Sophisticated Halloween Decorations

Halloween decorations don’t need to be overly scary and creepy, and definitely don’t need to be orange and black to give off a Halloween vibe. As with all of our designs, we like to keep our Halloween decor clean and minimal, and we are going to show you how you can still get a fun and festive Halloween aesthetic keeping these design rules in mind. 

I’m gonna go ahead and just put this out there: Halloween is not my favorite. There, I said it. Maybe it’s because my birthday is so close that it always felt like Halloween was stealing my birthday’s thunder, or maybe because I hate being scared, or maybe it’s all the orange. Whatever the reason, I can’t say I was ever very into Halloween growing up.

But now I’m old (and you say, noooo, you’re not old!), and I have kiddos whose eyes light up at the decorations, count down the days until trick or treating, and aren’t offended by any color, not even orange…yet. So, I’m getting into the spirit for them, but doing it with my own twist: as monochrome as possible, and no fake blood or scary demons.

I bought these bat cut outs from Amazon last year and used them to decorate my front porch, and I LOVED how it turned out. I added some light colored pumpkins, as big as I could find, and then accented the look with black crows in the trees. It was a very sophisticated Halloween look that gave off a spooky vibe without being too scary for my young kids. And my house still stopped a few passersby in their tracks when they noticed the crows staring at them and gave a startled jump back. I’m not going to lie, that’s kinda fun.

This year I wanted to bring that vibe inside. I purchased even more of the bats and spent an entire day while the kids were at school putting them up. Like hours. But it was all worth it when they came home and ooohed and ahhhed over the bats. I am obsessed with how this turned out, and I’m sharing a few tricks to help you succeed with this look in your own home (or even outside)!

 3 Tips for Successful Sophisticated Yet Spooky Halloween Decor

Tip #1. More is more.

As in most holiday decorating, this is not the time to hold back on quantity in our books. To really give off a spooky vibe, the more you can add the better! Imagine this: you’re walking in the park and three bats fly by. It’s fine. Now imagine this: you’re walking in the park and three hundred bats fly by. It’s not fine. That’s the vibe we’re going for here. And luckily, these bats come in a pack of 120 so it very affordable to get that overwhelming bat swarm up on your wall.

Tip #2. Change it up.

A real swarm of bats is not going to be flying in formation, with all bats facing the same direction. They are going to be flying in all different directions, some in larger groups together, some trailing behind. You want to mimic this look by having some of the bats facing one way, some another, but make them look like they are ultimately all headed to the same place. You can also vary the spacing so that some are in groups and some are straggling a bit. Give it that slightly chaotic look that makes it feel a little unnerving.

Tip #3. Don’t ruin your walls!

Last year I used the double-sided sticky pieces that come with the bats to hang them on my walls outside. Not only did they peel off little bits of paint here and there, but random bats would fall off every other day and I was constantly picking them up off the floor. Talk about adding insult to injury. This year I made a long roll of painter’s tape and cut small pieces off to hang each bat. So far there have been no daily bat casualties, and I know my walls are happier with the painter’s tape there, so I’ll likely have no touch ups after the Halloween decorations come down.

It isn’t hard to create a spooky Halloween aesthetic without going over the top scary, or orange. Keeping your Halloween décor dark yet minimal is a fun way to get festive for the season without having to give in to a lot of the more over the top options. I love how these turned out and my kids maybe even loved it more than me. And we’re all about win-wins at Fleurish. Happy haunting!