My little brother and I could not be more opposite. On Halloween every year growing up, I’d always want to find an excuse to dress up pretty and girly, usually with some kind of tiara involved. My brother… he always wanted to chase kids with toy chainsaws while wearing zombie makeup.
To this day, I find my happy place decorating and making things pretty. His happy place is working in the film industry alongside The Walking Dead. See? Polar opposite. I guess Halloween always gave us a glimpse at what our grown-up jobs would be.
But for this year, I decided to take a lesson from him and channel the scary stuff…
I mean, not TOO scary. Olivia would FREAK, if it got anymore creepy than this. But I’ve kind of always had a thing for the Victorian steampunk apothecary look. It’s not something I can pull off every day of the year, but for Halloween, it’s so fun to do.
So I whipped up a few free printables in case you like the apothecary look too. I’ve joined up with Ella Claire Inspired and 35 incredibly talented blogger friends who are sharing their own fall printables for a fun little bloghop (at the end of this post).
Even though I know I’m super early sharing the Halloween stuff. 😉
In the spring, I had the idea to make apothecary labels for jars to display fresh cut flowers. I love how easily it makes for flower arranging and gives a cheap and easy vintage look to a vignette.
So I did the same thing this time around but ripped off the pretty feminine labels from spring for some semi-gruesome potion labels.
I raided our pantry and filled the jars with “mummy powder” (pancake mix) and “poison” (pickle juice).
And of course “snake scales” (bath salts) were a total necessity.
Our “lizard eyeballs” came from a jar of pearl onions. And the “blood” is barbecue sauce.
I ended up stealing our bathroom’s cubby shelf to hold all of the accoutrements.
Then, I put together this skull dictionary art (from a graphic from The Graphics Fairy) since every spooky vignette needs a skull of some kind.
I made these fun bats from black cardstock using instructions from Made Everyday and taped them onto our wall. Olivia loves these little guys!
I had an old birdcage I’d found at the thrift store last year that I just filled with some dollar store fall leaves and stuck a dollar store crow on top.
And my old CD shelf turned herb crate got a few dollar store flowers added too.
And this cute burlap pumpkin came from the dollar store. (Can you tell I went kind of crazy in there on my last visit.)
Who says cheap can’t be cute?
I threw in this cover from a thrifted dome clock for some sheet music I rolled up and a couple of candle holders I painted and distressed that came from the thrift store too.
And I set this up beside our front door so that trick or treaters can see it when they visit to get their candy on Halloween night.
I hope it’s just scary enough without being too over the top for any little ones in our neighborhood. Since ya know… I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to the scary stuff too. I can’t even watch The Sixth Sense without getting completely freaked.
You can download the potion label printables here and the skull dictionary art here:
If you want more fall styling ideas and lots more free printables, you can check out the whole list of blogs below:
Thankful Tree Leaves by Ella Claire | Autumn Storm Painting by Shades of Blue Interiors | Crock and Wheat by So Much Better with Age | The Beauty of Autumn by Anderson + Grant | Thankful Tags by Four Generations One Roof | A Royal Pumpkin by Zevy Joy
Urban Printable by City Farmhouse | Halloween “Boo” Banner by Chronicles of Home | Definition of Autumn by Cherished Bliss | Life Starts All Over in the Fall by Making Home Base | Fall is my Jam by Cassie Bustamante | Apples 5 cents by My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Mum’s the Word by Delineate your Dwelling | Fall Pumpkin by Finding Home Farms | Autumn We Love You by Just Destiny | Harvest Watercolors by Finding Silver Pennies | Pumpkin Patch by My Someday in May | Welcome Fall by Refresh Restyle
I love Fall Most of All by My Fabuless Life | Pumpkin Patch by A Burst of Beautiful | U-Pick Apples by Paint Me Pink | Sugar and Spice Banner by Design Dining and Diapers | All is Safely Gathered In by May Me and Mom | What’s She Thinking? by My Sweet Savannah
Vintage Apple Study by Nina Hendrick Blog | Watercolor Fall Landscape by Craftberry Bush | Woodland Watercolor Prints by Unskinny Boppy | Oak Acorns and Leaves by Live Laugh Rowe | Fall Watercolor Tags by TIDBITS | Autumn Quote by Maison de Pax
Happy Fall Ya’ll by Happy Housie | U-Pick Apples Chalkboard by Clean and Scentsible | Tiny Trio of Leaves by Town and Country Living | Halloween Potion Labels and Dictionary by Bless’er House | Make it Be Be Beautiful Autumn by Nest of Posies | Autumn Leaf Banner by Happy Happy Nester
Chelsea says
September 14, 2016 at 10:28 amOh these are so fun, Lauren! I love your spooky entryway! LOVE!
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 11:08 amThanks, Chelsea! This one was a lot of fun. 🙂
Marie Pearson says
September 14, 2016 at 2:50 pmVery creative! I’m not into skeletons and mummy’s, but these ideas are so clever and don’t go past the slightly creepy threshold. My family will love these ideas! Thanks.
