Whimsical Halloween Mantel

Looking for fun, frightening free, kid-friendly Halloween decor ideas? Check out my whimsical Halloween mantel. It is sure to fit the bill!

After decorating with a spooky vibe earlier this fall with my gothic Halloween decor, I wanted to gear toward more family friendly decor with my mantel. This whimsical Halloween mantel is a super simple mantel that will not be too scary for your little ones. In fact, they could even help you decorate!

If you read that gothic Halloween decor post, you will remember that I said we were moving our murphy bed into a bedroom and getting a new couch for this space. Well I am happy to say that we have been making lots of use out of this space now. The boys wanted a place to hook up some of the “retro” game systems and so we did that in this room. They have been utilizing this space a lot more. 

The couch and ottoman came from Ikea, it is the Kiev sofa with chaise in Hillared beige. It is super comfy and the best thing is that it has washable cushion covers. I was a little concerned about getting a lighter colored couch but this works great, if it gets a stain on it, it will be easy to clean!

Fun Halloween garlands

The inspiration for this mantel was this cute ghost garland that I found at Ross Dress for Less. They have some great seasonal decor pieces there for budget friendly prices, but you have to get there early in the season as they don’t always have a lot in stock and it can become picked over fast!

The ghost garland looked a little lonely up there so I decided to make another garland with felt bats and wood beads to go with it. Check out the tutorial for this Halloween felt garland soon to make one for yourself!

Farmhouse wooden accents

These wooden wall window arches used to reside on each side of the mantel as you can see from my fall mantel last year. I will probably be moving them back like that soon to take up some more of the horizontal space on this wall. For now I thought they made a great background to spotlight some fun Halloween pictures. The wooden arches are framed out nicely by our DIY shiplap mantle backdrop.

The farmhouse candlesticks on each side work well with the wooden arches and help to add in and balance out the wood accent pieces on the mantel.

Make your own Halloween pictures

I was looking for some printable Halloween pictures, but did not come across any that I liked. I wanted the pictures to be colorful to coordinate with the ghost garland. So I decided to make my own pictures. I don’t have a separate tutorial for this but it was really so easy, I can just tell you how to do it. 🙂

I looked for some free clip art online and found a black cat that I liked. After downloading the image, I copied it into a word document page and increased the size of the image until it filled up most of the page. My frames are 11×14 but matted down to 8×10 so this worked perfect for the size. Then I printed out the image and cut it out.

Next you will trace the cat template onto black card stock and cut it out. Cut out the eye shapes as well and repeat with yellow card stock. Use double stick tape to attach the eyes and to mount the cat onto a piece of orange card stock. Then just insert the card stock into your frame. Easy peasy! Really, this would be a great activity to get your kids involved in!

The bats were made the same way. I actually already had this particular bat template from years ago, but again you can easily find free bat clip art to use. The bat template was traced onto three colors of card stock: cream, orange and yellow. For some added interest, I flipped the middle bat the reverse direction. I love being able to make inexpensive seasonal decor, instead of going out and buying everything.

We hung the frames on chains from a hook on the shiplap backdrop. This also helps to hold the  the wooden arches close to the backdrop so they don’t fall forward off the mantel. 😉 I think the Halloween pictures go really well with the ghost and bat garlands, don’t you? 

Coordinate your whimsical Halloween mantel with the rest of your decor

The mantel is always the focal point of my decor but I like to make sure the accent pieces in my room go well with the mantel too. For instance, my pillows always coordinate with my mantels. I have a very large pillow cover collection. I may have a problem! 🙂 However, while I have bought some, a lot are ones that I have made. For instance, have you noticed this adorable ghost pillow in these pictures? 

I shared the tutorial last week, check it out if you missed it to see how to make your own Pottery Barn ghost pillow dupe! The rest of the pillows also look fabulous with the mantel, don’t you agree?

I hope you enjoyed my whimsical Halloween mantel, and I think your kids would enjoy it too. I will be back soon with the tutorial for the bat garland. Until then, have a wonderful week!