I’m IN LOVEEEEEE with my mantle. The pictures don’t do it justice I don’t think. It’s the perfect, sexy, vampire’s lair I was going for with my Halloween style. The best part? Everything was purchased at The Dollar Store or I already had.
The deep red vases were purchased at Michael’s on clearance and the flowers I bought years ago when we still lived in our condo from Hobby Lobby. I also have yellow flowers that go with these but decided to omit them because yellow seemed too happy for a vampire’s lair.
I draped several cheesecloth things I bought at The Dollar Store across my mantle. I used gray as the base and layered black ones on top of them.
To layer on top of that I used 2 skeleton garlands in black (also from The Dollar Store.) Here is a close up of the skeletons.
As you can see, the string linking the skeletons is tan. I think before I put this up next year I will color them black with marker or paint them so the string blends in better.
Here is the left side of my mantle.
The only thing that is new is the red candle that I bought at Marshall’s Home Goods this season for around $5. I plan to have it out for the entire fall season. The crows, spider webs and spiders are all from The Dollar Store.
Here is the right side of my mantle.
The only “new” thing on this side of the mantle are these two AMAZING vintage books. These are not photographing the way they actually look. The light gold color isn’t so bright in person. But the really special thing about these medical books is that they belonged to my grandfather who is no longer with us. They even have his name and address printed on the inner cover and some papers taped inside that appear to be study materials of the human anatomy. AWESOME!!! I love pairing vintage items with new and how special to own ones with family history and meaning? It’s the only thing I have (other than pictures) that belonged to my grandfather so they’ve become very important to me.
Have you incorporated any family heirlooms into your decor?
Ray of Soleil 
Looks amazing! Oh how I wish we had “real” dollar stores in Alaska where I could find good decorating staples.
Actually, in hindsight it would have probably been cheaper to get some black fabric and shred it up from JoAnn’s or Michael’s. I bought a ton of them and draped them along my staircase too so it was most likely more expensive from the dollar store.