Gypsy Favorite--Thrift Store Halloween Decor

Halloween is a favorite holiday around here. Kansas City is particularly known (aside from barbecue) for its residents' passion for haunted houses: multi-story old warehouses turned fright-fest for six weeks each year. There is a a veritable army of make-upped"monsters" ready to jump out and scare you. If your maturity level is still 8th grade (guilty) and you still like a cheap thrill, it is awesome.

So it's not entirely a surprise that at my house, we love Halloween. It's a local tradition.

But one thing I really don't love. Super cheesy decor. Don't get me wrong--we have a flock of lighted Styrofoam pumpkins who litter the front porch on All Hallows Eve. With no lights on, they look great and they don't rot. Hallelujah.

But tinsel garlands and plastic skeletons... not necessarily my favorite. And while I usually want to buy everything Pottery Barn offers each year for Halloween... that' s not in the budget.

Our workaround: thrift store decor.

This year's features are two of my fave spooky decor items: tarnished silver and ugly candlesticks.

First - tarnished silver dishes.

You can find tons of old silver pieces, including candlesticks, serving platters, goblets, bowls, you name it in thrift stores. Sometimes they're expensive because they're real silver, which seems weird regardless because silver isn't IN. Unless you can melt it down for jewelry or want to keep a very heavy candlestick around for home defense, nobody wants the stuff.

But sometimes it's cheap, particularly if it's just plated. And often it's tarnished. But the cool thing is this: the more worn and dingy silver looks, the more Gothic and Halloween-ish it seems. It usually has lots of carvings and looks simply old world. You can totally picture Dracula sitting down to dinner with it. Except if you watch True Blood, silver gets rid of vampires faster than garlic any day... but that's beside the point...

These trays make for attractive, sturdy, perennial serve ware for Halloween. They are way classier than virtually all the plastic pumpkins or skull bowls around. Hey, if your average party-goer is age six, by all means break out the paper plates and jack-o-lantern napkins. But for adult audiences, the silver is classy... yet spoooky!

 

And if you can find some of those hand-bone servers from Pottery Barn after season on clearance, you will have the ultimate setup.

Next item: Ugly candlesticks.

I bought these beauties in September at local thrift stores. Brass is just no longer in style, and that wooden one--who thought that was a good idea? It's chilling in all the wrong ways.

Candlesticks are a great item to spray paint. Find several mismatched ones, paint them them one snazzy accent color, and whammo, cool accessory or vignette.

They look particularly good black. And spooky yet elegant at the same time. And TJ Maxx ain't got nuthin' on the affordability of this approach.

Here's our table decked out for Halloween dinner. I've combined the silver platters with candelabras and some TJ Maxx goodies I purchased over the years. It's kind of hard to see in the pics (black on black doesn't show up great), but the result is elegant, adult, yet still spooky and in the spirit of the season.



 Just thought we'd share, since I can't be the only one out there who hates glow-in-the dark skeletons and such (except the skull I spray painted pewter in the pics.... I like him OK).

And in case you're wondering, we have extras of the platters and candelabras for sale--email if you're interested. And if not, no pressure. 'Cuz we are more than happy to hang onto them for our own entertaining!

Happy Halloween from the Vintage Gals!

Click on photos for slightly larger versions.