Halloween Fireplace Mantel and Front Porch Decor

12 October

Over the last few years when I get out my holiday decor bins, I've been going through them and channeling my inner Marie Kondo, getting rid of things that don't bring me joy.

I've whittled it down to only the things I love. I usually make something new each year, though. Sometimes, I keep those things, and sometimes, I list them for sale in my Handmade Etsy shop.

I enjoy coming up with new ways to display my decor each year. This year, I didn't buy anything new (oh wait, I did thrift one new thing), but I did make a Pottery Barn knock-off Jack-O-Lantern. If you missed that post, you can see it here: DIY Terracotta Jack-O-Lantern.

I decorated my fireplace mantel and my front porch.

Halloween Fireplace Mantel and Front Porch Decor

I started with the fireplace mantel. This year I wanted to do a black and white mantel to show off the new PB knock-off jack-o-lantern.

This mantel is full of DIYs, I'll share the links to the tutorials as we go in case you want to check them out 😊

Here we have the upcycled plastic pumpkin pails that I made in 2022. These are just your plain Jane orange plastic pumpkins that I thrifted and gave a little makeover (except the one on top, it's ceramic). I stacked them up like a totem pole this year.

I gathered up some black books from around the house to elevate them so the bottom one and the new PB knock-off weren't the same height.

The man on the moon was made with a thrifted pizza pan. You can see both the pumpkin pails and man on the moon projects here: Thrifted and DIY Halloween Mantel.

The light-up ghost was a JoAnn's find from a couple of years ago. The framed skeleton is a DIY I did many years ago. There is no tutorial for it on the blog, but all I did was tape an old book page to a piece of printer paper and print a skeleton image on it. It's framed in a thrifted black frame.

Oddly enough, this tiny spider tea light holder is one of my favorite decorations, I just love him! I don't remember where I got him though.

On the other side is a vintage blow mold ghost that I found at a yard sale years ago with a thrifted black cat, another old book, and some branches from a Twisted Filbert tree that I had at my previous house. These trees have the most interesting twisted branches, I spray painted these black.

On the hearth, I put some random pumpkins in a basket and added a faux propane bottle jack-o-lantern and a boho skull. I put the skull on top of a candle jar that was lying around in the garage.

The glittery skeleton hanging from the fireplace tools is from the Dollar Store.

Let's check out the front porch.

The spiders I made are hanging on the house next to the front door. They are made with wood slices and you can see the tutorial here: Cute DIY Halloween Spiders

And this jack-o-lantern bucket was made from a dump find, check it out here: Upcycled Bucket Jack-O-Lantern.

My mom painted the little ghost next to the motion detection light (that we have never mounted so it's just sitting by the step 😕).

This pumpkin on the door is made from rusty paint can lids (also found at the dump). See that tutorial here: Rusty Paint Can Lid Pumpkins.

I rescued an old toolbox from our garbage and turned it into cute fall decor, see that post here: Repurposed Toolbox Fall Decor. My mom painted the funny jack-o-lantern sign that I tucked into the toolbox, and I made the garden flag from a hand towel, DIY No-Sew Garden Flag.

Oh, and the ghost hanging from the mailbox is something I made before I even had my daughter I think (she's 34 now)! He's made out of a fan blade 👻

I've had this welcome mat for a long time. I like to layer my front mats, it makes a cheap mat look a little more expensive.

But wait, there's one more thing! That one thing that I said I had thrifted new this year. It's this old broom!

I hung the ghost garland I made from it as an experiment and it's my favorite part of the porch! I don't have a tutorial for the ghost garland but they are just made from toilet paper tubes!