Welch House 1900

French Country Halloween: Part 6

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Welcome to our last Halloween post of the year!

Lets follow Hagatha into the front parlor.

The European mantel is aglow with spooky candlelight.

Black crows have found a place to perch among the moss and skulls.

Pink skulls and candles add a bit of glam to our Halloween Mantel.

Black creepy cloth and a black leaf garland add some spooky vibes...

This crow found the perfect spot to nest on top of this pink skull!

Hagatha is busy going about her duties, for Halloween is only four days away and the house must be tidy for guests.

Pull up a chair and relax next to the fireside as Hagatha bustles about.

At last Hagatha is smiling, for her work is complete..

Now she wishes you a safe and Happy Halloween.

Thank you for visiting! I wish you a wonderful Halloween from us here at Welch House!

French Country Halloween Part 5 :The Front Porch

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Halloween is quickly approaching and I thought I would show you around my front porch today.

While the inside of the house is dressed in more neutral Halloween colors, the outside is filled with the traditional bright orange with black accents.

I like the outside to be really kid friendly. I've always admired the outdoor Halloween decor in movies such as "Hocus Pocus" and even "Goosebumps".

I try to go for that look on my front porch. The giant vintage blow mold pumpkins are from a garage sale for only $1 each. The cute little pumpkin on the side table was a decoration from when I was a child.

These two cuties are new to us this year. I purchased them from Victorian Trading Company. They are my little boy Delaine's favorites. He thinks they are twin brothers.

Our friendly butler Fred takes residence on the front porch every Halloween night to pass out candy. I usually have our annual Halloween Party that night and am always too busy in the kitchen to pass out candy, so he does it for me. My Sister has to check on him from time to time to make sure no one has run off with Fred and the candy! lol

You can trust Fred with the Halloween candy, he never sneaks even a bite. lol

I grabbed the orange plaid pillows at Walmart this year, only $5 each! I thought that was an awesome deal. They went fast though, I went back a few days later to grab a couple more and they had already sold out.

Thank you for stopping by my Halloween Porch! I have one more Halloween post coming soon.

-Larissa

French Country Halloween Part Four

Sunday, October 20, 2019

This year in the back parlor, I decided to go with a skeleton theme for Halloween.

I wanted to create a not so spooky, but very sweet, Skeleton Family.

We even have some skeleton rats scurrying about.

I had fun dressing each family member in vintage fashion.

The Mother skeleton is wearing a fur cape that I recently thrifted as well a vintage pink feathery hat.

The baby skeleton is dressed in an antique baby christening gown and bonnet trimmed with lace.

Our skeleton kitty is a new addition this year. We found him at the Dollar Store.

Our real life cats, Jeffrey and Maleficent, love the skeleton kitty for some reason. I always catch one of them, or both laying next to it.

The antique library table holds our skeleton phone, in case the family needs to make a call or two.

Across the room, candlelight glows on the piano.

Someone is ready to play a lively Halloween tune for our family.

The piano top is elegantly decorated with black skulls donning gorgeous French crowns.

Each crown is unique and beautiful.

Lit candles provide a eerily beautiful ambience.

Our skeleton friend is quite the musician.

Each year I add a fun mask to my painting. Spooky elegance.

Thank you for touring our Skeleton Parlor this year. More Halloween posts to come.

-Larissa

French Country Halloween Part 3: DIY Graveyard

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Today I wanted to share with you our "Family Graveyard" here at Welch House. Every year at Halloween I want to create a fun, yet realistic graveyard but I never get around to it.

Our back yard is the absolute best place to create a graveyard because its huge, filled with beautiful old trees and so overgrown that it already looks spooky. I wanted my graveyard to feel like an old abandoned country graveyard, with lots of trees and gravestones scattered about.

Every old graveyard needs a broken down creepy iron fence right? I think so! Since I'm on a budget I was super excited when I spotted these black faux iron garden fences on clearance at the Dollar Store last month. I knew they would be perfect for our graveyard yard!

The tombstones are my favorite. I had purchased a pair of 1970's dresser mirrors at a garage sale a couple of years ago, and I only paid $3 for both! I really liked them but was not finding a spot in my home for them. Then a light went off in my head and I thought of tombstones!

They were perfect! I loved how the mirrors were tall and already had a beautiful french style design of top. I have seen gorgeous tombstones on Grandin Road's website that are several hundred dollars and honestly look similar to my $3 mirrors, so I was super excited to get started!

I had my husband remove the actual mirrors and replace that area with a plywood board. Next I used gray chalk paint from Walmart mixed with a bit of sand to paint each tombstone. The sand makes the tombstone look and feel more like stone. I also added black acrylic paint here and there to add some spooky vibes and a bit of an aged look.

Using acrylic paint from Walmart, I mixed greens and a bit of brown with the sand. This mixture became my "moss". Once I had it mixed, I just patted it with my brush all over the tombstone where I wanted moss to be growing.

I had an old angel wall planter that had got broken years ago, so I decided to attach it to my gravestone and paint it to match. I added my fake moss and then once it was dry I added brown moss and a fake flicker candle to the planter.

For the lettering on the stones you could really get creative and be more realistic, but I preferred a handwritten look, which I free handed and went over with black acrylic paint and a black sharpie. For this tombstone I wanted a really worn, almost weathered look. It reads, "Here in the forest dark and deep, I offer you eternal sleep."

For the angel tombstone, on a whim I wrote," Annabelle sleeps here. 1888". A month or so after I created these tombstones I learned that 85 years ago a little girl named Annabelle lived in our home! I found that a tad creepy. lol

I really had fun creating this graveyard and next year hopefully our graveyard will grow a bit! I'm going to be looking for more old mirrors, preferably plastic ones to create more graves! Maybe you will create some of your own as well!

Thank you for visiting!

-Larissa