Kitchen & DiningNo. 6058 · The 2026 edition
The Harris Sisters: Halloween Home Tour
Our own summary of the original — the full post and photos live at theharrissisters.blogspot.com.
About this
A room-by-room Halloween home tour from the Harris Sisters blog, showing how one collector decorates her family room, kitchen, living room, dining room, and downstairs with vintage and modern Halloween pieces. It covers mantel styling, a black-and-white dining room, candy displays, and hanging bat decorations. Written in October 2014 as last-minute decorating inspiration for readers.
Tips
- Mason jars work well for unwrapped candy: they look nice for display, keep the candy fresh, and keep little hands out because the jars confound the boys.
- A jack-o-lantern meant as a treat holder can instead sit on top of the mantel as a regal display piece.
- The bats on the chandelier were a long-held collection from college, so exact pieces may not be findable, but the look is easy to recreate with glitter hairspray on any hanging bat decorations.
- Vintage items like a Tilso skull ashtray can be repurposed for Halloween decorating.
The plan
- Plan the tour room by room: family room, kitchen, living room, downstairs, and dining room
- Start decorating early enough to beat the last-minute Halloween crunch, since the holiday arrives before you expect it
- Swap out and rearrange an existing glass-door cupboard serveware display each year rather than leaving it static
- Compare this year's dining room setup to last year's for a sense of how the look has evolved
- Spray glitter hairspray (sold at Halloween time for costume use) onto store-bought hanging bats to add sparkle
Decoration ideas
- Family room mantel, left side: a haunted house ticket and blown glass owls
- Family room mantel, right side: a jack-o-lantern treat holder used as a display piece plus a candy collectors sign
- Ceramic Halloween garland strung across the fireplace grate below the mantel
- Vintage Lava Lamp worked into the Halloween decor (previously used as Christmas decor)
- Witch themed sign and potion bottles displayed in the corner
- Primitives by Kathy Halloween subway sign in the kitchen
- Handmade Halloween tassel hanging on the kitchen door
- Halloween serveware display arranged in glass-door kitchen cupboards
- Orange Halloween owl mug (its green owl mug partner missing from the photo)
- Primitives by Kathy throw pillows featuring vintage Halloween images in the living room
- Halloween coasters set out on the living room side table
- Jack-o-lantern and bat luminaries plus a vintage Halloween sign brightening the bookcase
- Halloween village set up in full downstairs
- Dining room decorated entirely in black and white
- Rusted metal letters spelling Boo, accented with a vintage Tilso skull ashtray (a hand-me-down from Daddy)
- Unwrapped candy like candy corn and candy pumpkins displayed in Mason jars on the buffet
- Bats hanging from the dining room chandelier
- Vintage witch marionette doll and a Remington typewriter incorporated into the Halloween decorations (shown in the linked One Man's Trash post)
Food & drink
- Unwrapped candy such as candy corn and candy pumpkins, displayed in Mason jars on the buffet
Facts from the original
- The post was published Sunday, October 19, 2014.
- Halloween was less than two weeks away at the time of posting.
- The vintage Lava Lamp was previously shown as Christmas decor on the blog.
- The glass-door kitchen cupboard serveware display was first posted in a prior Halloween Serveware Display entry.
- The dining room's previous year's look can be compared via the linked Haunting Manor post.
- The skull ashtray used with the Boo letters is a vintage Tilso piece that belonged to the author's father and was passed down to her.
- The author is a long-time collector of Halloween decor and has had the chandelier bats since college.
- The dining room chandelier is brass and came with the house, which the author jokes is the scariest part.
- A reader named Nona commented that her vintage lava lamp is turquoise and asked whether the bats were handmade, noting blue sequins on them.
- The post is labeled Decorating, Halloween, and Vintage Finds and was written by Donna Walkush.
More photos
Photos hosted by theharrissisters.blogspot.com.
