~ Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween

from our home to yours.

See Y'all Soon ~

~ Halloween Mantel 2014 -The Decorated House - Elegant Black and White Decorating

Instead of all the spooky stuff, you can choose to enchant with a more elegant style when decorating for this fun packed holiday! It's almost Halloween time again, and that means it is a perfect time for adding some elegant black back into the decorating mix. Black and white has always been such a classic combination. I like to add Vintage Silver and Mercury glass, and Old Books ... along with a tiny bit of spookiness. The only really spooky thing is those spiders! Spiders are not one of my favorite guys outside, but

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~ Halloween Decor in Black and White - Entry Table

Halloween may be the time of joy for children, but it is also a wonderful time to bring a little different twist to your own decor. This is one of the times of year when black and white is so perfect for changing the look of your home and celebrating this fun holiday as well, although it may not be the wise choice to get your own favorite candy to give out. 

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~ Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Pumpkins - Black & White with Silver Halloween Decorating!

Halloween Decorating at The Decorated House
Halloween 2012:
Come take a look at how I used some decorative goodies to decorate
our entry table for Halloween with elements
 that you probably already have!

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~ Over 50 Fabulous Black & White Halloween Decor Ideas

Some great ideas for last minute decorating or filing away for next year.  

Click on Picture above to see over 50 Halloween Decor ideas. 

Click on each picture on Pinterest to go to the source site.

~ See Y'All Soon ~

~ Halloween Decor :: Vintage & Elegant :: Black & White with Mercury Glass :: Entry Table 2013

Entry ~ Halloween 2013

The entry table is another favorite place to decorate for the holidays.  I shared photos highlighting some of the different elements that are shown here in  previous posts that can bee seen by clicking here:  Details of My Velvet Pumpkin,  The Monogram Pumpkin with Paper Butterflies

The Mercury glass pumpkins and gourds are a really wonderful addition to Fall and Halloween since they add a touch of elegance and reflective light. And if you have come by in years past, you know those little silver crowns get used as often as possible when a little bit of silver is sure to add a sparkle.

The foyer table is black marble and has a simple burlap runner on the top for  texture and feeling of Fall. To complement the other black elements, there is  a tall black urn holding one of the painted white pumpkins. The pumpkins were painted a couple of years ago with ASCP and simple white paint as well. The pumpkin on the antique books and the one on the vintage silver piece are both velvet pumpkins which are newly made this year. I showed how I made mine HERE.  The small black pumpkin is a faux pumpkin that was painted a few years ago with spray paint. Look for the kind that will work on plastic, like Fusion and Universal. Both will give you nice coverage. Of course if you have some black ASCP it will work too.

 Ravens wear collars, and the spiders wear glitter.

 

Antique books and a garden urn with a Mercury glass gourd on top,

with a Mercury glass pumpkin sitting on a black and white pinwheel made of wired ribbon.

A little silver crown and antique skeleton keys round out the display.

 The other raven wears a fun harlequin collar.

 The vintage mirror is lightly wrapped with white web while glittered spiders climb to the top.

 And Velvet Pumpkins add another little touch of elegance and texture.

Black and White Paper Butterflies and Spiders, too. 

These Velvet Pumpkins have real (dried) pumpkins stems. 

Partying with Stone Gable. 

See Y'All Soon~

~ Halloween Decorating - Mercury Glass with Black & White

I hope you had a  wonderful weekend.  If you have missed the Halloween Decorating around here during the last week, here is a little recap. You can find the posts and pictures at each link beginning  with The Pumpkin Topiary  and The Monogram Pumpkin with Paper Butterflies and Details of The Entry Table featuring My Velvet Pumpkin and the last post was of the Halloween Mantel Decorated for 2013.

~ See Y'All Soon ~

~ Halloween Decorating - Black, White & Silver

Adding a few vintage elements always seems to bring that special feeling of age and beauty to Fall and Halloween Decorating. The entry table is dressed in a little bit more black this year and Emily Grace is wearing her special hat for the occasion as she awaits the big day with her black kitty and  rave, along with her favorite jack o' lantern. (The Little Victorian Witch Art Print, Emily Grace,  is available HERE.)

The pretty velvet pumpkins that I made this year for Fall and Halloween add a lovely soft texture to complement the sparkle of the Mercury glass pumpkins and gourds. Its a wonderful combination. The velvet pumpkins have  a very subtle texture and soft coloring that makes them feel a bit vintage,  even if you know they are new.

