Python reference.

It’s possible that I went a little overboard buying stuff for this display…but I think it can all be reused in a non-spooky capacity later on. Really, there were just two significant purchases. One was this little vintage toy piano I got on ebay. It was in rough shape, and I had to glue two of the legs back on, but it’s adorable and it plays. And it’s only creepy when it’s covered with spider webs:

The Beethoven busts (affiliate link) were prizes the kids won at their piano recital a couple of years ago.

The only other thing I bought was the old violin case. I found it on Craigslist; it had belonged to the seller’s grandfather, I believe. They’d restored the violin that used to be in it, but bought a new case for it so didn’t need this one anymore. Dave would have been able to borrow a modern, not falling apart case from the music department at his school, but it wouldn’t have looked old and creepy. So that wouldn’t do. This one is perfect for filling with the bones of dead musicians and their long forgotten compositions:

Oh, wait–I lied. I also bought a bunch of plastic bones at Target. But those will work in practically any Halloween theme, so they don’t count.

We have no shortage of sheet music around here, so I used some that we already had and then “antiqued” it by brushing tea on the pages (same technique I used for my anatomy cards a few years ago):

I had the candelabra around already, and I just put some black votive candles in it:

I almost replaced the Impressionist prints with a whole gallery of dead composers, but I decided that might be a bit much, so I just did one. I found a pictures of Beethoven online, used my photo editing software to white out his eyeballs, and printed him out. I tried adding dripping blood to his eyes, but it looked pretty cheesy. Also disgusting.

The table got a little fall-ified (but not Halloween-ified) when I busted my brass squirrels back out:

Aside from the dining room, we have some Halloween going on by the front door:

I would have loved to fill this whole space with dozens of gorgeous heritage pumpkins in all different shapes and colors. But they were ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS EACH at the grocery store. Or maybe seven. Whatever. They were too much. So I only got two. to mingle with my lots of regular old orange pumpkins. The boxwoods that used to be in the raven planters did not survive the hot, dry summer, so I ripped them out and stuck pumpkins in there instead.

Also there are mums! And our old skeleton friend (thrift store find from a few years ago):

And the light up Frankenstein to greet all of our Halloween visitors:

There was supposed to be a wreath on the door, but the one I ordered turned out to be way too teeny tiny because I always do that. Seriously. I wrote a whole post about my problems with perspective YEARS ago. You’d think I’d have learned by now. But no. So no wreath! Oh well.

If you’re a regular reader you’ve already seen our foyer display with vintage horror movie posters, but here it is again for the new folks:

And I tucked a little brass pumpkin in when I redid my sunroom mantel a few weeks ago:

And that’s it! I had a lot of fun putting Halloween stuff together this year; hope you enjoyed seeing it :).

Now take off and check out the other posts (and then come back tomorrow to see the rest); it will be time very well spent!

TUESDAY

Decor and the Dog

Corner52

Remodelando La Casa

A Designer At Home

WEDNESDAY

Go Haus Go

Number Fifty Three

THURSDAY

Boxy Colonial (you’re already here!)

Newly Woodwards

Domicile 37

FRIDAY

Craftivity Designs

Sunshine and Munchkins

Linking with:

Tatertots and Jello’s Link Party Palooza

 

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