Gothic Glam-Inspired Halloween Mantel Décor

In honor of Halloween, Rich’s is bringing you our Gothic Glam-inspired Halloween mantel décor.

Since Rich’s is your go-to in the Pacific Northwest for all things fireplace, we wanted to provide inspiration for how you might spookify your  fireplace, just in time for trick-or-treaters.

This look (or a version of it) can be achieved in one afternoon. It’s a great project to keep the kids busy and off of screens for a couple of hours on a rainy afternoon. That’s the perpetual battle in our homes, at least.

Supplies:

• Various sized pumpkins (real or plastic)
• Empty wine bottles/medicine bottles/jars or containers of all shapes and sizes
• Black and silver spray paint
• Tree branches (we used willow, but anything will work—the creepier, the better)
• Any 8x11 picture frame (black or silver)
• Various candlesticks or candleholders you have around the house
• Fake spider webs from any craft store
• A printer, and access to the internet
• Double-sided tape or mod podge

For a centerpiece we used an ornate mirror we happened to have here at Rich’s, but any of your items or group of items could serve as the centerpiece of your gothic-glam Halloween mantel.

In our case, this mantel’s effect is even more powerful, thanks to the craftsmanship of the hand-hammered, wrought-iron face on this gas fireplace model by Fireplace Xtrordinair (manufactured by our friends at Travis Industries in Mukilteo, WA).

With Halloween dressings, this fireplace gives off the perfect sinister vibe for Halloween. It calls to mind medieval dungeons and sets off the metallic accents of our décor.

A pumpkin (real or not) spray-painted silver is a quick, easy, inexpensive touch to lend something unique to your Halloween décor. Any old, dark-colored wine bottles you can find lying around are the perfect material for gruesome apothecary jars. Or you can use clear bottles that can be spray-painted. Thrift shops or dollar (now $1.25) stores are great places to pick up bottles and jars.

This old whiskey bottle, for example, spray painted with a matte black finish, is a two-step DIY. After letting the spray paint dry, we printed free apothecary labels from Pinterest and used double-sided tape to stick them on. Mod Podge would work just as well, if you want these props to last for years.

Our creepy, white skull was also a quick DIY-project. The skull came from the bottom of a dollar store bin, and the chalky white paint from a craft store. We could have used silver or black, as well.

If you look closely, you can see our witch’s supplies here are stored in old antacid containers, and travel-sized medicine and mouthwash bottles.

Our spray-painted black branches are stuck inside an old, silver wine bottle (filled with water so the bottle doesn’t tip with the weight of the branch, of course). Easy items we found around the house.

Plastic eyeballs are easy to find at any craft store at this time of year. Any kids in your house will be delightfully grossed out!

The benefit of the black apothecary containers, of course, is that the labels can claim anything at all inside them, and you don’t need to find supplies to back up your witchy claims.

Our advice is to find your jars, containers, and labels FIRST, and then know what you are looking for on your trip to the craft store, in case there is anything you can’t find at home. We all know the pain of getting home from the store and realizing you will have to turn around and go straight back, don’t we?

There are TONS of great free, printable Halloween pictures available on Pinterest. Our “Nevermore” printable is just one such example.

The black frame is something we had sitting around and re-purposed for our temporary Halloween display. More black spray paint created our black pumpkins, and some cooked spaghetti with a little tomato sauce mixed in made the perfect goblin guts for our clear apothecary jar.

Another great trick was table salt in an apothecary jar for “Bone Powder.” Flour or sugar would work just as well.

Again, search for “free apothecary jar labels” on Pinterest and get creative. We can assure you, once you start looking, you will find great material sitting around the house that you can use to create the perfect Gothic Dungeon of horror on your mantelpiece. And it’s a fun Halloween treasure hunt for the family!

Pro tips for the details:

Tip #1: Stretch your spider webs as thinly as possible. The more see-through they are, the more ghostly they appear.

Tip #2: Create levels to vary the heights of some of your objects with old books or candle holders. An old book is the perfect accessory for your Halloween mantel, and can vary the height of your pumpkins or skulls, etc.

Tip #3: Stick to a black-and-white or black-and-metals color scheme as we have done here. It adds to the creepy factor of a gothic mantel. Stay away from bright oranges if you want to achieve a more sinister look.

Tip #4: Add extra spook for Halloween night by playing creepy organ music in the background. It will add the perfect ambiance to your gothic-glam Halloween décor.