While unpacking the seasonal goods, I found some black and gold frames which were waiting to be painted in lighter color. For Halloween they are perfect the way they are. I might have to keep a couple the way they are and pack them away with the Halloween things.

The stack of books starts with an antique Italian vellum book from the 1600's which I use all year around. The vintage book stack is topped with a white garden urn holding a mercury glass gourd. Sitting on the edge of the books is a paper and velum butterfly.

The ravens got a little dressed up this year as well. One wears a handmade lace color, while the one in the top photo chose a black and white harlequin collar. That one was made from a wired ribbon. Cut off one side making it the width you need, and pull the wire in your cut piece to make the ruffled collar.

 

Rounding out the display for the entry table is a tall black urn that was also tucked away and mostly forgotten. Now it is the perfect place to have another white pumpkin. This one is a ceramic one painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (Old White and Pure White) but a foam pumpkin would work was well.

Come back soon to see more Halloween Decorating for 2013.

See Y'All Soon~

~ Halloween Decor - Pumpkins - Butterflies - Spiders! Oh Yes!

What a funny and strange sounding combination. Pumpkins with spiders and butterflies, and a crown or two of course. This weekend seems like the perfect time to get out all the Halloween goodies and get decorating. Each year I wish I had started sooner so I could enjoy it all for a few weeks before Halloween. This year I'm actually going to do it.

The monogram pumpkin is still one of my favorite things. So simple to add a design of some kind after you paint one of the faux pumpkins white.  Each year I get questions about it, but it really is simple. This is a design that I created using a vintage letter, then it was printed out on my inkjet, cut out closely to the image, and glued on the pumpkin. For this I used Golden's Gel Medium, but you could use Modpodge as well.

In this little area the pumpkins are the large white painted pumpkin with a sculpted stem from paper clay, a small black painted pumpkin with a faux stem, and a cream colored velvet pumpkin with a real pumpkin stem.  Add some glittered spider and velum paper butterflies and it's a fun start to the entry table this year.

You can click HERE to see last year's entry table. It was just what I wanted so it was a little hard changing it up this year. But once I brought out  that large urn you can almost see in the background, everything began to take shape. Kind of the same, and a bit different.  Come back soon to see more clips of Halloween decorating, and then a post of all the elements of the whole holiday decor.

The shop is full of fanciful ~ whimsical ~ fun
Halloween Art Prints featuring Beau Bunny and Friends.
All orders are sent out quickly and 2 or more prints
are mail via Priority for an extra speedy delivery!

Have a Great Weekend!
See Y'All Soon~

Linking up with My Romantic Home this week.

~ Hello October ~ Countdown to Halloween! Pumpkin Topiary

It is the joyful month of October! One of the fun things I've seen around Blogland in the last few years is  the different inventive kinds of a count down "clock" for kids to count the days until  Halloween. I wish someone had thought of that when I was young. It would have made this fun Holiday last longer. Even if there is no count down clock around here we are still on Halloween watch anyway. And the fun is just about to begin. With just one little project at a time. 

For the last few years there has been a pumpkin topiary somewhere in the decor. I like the combination of the black and white with a little soft pumpkin color too. The light streaming in through the window bounces playfully around the silver pieces and actually makes the matte black pumpkin a bit shinier looking in the photo. This year I made the topiary in a Mercury glass goblet.  The Mercury pumpkins are a delightful addition again this year. The fun reflective sparkle certainly brightens the mood Fall, and adding more Mercury glass pieces just adds to the reflective light.

You can make a topiary of your own out of faux pumpkins that you can keep and rearrange year after year. The bottom white pumpkin and the top peachy gourd are both ceramic, but you can easily use foam ones instead. It best to use a foam one for the middle, and maybe the top as well, because you might need to poke a hole in the bottom if the pumpkin below it has a stem that you want to hide. I used some sticky putty to keep the top one in place since I could not poke a hole in the ceramic gourd.

The pumpkins started out that ugly orange color that most inexpensive faux pumpkins are born with. For the white pumpkin and soft pumpkin colored gourd I started out with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White. The white one was then dry brushed with some Pure White. The gourd was painted with Old White mixed with red and yellow to get the soft pumpkin color, then dry brushed with Old White. The black pumpkin was spray painted with either Fusion or Universal black paint.  Both spray paints are very good for painting the foam. Of course you can also use a liquid latex although you may have to touch them up over the years if you don't use a primer.

