About Janette Ewen
Veteran stylist and trend reporter, Janette Ewen’s love of the finer things has always shaped her life. Now she’s spilling industry secrets to help you make life at home sweet. From chic décor to decadent dinner parties—living with style isn’t as expensive as you think.
Halloween has to be one of my favourite holidays. The chance to wear a fab costume and style my home scary, I wouldn’t miss it for anything! Living in a loft, spooky exterior decorations aren’t an option, however, I think creating a haunted interior is way more fun and lets you break out your DIY skills.
As a style expert on Cityline, I always help to put together a huge Halloween special. For this years show, Ramsin Khachi and I decided to take the Halloween party indoors and create a haunted living room and dining room (complete with a spooky menu). We hit up Halloween shopping hot spots, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids (best kids costumes ever), HomeSense and Lowes—we grabbed any and all items that looked downright creepy, no kitsch allowed. Our colour palette was black and more black, with silver accents and splashes of blood red.
In putting the look together we used many items that weren’t originally designed for Halloween but were easily turned in haunted treasures. Here are a few of my favourites:
An ornate frame from IKEA becomes instantly creepy when a spooky-looking photo is placed inside. To make your own eerie portrait, grab your digital camera, turn it onto the black and white setting, and simply snap a picture. When posing for the picture stare (morosely) into the lens, cover your clothing with a black pashmina or wrap and pull all your hair back (I added some flowers to my hair for extra effect). If you have access to photo editing darken the circles under the eye area (if you don’t try using black ink once the image is printed – just rub your finger on a newspaper then under the eye area). For added horror, cut one of the eyes of the picture out and stuff in a gummy eyeball.
Speaking of haunted images, print out some scary images (downloaded from online) and place them in ornate, black frames (we found ours at HomeSense). What is great about this is that you can use the frames later for regular images and they’ll just look luxe, not frightening.
Try turning a leather trunk (or even an old suitcase) into a pirate’s trunk (full of skulls of course). I found the paper mache skulls at Lowes for just $7. By adding some webbing and a crow the look is terrifying. Remember black birds look scary when added to just about anything.
While at Lowes I noticed metal fence pieces. They were very inexpensive and reminded me of a classic haunted house. Prop these fences inside or out with just a few bricks, add some Spanish moss or potting soil, a few bits of web and, of course, a grave stone and bone hand (we found these at HomeSense).
Finally, keep it creepy in the dining room. Pottery Barn and HomeSense had plenty of spooky table and serving platters at affordable prices. For a Halloween ice bucket, carve a pumpkin out; fill with ice and a bottle of Barefoot Bubbly – a sparkling Pinot Grigio, the beverage of choice for ghouls, ghosts and goblins. BOO!
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