With Halloween right around the corner, you are likely to be busy with last-minute hosting preparations. Organizing a Halloween party at home is a mammoth task particularly when you are doing everything from food catering to home decor all by yourself. If you are obsessed with adding an authentic touch of spookiness to the party, the decor must be the primary focus. Giving your window dressing a terrifying face-lift is a practical and easy way to quickly touch up a last-moment Halloween party plan.
This post by your friends at Nicole Draperies outlines some creative ideas that can be easily implemented to dress your windows with a scary twist.
Billowing sheer curtains stained and tattered with age is a signature element in haunted houses in most scary movies. It is a simple accessory that has a striking impact on the viewers. Achieve this scary element by hanging black cheesecloth over your existing sheer drapes. Strategically hack and slash the cheesecloth and splatter red paint sparingly to give it a more authentic appearance.
Perch scary figurines on the window facing the road to scare your visitors and set the mood of the Halloween party even before they enter. Use red spotlights illuminating the figures from below for a more terrifying effect. Use grey or earth-toned sheer curtains and place the figures behind them. The lighting will illuminate the silhouette and complete the illusion.
This is a perfect Halloween window decor when you have French windows and doors in the house. Clean the glass panes thoroughly so that they are spotless and use frosted glass window film to create an illusion of broken window panes. Cut the frosted film in the shape of glass shards and strategically stick them to create an authentic look of an abandoned house. This is a perfect idea for bare windows or windows with roller shutters, shades and blinds. This can also be used in combination with rugged and tattered curtains for a more dramatic impact.
Old mansions with a rich and ancient history often have numerous ghost stories associated with them. Refurbish your home in the style of an old ghost mansion this Halloween by elaborately dressing up the windows. This works best when you have large windows to work with. Install an elaborate set of draperies and valances made of heavy materials like chintz or velvet, preferably in darker hues. Frame the window with candelabras and cobwebs. Stick paper bats artistically to enhance the scary-quotient.
Cut out ghost shapes and stick them on the exterior of the windows. Invest in some quality roller blinds or blackout shades and keep them lowered before the party begins. If you prefer drapes and curtains, pull them over the windows. It will be a surprise element for anyone who wants to get a view and pull aside the window covering. This may not be very scary, but it is perfect for organizing Halloween parties for kids.
A cloud of bats rushing out of a dark cave is a familiar spook element in movies and classic cartoons like Scooby Doo. The right lighting and simple accessories are all you need to achieve a very authentic look mimicking a bat cave. It can be done with simple plastic table clothes hung from the outside and sticking paper bat and cave ceiling silhouettes in the inside. Use coloured lighting from the outside to illuminate the decor. You can also try out this decor along with a window dressing that has vertical louvres made from materials like vinyl or polyurethane, which reduces the harshness of the light source but does not absolutely block it.
If you love adding some gory detailing, blood splattered walls and windows is an interesting and easy to create look. You can haphazardly splash faux blood or washable red paint on your window coverings. To make it look realistic, splash it such that the splatter spreads over a larger area from your window to the adjacent walls and furniture against the wall. Curtains and drapes or any other fabric material can soak up the faux blood and it may be difficult to remove the stain later. You can solve this trouble by investing in cheap drapes which you will be using only during Halloween every year. Splattering faux blood stains over louvres of the window coverings like blinds, shutters, and shades is a more practical idea to minimize your clean-up troubles later.
Similar to splattered blood on the windows, blood-stained palm prints also have a very horrifying effect, perfectly setting the mood of the Halloween party. It is a fun project too for the entire family. You can dip your hands in red paint or faux blood and smear your palms over the window and its coverings. If you are apprehensive about leaving a permanent stain on your window treatment, you can simply get window clings for the same effect.
Wood board replicas made of cardboard and Styrofoam can be made which you can then use to “board-up” your windows from the outside. You can also buy faux wood boards for boarding up the windows from any Halloween store. If you have any exterior window dressing like external window shutters, you will have to roll them up to create this effect.
To achieve the perfect decor for Halloween, you can use the combination of the various ideas mentioned above. They are very easy to execute and can give fantastic results in minimal time. The key is to blend in these ideas with your home decor perfectly, rather than simply trying to copy a Pinterest image of Halloween window dressing ideas.
As you plan your Halloween Party decor, visit Nicole Draperies, and we will provide you with fabulous window coverings that will resonate the Halloween mood.
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