Halloween decorations: frighteningly good tips to follow from an interior designer

Laura Nolan Horgan knows a thing or two about interior design and style. And as the mother of three children under 10 – Elizabeth (9), Hugo (7) and Toby (5), she also knows how important it is to decorate the house for Halloween.

As the owner of LNH Edit, a collection of slow ethical fashion and homeware, she has the fortunate ability to be on trend for the current season, while also ensuring that the decor is somewhat stylised and finished with a little finesse.

“Our front door is a primary focus as we have lots of little callers on Halloween night so it’s really fun,” she says. “This year we have gone for a spooky harvest theme – I love this idea as it has a nice meaning behind it and it’s aesthetically a lot more pleasing (than some of the usual Halloween decorations).

“My father-in-law kindly sourced the hay, as this year was harder than most because hay was in shortage with all the rain we’ve had. But we are just borrowing it and will drop it back to the farmer on the 1st of November – all our decorations are taken down straight after Halloween night.

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“Our second focus is the table as I love having all the kids around it for a little party after trick or treating, and also to sing happy birthday to Hugo, who was born on Halloween, so I make sure that it looks super spooky. We have some gorgeous paper plates. cups and napkins and I also like to host a dinner party this time of year too, as I just love decorating a themed table, so any excuse. Witches’ hats are also great placed on a table as they add height, or another lovely centrepiece is an empty pumpkin, or even a few of them used as vases.”

[ Halloween decorating tips: How to bring some spooky touches to your home ]

The mother of three, who launched her business in 2020, has always loved decorating and as a child would ask her mother, Fran Nolan, co-founder of the fashion label Fran and Jane, if she could set the table for dinner parties. This love of “setting the stage” has been passed on to her own children as they really enjoy helping to create a seasonal or festive scene.

“My kids love pulling out all the decorations out of the box and helping to pop it all up,” she says. “I let them do it and when they are in bed I ‘rearrange’ it a bit. Mine also love painting and decorating real pumpkins, they are a bit young to carve them, so we do one together as a family – with their dad doing the carving. There are some really cute ideas on how to paint the pumpkins using your thumb print dipped into white paint to make little ghosts, then you just use a black marker to draw the eyes when they have dried.

“I like the idea of building, collecting and investing in nice pieces that you can bring out year after year. We have lots of bats up the walls in our home at the moment, just stuck on with some Blu-tack and I use them year after year – they are effective and don’t look too tacky.

“We are all becoming more conscious of the environment and avoiding waste, so my top tip is to safely pack the decorations away, and label them clearly so you can pull them out again next year and each year that follows, just adding something small each time, which complements what you already have.”

Get crafty: Check out Laura Nolan’s Instagram page for ideas on how to make simple, tasteful pumpkins out of napkins @lnh_edit