With all the chaos and general depression of 2020, I was really looking forward to my favorite time of the year – October, the spooky season. As soon as I felt a general chill in the air, I grabbed the bins out of my closet, made a few masked trips to a few of my favorite stores for new finds, and started decorating the Bramford. Rather than recapping many similar decorations from last year, I’ll be focusing on what’s shiny and new in 2020.

Most of my living room decorations remain the same, but I was happy to add this tree from the John Derian for Threshold collection at Target. It reminds me of a tree I played near at my grandmother’s growing up, but spooky. The Cinderella-esque pumpkin is from Homegoods. Thanks to a fun trend on TikTok, I finally got one of these letterboards and used the unofficial Halloween lyrics to “WAP” to bring a little spice to the house on the daily. I finally decorated my hallway with some ghostly gauze (Amazon), and the candy corn bottlebrush trees bring a delightful pop of color (Homegoods), and, yes, I keep the ghost pillow out year round (Homegoods, again).

I finally spruced up my couch for the holiday with a few colorful pillow covers (Amazon). The gingham pillows stay out year round and also work for Christmas (Homegoods); they’re perfect for movie marathons. Hidden under Logan the Cat, is my skeleton throw (Homegoods). The layout of my dining table wasn’t much different this year, although we have the addition of some cute pumpkins and I finally bought a lil skeleton and named him Nick Chiller – you’ll be seeing him every year from now on! The black candle décor is from Spirit Halloween and the watercolor art is one I’ve had for years from Levi Craig. It was hanging in my office for a while.

My bedroom arrangement is largely the same, although we have a different throw blanket that the cats are absolutely destroying (Target). I did manage to grab a few of the Halloween 2020 Squishmallows and they’re fabulous. The “Cheers Witches” banner is from Homegoods and I think I might leave it up year round. And, believe it or not, I’ve had these lights since 2016 or 2017 and this is the first year I’ve actually hung them – they make the room feel so cozy. And, as always, my Midsommar bouquet brings a bit of bright and sunny horror to my bedroom every day.

Speaking of Midsommar, I’ve been struggling for years on how to decorate my bathroom for Halloween. Finally, I figured I would use some of the stuff I already owned and add to it and have a bright, almost spa-like space that seems relaxing but is obviously a shrine to this cult. I had a lot of fun putting this together. The shower curtain was a hand-me-down from my cousin, but is originally from World Market. I framed the Blu-ray cover for the film, happened to have some old Ikea art that fit the aesthetic, and made an acrostic chalk art piece using phrases and runes from the film. The sunflowers were inspired by the flowers and blood-eagle scene in the film (Amazon). The yellow towel stands in for the mysterious temple. And you have to have some LED candles for all those fun ceremonies. Plus a bear (Target). Overall, this is probably my new favorite room in my apartment.

I’m sad to see another OcTerror come and go, but we had a lot of fun this year. Here is Logan and I in our costumes at the beginning and end of the season. Until next time, I’ve been your siren of all things spooky; thank you for tuning in. Stay scary!