Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Halloween Memory Lane

From my store circa 2009, hanging over our counter: Old umbrellas, striped stockings stuffed with tissue, thrift store shoes and witches shoe buckles from the costume shop.

Although all of these pictures have been posted to this blog (granted, 3 years ago or more) I felt it was appropriate to post them again for some Halloween ideas. Halloween never started out being the big holiday it was at Curious Sofa, but once I moved to the second location, the Prairie Village neighborhood was clamoring for some haunted inspiration. What began as one dining table with a centerpiece of black crows aitting atop chalk statue ended up being a full-on, front to back display of many vignettes. Take a look around at some of my personal favorites.

One of my favorite displays but such a terrible photo was our witches feast. A giant gnarly log was down the center of the table, covered with Spanish moss and various root vegetables. Black and blood red roses fill a giant urn along with rusty witches hands holding radicchio, fuzzy rats and poison bottles.
Skulls fill a giant clam shell. 
My four mannequins were always dressed for each season: Here, the Brides of Frankenstein wearing antique dresses.
I stumbled upon this giant doll house (originally pink!) and painted it for this display. I glued whispy gauze inside the windows and added a fan behind it.
Ugly brass chandeliers I found curbside, painted white and wrapped with layers and layers of cheesecloth. On the wall: giant spiders I had for sale.
What a challenge: My black crows were always a hit so to showcase dozens for sale I projected this branch image onto the wall then added ladders for display. I always wanted to do this to the side of my garage for October!
Always at a loss over what to have at our entrance, I found this pair of mannequin legs at an antique mall and stuffed them in a giant urn. A golden axe hangs at the front door inside an old frame.