There have been so many wonderful blog posts this year celebrating the holidays. I could probably make a list of 100 or more ideas but the following half-dozen were the ones I kept coming back to for inspiration. 1. Wreath ideas from The Nesting Place. …
Holiday window decorations are fun and festive. Many people refrain from doing them, however, so they avoid “messing up” their windows, since window washing is low on most people’s house cleaning tasks. At some point in the past, some enterprising individual found a way to …
Having beaten readers up enough about storing emergency water supplies, I’ll take a break from emergency preparation to have a little holiday fun.
It’s October and here in the United States October generally means the official start of fall (in terms of cooler weather and gorgeous autumn leaves) as well as a little spookiness in preparation for Halloween.
It was time to refresh our front door décor so I found/created a little project to add some stylish spookiness. Not too ghoulish, not too sugar-coated and not too time consuming either!
I have always liked people who have seasonal door decorations. The front door of your home is your visitors’ first impression of your space and it is fun to give people just a little taste of who lives inside. I have not been entirely successful at keeping my own door decorations up to date but am hoping this project will give me new inspiration.
So first, I was looking for an October-appropriate door wreath. A great way to get decorating ideas is to check etsy.com, the paradise of handmade items. You might find something there that you just adore and buy on the spot. I found this wonderful wreath by webvanessa and used it as my inspiration piece.
A black wreath? Yes! It’s fantastic. A bit dark and spiderweb-looking perhaps but I think of the overall effect as hanging a black tutu on my door. Tutus work well in our girl-filled household. Tutus also remind me of my friend Regina Bogomolova and the Fall Festival ballet performance she is putting on next weekend (October 24-25). If you are in the Fredericksburg area, be sure to check it out!
If a black wreath is not your style, tulle comes in practically every color of the rainbow. You could also use orange, white, purple, or green for a Halloween look or mix together a variety of fall colors for an autumnal look. Brief instructions below.
Halloween Tulle Wreath
Materials
~50 yards 6” black tulle netting (mine came from eBay seller jdr_favors who is currently away until October 24)
wire hanger
scissors
ribbons, etc. of your choosing for decoration
Directions
1. Bend the main part of the wire hanger into a shape of your choosing. I chose an oval but you are limited only by your imagination! A circle, square or rectangle would also be chic. (Don’t worry about the hooked hanger part right now.)
2. Cut the tulle into 6” square pieces.
The Tulle Spool - 100 yards of black tulle netting.
3. Scrunch the tulle square into a narrow width and tie it tightly on the hanger. I just did a single tie, no knotting needed! The tulle seems to grip well and is even a little difficult to untie.
Tie each square onto the hanger with a single (right-over-left) tie. No knots needed!
4. Scrunch a second square and tie it diagonally around the first tied piece. You end up with an X shape.
Tie the second tulle square diagonally across the first to form an X.
5. Repeat until the wreath is covered. Push each X close together to give a full, bushy appearance.
Tulle wrapping finished.
6. Bend the hook/hanger part of the hanger in a way that will accommodate hanging the wreath on your door. My door has a screw drilled into it for hanging wreaths so I bent the hanger down and into a small circle for hanging. If you use an over-the-door wreath hanger you might just cut off the hanger part.
7. Tie on festive accessories. I just scrounged for ribbons in our wrapping paper box.
Use creative accessories to give the wreath some personality.
8. Hang and enjoy.
My Halloween-ed front door.
This project took me only one evening to finish, mostly done while watching a movie. It’s fun. It’s simple and it gives an impressive look that should hold up to the elements well.
Top off your door décor with some of the wonderful pumpkins from your local farmers market. This year there is a fantastic supply of unusual pumpkins in colors like forest green, red and white as well as “warty” pumpkins with little bumps on them. These pumpkins are art in themselves and apparently are doing creative farmers a good business this year.
Artful pumpkins at the local farmers market.
How are you decorating for October and/or Halloween this year? Please share in the comments.
Having beaten readers up enough about storing emergency water supplies, I’ll take a break from emergency preparation to have a little holiday fun.