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 11:07 amThank you, Marie! Same here. I can’t handle too much creepy either.
Hope says
September 14, 2016 at 4:44 pmSo super cute and spooky! Love it!
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 11:01 amThanks, Hope!
Lassiegirl says
September 14, 2016 at 5:30 pmTotally cute…love it and will be borrowing a few ideas.
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 11:01 amThank you!
Chelsea @ The Johnsons Plus Dog says
September 14, 2016 at 5:35 pmI just love this… those bats are just perfect! And soooo simple. Thanks for sharing.
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 11:01 amThank you, Chelsea! This one was a lot of fun. 🙂
Pamela Smith says
September 14, 2016 at 10:43 pmI love how this turned out! Perfect combination of fun and creepy! My daughter loves skulls, so thanks for the idea!
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 10:57 amThank you, Pamela! My daughter is scared of EVERYTHING. We have to walk the other direction if a Darth Vader action figure is anywhere on display at a toy store. Haha! But she’s not scared of this, so I feel like it’s the perfect amount of creepy too. 🙂
Jennifer @ Town and Country Living says
September 14, 2016 at 11:23 pmI think you found the perfect balance of scary/not scary! Love the skull print!
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 10:55 amThank you so much, Jennifer! Definitely what I was going for. 🙂 Scary but not too scary.
Cassie Bustamante says
September 15, 2016 at 7:48 amlove your vignette and spooky printable! it’s fabulous!
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 10:51 amThanks, Cassie! I LOVE your printable! It’s so you since I know you’ve been canning like crazy in your kitchen lately. When you’re done, feel free to come to my house and go all Aunt Bee over here. Haha!
Eileen says
September 17, 2016 at 9:06 amYou are so clever. Glad I found your blog!
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 10:18 amAw thank you!
Shirley says
September 17, 2016 at 9:25 amSo creative! Love the labels. Looking forward to looking at the posts from other bloggers. Have a great weekend.
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 10:17 amThank you, Shirley!
Alysha @ Elegance & Peonies says
September 18, 2016 at 10:17 pmI absolutely love your display Lauren. The sheet music and printable are my fave’s!
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 10:11 amThanks so much, Alysha!
Jen says
September 19, 2016 at 10:05 amLooks so cool! I am sorry if I missed this but where did you get your entry table?
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 10:10 amThanks, Jen! We got our entry table on Craigslist! It looked nothing like it does now. I posted about its makeover here: https://www.blesserhouse.com/2015/08/modern-farmhouse-foyer-makeover.html
Shannon says
September 19, 2016 at 11:05 amOh my goodness…. first off, your brother works with the walking dead people?! How cool is that! I feel like I always loved Halloween as a kid too, there was one year where I was a cowgirl and then insisted I wear the costume to school every day for like a year. The kids must have thought I was so cool. Lol!
Those labels are my favorite part as well as the birdcage and the bats. So creative! I was just at this really hipster bar in brooklyn on saturday and they had those bats taped to the ceiling…
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 10:05 amHaha! That is so cute!!! My daughter would wear her princess dresses to school every day if I let her. That bar sounds like a lot of fun!
Heidi says
September 19, 2016 at 1:59 pmLove your “spooky” displaly! The bats really draw your eye to all your cool Halloween items. Thanks for the printables too!
Lauren says
September 20, 2016 at 9:58 amThanks, Heidi! It was a lot of fun to put together. My three year-old had a blast with those little bats. 🙂
Sandra Garth says
September 22, 2016 at 12:20 pmI love the steampunk vibe also.
Lauren says
October 4, 2016 at 12:45 amThanks, Sandra!
Jamie says
September 25, 2016 at 7:43 pmI love the bats – those are so cool! 🙂 Thank you for sharing your post with us at the #HomeMattersParty
Lauren says
October 4, 2016 at 12:22 amThank you, Jamie!
CJ @ Morsels of Life says
September 26, 2016 at 1:18 pmJust wanted to let you know you’re featured on Inspire Me Monday as most popular! Awesome printables, and perfect for Halloween. 🙂
Lauren says
October 4, 2016 at 12:05 amThank you so much, CJ!!!
Heather says
September 26, 2016 at 3:55 pmThis is fabulous, Lauren! I’m loving the bats.
Lauren says
October 3, 2016 at 11:59 pmThanks, Heather!
sophia says
September 14, 2017 at 1:40 amYou are so talented and from the looks of it, lucky to be living where you do. The thrift shops and there are only 3 spread widely apart, never ever ever have the kinds of furniture that anyone would even want to remake.
Where ever did you find that special bird cage that I hope no bird ever had to live in… It’s very cute.
Lauren says
September 14, 2017 at 2:18 pmThank you, Sophia! We do live in a nice little pocket of thrift stores. I visit the more high end neighborhoods since they get better quality stuff usually. The bird cage actually came from the thrift store too. 🙂 It’s decorative though, so no birdies were harmed in the making of this entryway. Haha!