Come back soon to see more clips of Halloween decorating, and then a post of all the elements of the whole holiday decor.

~ See Y'All Soon ~

~ The Decorated House Halloween Decor - Mantel 2013

You can hear it all throughout Blogland right now, almost everyone loves this time of year. As I've said before, I am no exception.  For me it is another reason to be joyful and celebrate everyday. And to at last cool down a little bit and open the windows. And ..... to decorate the mantel for Halloween!
This I totally love doing. It's a chance to embrace magic and whimsy and just remember the fun of being a kid this time of year.

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~ Halloween Decorating. Black & White, A Little More

 The only room that really gets any Halloween decorating is the living room area. A while back I thought I would stop decorating inside or outside, except maybe a Jack O Lantern. Our own daughter is grown, and there seems to be fewer kids coming out for trick or treat now. Then a couple years ago, when I opened the door for a few kids trick or treating, a little girl about 3 just came running right in the door. She stopped and looked around and smiled. Her mom was trying to catch her, but this little one was quick. It wasn't that I had done anything especially great. She just appreciated even the little things.  She reminded me of that special wonder that children have and that we often lose along the way. Doing even a small amount of decorating for Halloween keeps us in the spirit of Fall and the upcoming holidays.

The pillows with the black and white stripe trim were a part of the decor around here for several years. They have changed slightly as my color choices have changed.  Even though this is a very common toile, I happen to love toiles and this one is just fine with me. When I first made these I was mimicking some quite expensive pillows I had seen and the outside toile area was golden yellow. I  used fabric medium and paint on my fabric to get the same look that I had seen, and the gold was part of my colors. Since then that area has been painted a greige color. For  a while they have been in the closet because I was not using any black. This year I remembered I still had them and they were just what I needed to dress the sofa a bit differently and complement the Halloween decor which is black, white & silver.

I also kept the black and white transferware pieces from years ago and used one of the covered vases on the side table. These pieces look great with the seasonal decor as well. Funny how if you have things put away for awhile, sometimes they look fresh and new again. But not always... I know. There are many more things that went out the door in the last few years that are not missed at all.

Lots of us love white pumpkins. Here is another one I painted sitting on a harlequin plate along with some very old books from the mid 1800's, a quartz crystal sphere, a skeleton key and a spider just for the fun of it. The book was destined to be a book of spells, and still might get some more work next year. Since I love old and rustic books, it is perfect for the holiday.

See Y'All Soon~

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~ Halloween Mantel 2012 - Decorating in Black & White 2

There were questions around here as to why Beau Bunny was being blamed for the missing Snickers. He is pleading the 5th, and hasn't confessed to eating them. Well the truth is he has been jumping from spot to spot, quite full of excess sugar energy, there are empty wrappers left exactly in places where he was seen. On top of that Beau Bunny always has a spare bandito mask, and one was left hanging on the mantel after he was seen there. I know, all circumstantial. We might need to set up

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~ Halloween Mantel Decorating - Black & White

Halloween decorating! I love Halloween. For those of you who might know Beau Bunny Rabbit Bandito, yes, that is his mask. I think he got into the snickers, took off his mask and took a snooze! Silly rabbit. That garland, banner of Trick or Treat came with skulls. I printed some smaller pictures  of Beau Bunny with his Jack O Lantern and Raven and added them instead. Much  better.

The mantel is mostly black and white again this year, with a few touches of light pumpkin to celebrate the Fall season. Our Halloween decor is never too dark and scary around here. But we do like a tiny bit of spooky, so the ravens are back again. Although I don't like spiders in real life, these glittered ones are such perfect accent so they come by to add another spooking touch.

The black and white art I've had for so many years and I've never thought of incorporating it into my Halloween decorating. It is a welcome addition to the black and white scheme.

Stay tuned the next couple of weeks for more Halloween ideas, close up pictures and a few tutorials on somethings you might want to add to your festivities.

See Y'All Soon~

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~ Happy Halloween

This year some of my own art found its way to the mantel for Halloween decorating. Beau Bunny Rabbit the Bandito is waiting for the Snickers. They are hidden so he doesn't eat them all before the kids come trick or treating. He is also a bit scared of spiders, and these are big enough to scare anybody. He is however being brave with the promise of chocolate soon to be consumed.

On the other side is my sweet little Izabella dressed as a little witch. I love the face of this little Victorian girl so much. It would be so interesting to know if she was always able to keep her wonderful spunky personality as she grew up in a time so difficult to be a strong woman.

