It’s finally spooky season! My Brooklyn neighborhood is already starting to go all out with outdoor Halloween decorations. Spiderwebs and giant spiders line gates between stoops and skeletons and pumpkins are out on every street. I love the way people find the fun in decorating and bringing the community together. With the majority of people celebrating Halloween this year and more than a third of people likely to decorate their homes, according to a 2021 Halloween survey conducted by Goodwill Industries International, it’s exciting to see people let their creativity shine as they create fun and frightful atmospheres in their home as we approach the end of the month.
I love decorating for the seasons and holidays. At the same time, I live in a NYC apartment so space to store seasonal decorations during the rest of the year is sparce. It’s because of this that I love finding creative ways to DIY some of my decorations, that I know will not only create a fun mood in my home but will also serve another purpose. This year, the DIY decoration I created with materials found totally at Goodwill, were adorable ghost candles and spooky spiderwebs.
At a Goodwill on the Upper East Side, I found an unopened bag of spiderweb decorations (score!) in the home section with a price tag of $2.99. Up by the register, I found a package of off-white taper candles for just $0.99. For under $5 I had the materials I needed to put some seasonal personality into my living room.
I came home with the goods (which in addition to the home décor items also included some awesome brand name finds like Lululemon, Free People and Joie) and was excited to get started on putting together my decorations. I had previously thrifted red taper candles and candlesticks, so those plus a magic-themed book were all I needed to complete the look.
To create my ghost candles, I took a Sharpie I had at home and drew different faces on the candles. I’m more of a cutesy Halloween decorator than a super scary one (I won’t even watch scary movies!) so my faces were not that scary. I propped them up in the candlesticks on my TV stand and pulled apart the spiderwebs I’d found at Goodwill. I placed the spiderwebs along the top of the TV stand as if they were a tablecloth and draped smaller pieces of webs in between the candlesticks, to make the effect of a “haunted” house.
This DIY décor hack was so easy to put together and affordable as well. I love that I was able to take something that’s already a staple of the season – candles – and turn them into something more holiday themed without paying retail pricing for premade décor. Depending on what your Goodwill has in stock in the home second, I’m positive there will be something that will spark some creative thinking for how you could give it a Halloween themed twist.
Find something cool or have a DIY trick of your own that you want to share? Tag @goodwillintl in your Instagram post for a chance to be featured on our page!
