Ellington

When you're looking for items to decorate your space for Halloween, pick a handful of pieces around which to center the rest of your décor. For my space, I picked skulls. Skulls are easy to find, and the number of variations and styles makes them easy items to accent. Also, they have an avant-garde style that pairs well with a lighter touch. Try filling a skull with a bunch of red roses for centerpieces, or personalizing each skull with accessories like bowties or homemade felt hats.

While potentially hazardous, candles provide the perfect eerie glow against the backdrop of skulls. Stockpile eco-friendly candles in different shapes and sizes, and place them on mantles and coffee tables. When you gather candles, don't forget the candleholders. Use what you've got—dig up an old lantern or candelabra from the storage room.

With a couple of bags of faux spider webs and string lights-a-plenty, you can jazz up these central elements without converting your space into a cheesy want-to-be haunted house.

Place settings
I might have overdone the spider-web theme, but this plate and spider combo (Target, $1.99, $2.99) is the perfect party size and adds a unique touch to the table. The skull (Michael's, sale $1.99) not only adds a decorative element, but the candle inside also lights the table.

Use what you've got
I nabbed the cardboard hanging skeleton (Walgreens, $3.99) on a whim, but the witch doll is an old high-school puppetry project named Majandra. When I realized that guests needed a friendly greeter, I dressed her in an old black scarf and witch hat (Walgreens, $2.99).

Coffee Table
This skull and other variations can be found at Walgreens for one buck. Find the faux spider webs almost anywhere that sells Halloween decorations for $2 or $3 depending on the quality. At $10, the red lantern was a great deal, along with the strangely scary Christmas nutcracker ($4), both of which I found at TJMaxx.

Staircase
This black garland was cheap, and a little went a long way. On sale for $1.50 at Michael's, I grabbed up five bunches and wrapped them around the banister with orange lights (Walgreens, $3.99). If you want to cut corners, tap into your Christmas lights instead of buying new ones. And of course, what's Halloween without a jack-o'-lantern? If you're not the artsy type, buy a plug-in one for around $10.

"Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble."
- William Shakespeare "Macbeth"