DIY HOLIDAY DECORATING HACKS

// HALLOWEEN EDITION //

How  to  create  cus tom  looking, yet inexpens ive  crafty  touches to work WITH your exis tent decor

Anyone who has followed me through any season of holiday decorating knows that one thing I am known for is taking a more non-traditional route when it comes to adding seasonal touches around my home. I do this for several reasons:

1.) I am not a fan of the “traditional” holiday color themes (black and orange for Halloween, red and green for Christmas etc…)

2.) If I am going to spend my time, money and efforts on decorating throughout my home, I don’t want it to be something that I am going to get tired of looking at after a couple of weeks.

3.) The solution that i’ve discovered and have run with for the last several years is simple, affordable, tasteful, and best of all gives your holiday home a completely custom look and feel.

I am a heavy heavy color/pattern texture gal, so I realize that for the decorator who typically shys away from things like wallpaper or patterned textiles, this may seem like a project thats off the table for you, but I can assure you it is not! These projects can be worked into ANY style of home decor, any color palette, etc… and thats why I love going the custom/DIY route with holiday decorating.

These same ideas can be applied in so many different areas of decor, but for this particular post I wanted to focus on my halloween shade/witches hat DIY!

For this particular project, I am swapping out the candelabra shades on my foyer chandelier, which I do for every major holiday now in several rooms, and while that may sound like it could get pricey, its a VERY easy an inexpesive way to add a super fun, unique holiday touch to any space (you can also do this same exact thing with any size lamp shade, doesnt have to be a sconce or candelabra shade!)

I order plain candelabra shades off of Amazon and you can find them in 5 or 6 packs typically for around $25- 30.

Aside from the shades, here is a list of what you’ll need for this project:

1.) Multi-Purpose Spray Adhesive

2.) Liquid fabric adhesive ( I prefer FabriTac)

3.) Fabric of your choice (this is where you can have alot of fun; I usually mix in 2 or 3 different fabrics and I always find the best seasonal fabrics at Joann Fabrics) 4.) Good fabric scissors

5.) A trim or ribbon of your choice

An fun alternative to a shade, if your light fixture can accomodate, is turning a paper mache witches hat into a shade! I couldnt use these as my candelabra shades because they were a little too big and the spacing between each candelabra was not sufficient to accomodate, but Ive got another plan for them!

Step 1: Pre-cut your fabric; this is a rough cut, you will trim off excess once fabric is on shade

Step 2: Spray your shade with a multi-purpose or fabric adhesive

Step 4: Wrap your fabric around the shade

When you get to the seam (where the fabric meets) just fold your top piece under to give it a clean edge

Step 5: Using a good pair of fabric scissors, trim off any excess fabric using the edges of the shade as your guide

Step 6: Add your fabric glue of choice to the top and bottom edges of the shade

Step 7: Trim the top and bottom edges of your shade to give it a nice, clean, finished look. I typically opt for a thin velvet ribbon trim!

The first few steps of making the witch hats are the same as the shades; The only difference is that since these hats are paper mache, you also have the option of using a wallpaper to cover them, in addition to fabric

I love to have alot of fun with the brims of these hats; get creative! You can glue on silk or dried flowers, use a different fabric for the brim, or keep it simple and just add ribbon