Hope you have a wonderful Halloween~
See Y'all Soon~

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~ Halloween Decorating ~ Vintage Jack O' Lantern

This wonderful Jack O Lantern was created by an artist about 1980 or so. I love it because it is a fun handmade pottery piece, and it always makes me smile. It's a special treat to set it out each year and enjoy it again and again.

One of the ravens met an untimely end to his decorating career. Cody Bear found one and thought it looked like a good chew toy. The other ravens and crows will have to sing Halloween songs without him this year.

See Y'all Soon~

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~ Halloween Decorating ~ Mini Pumpkin Topiary

There were about a dozen pumpkins of various sizes that were very close to on their way out the door to Goodwill or some other place. At first there didn't seem to be much to do with them since they were in colors not likely to used by me again. They haven't even been unpacked in while since the last few years most of the pumpkins inside were white.

When I brought my favorite peachy colored pumpkin out to display for the season, I was wishing I had a couple of others that were the same color. And I was really longing for one of those beautiful gray blue ones. So out came the paint!

This little topiary was just perfect for Halloween when I wanted a little color beyond the black and white. The top pumpkin and bottom one are painted faux pumpkins. The middle one is a real one that I got to compare the look and color of the white ones that I painted too.

This is what some of the pumpkins looked like before. The yellow and green ones are now painted either white or that wonderful blue color that I added to the mix this year. They are the ceramic type and they paint really well. I used chalk paint on them and it adhered well. Fusion paint would work, too. The little ones are foam, and they can be painted with either kind of paint, and some craft paints will cover them.

The Halloween mantel is dressed with books from the 1800's, with little glitter spiders exploring their covers. They are topped with another painted ceramic gourd that was once green.

See Y'all Soon~

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~ Halloween Decorating in Black & White with Mercury Glass

The Mercury glass pumpkins are going to get plenty of use this season. The last couple of years I had meant to get them, but they were sold out by the time I got by PB. This year I found them at Wisteria and they are the perfect addition to the other Mercury glass pieces around here.



The small white pumpkin was a ceramic one which originally was green & yellow. It was painted with a combo of Chalk Paint and some flat white paint, so that it was a bit whiter in the end, but still aged and chalky looking.

The books are quite old and the top one being so tattered adds fun to the mix. The vellum one on the bottom is Italian from the 1600's and came from 3 Fine Grains. She has beautiful books and other goodies!

The dish the big pumpkin is sitting on is a silver type serving platter with inlaid of white mother of pearl and black that echos the same colors as the black marble table top.

The monogram I created on the computer and then printed it out on paper, sealed it and adhered it to the pumpkin.

The little black pumpkin got a fresh coat of paint as well. It is the kind that probably came in a whole bag of little foam pumpkins that you can find at the craft store. At first it was painted with Fusion black flat paint. I still like how well that paint covers and seals. But for a fresh coat, I used Patio Paints flat black which is a great paint for coverage as well, and the black is quite flat.

This seemed the perfect time to add a touch of burlap. The contrast of burlap with marble, white, and mercury glass is such a fun twist to Halloween decorating!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing this fun season with me.
See Y'all Soon~

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~ Halloween Decorating

The entry table is decked out in pumpkins and Mercury glass. The glass ones from Wisteria that I showed in the last post have moved to the entry table. Not sure where they might go when Halloween is done and a little more fall decorating is in order.

I snapped one quick picture so I could feel like progress was going on. I love seeing how people decorate for such a fun holiday. Stop by this week and catch more of Halloween here. Just for the kid in all of us. Especially those who are waiting (im)patiently for the Snickers to arrive.

See Y'all Soon~

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~ Free Fall Autumn Halloween Download

Hello~

It's still paint, paint and more paint around here. But I think I see a resting spot soon. And I'm eager to finish a little Fall decorating and relax a bit while checking out all the Autumn fun on other blogs.

Until then.... enjoy this wonderful vintage image to use in your Fall & Halloween Decor~

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Happy Fall!

This is time of the year that is certainly a favorite for many people. And there are so many reasons why. Not the least of which is the wonderful, fun holiday Halloween.


Here is a free to copy and use vintage image that I hope gets you in the mood for the happy holidays just ahead. This would make cute gift tags and cards, but it would be so fun on guest towels for the bath, too. Just print in reverse on iron-on transfer paper.

See Y'All Soon~
Donna