With Autumn and the colder weather not too far off, very soon it will be #fall #knitwear #pumpkinspice all over your timeline. Shortly after comes one of the biggest student party opportunities of the year...any guesses? Halloween is early enough in the term that you haven’t blown through your student loan and your assignments aren’t due until January. Combine this with an excuse to dress up and act wild, and you have the perfect excuse to throw an amazing Halloween celebration. One thing is for sure, you’re going to need to be party ready! Not to worry! We’ve scoured the internet and sifted through the trends to bring you some of the simplest and most cost effective ways to decorate your student accommodation. Not only will you be able to celebrate Halloween in style, you’ll also keep that student accommodation security deposit intact. We are so good it is scary…

1. Pumpkin

via GIPHY It is THE classic Halloween decorations to make. Carve them, stack them or make them into soup, this versatile and tasty decoration is top of the list for good reason. The pumpkin is synonymous with Halloween, so much so that having one in the room, in any form, can be enough to show that you are celebrating/acknowledging the festivities. Get your creative juices flowing and spend an afternoon carving your Jack-o’-lanterns, these are great fun and if you are talented enough, you can really haul in the likes with a photo of your complex pumpkin diorama (pro tip use a ping pong ball for the moon). If you are not feeling creative, you can always simply hollow out your pumpkin and make it into an organic sweet bowl for guests. Carving not your thing? Then painting pumpkins is a fresh and fashionable option for you. The great thing about this is you can choose the colours to fit your party theme. Why not get really creative and push back against the traditional garish and tired Orange x Halloween collab? We suggest painting them pastel colours for the lo-fi Halloween vibe. Our final, and favourite, idea for the humble pumpkin is also the least laborious. By chopping the top off and hollowing it out you can turn your pumpkin into a makeshift vase. Combine with some flowers from your local supermarket and you have fresh, elegant Halloween decoration for easily under £10.00. We love this idea and think it makes for an amazing student Halloween must have.

2. Dripping Stick Candles

This is a super easy way to create the spooky Dracula’s castle vibes for your party on a budget. Stick candles are super affordable and available online or from most stationers (e.g. Muji and Wilkos). All you need to do to prep for your student Halloween celebration is light them and let them drip down the sides to get that gnarled and used look. You can have fun with this idea and see if you can pick up some vintage candlesticks from your local thrift shops and combine them into displays with your freshly painted pumpkins. Or, if you are looking for the most cost effective option, old wine and spirit bottles make perfect candlestick holders and are reusable for date night. Remember to do this safely and not leave candles burning. Please check with your student accommodation guidelines about candle use.

3. Skulls

via GIPHY Skulls are edgy, chic and most importantly spooky! You can pick up polystyrene skulls cheaply on eBay or other websites and let your creativity run wild. Paint them all kinds of crazy colours and scatter them around your student accommodation. You could even embrace your inner Damien Hirst and spray paint them gold or silver for a more luxury theme. Another option is to create a single stand out piece by sticking flowers (fresh or plastic) into the polystyrene skull as a wild display, embracing both the harvest and spooky themes of Halloween.

4. Cobwebs

Ever present in the visual cannon of Halloween, cobwebs and spiders are essential accessories for any Halloween season. Faux cobwebs are available at all fancy dress shops and online, drape them over doors, windows and anything that may be stuck on the wall to give your student accommodation a quick and easy Halloween makeover.

5. Wreath of Snakes (Door Wreath)

Door wreaths are no longer Christmas only accessories, themed wreaths are now commonplace, so much so that a quick google you will find all manner of wild ideas for themed wreaths, Our favourite is the wreath of snakes, which also coincidentally sounds like a Game of Thrones Book. Simply source yourself some toy rubber snakes, hot glue them together into a writhing ring and attach to your door. If you are having trouble finding the rubber snakes, why not take some of the excess cobwebs you haven’t managed to use and fashion a wreath?

6. Paint the Plants

Obviously we mean the plastic plants that you may already have purchased from homeware stores. But let’s face it, since it has been sitting on your desk, doesn’t it now look unchanged and rather lifeless? Well our nifty idea is to take these plant posers and spray paint them jet black to help you attain the ultimate Halloween aesthetic.

7. Window Stencils

There are literally thousands of printable stencil kits available online for free. The idea is to create a spooky silhouette by combining a dark stencil with a white paper background. Simply print these off and apply to your window with blue tack for immediate Halloween street style. With so many cool ideas online for stencils, we found ourselves being really inspired by this one and you can have so much fun playing with the different silhouettes and the type of lights.

8. Creepy Mirror Message

This one is another small cost effective decoration that, when included with a few of the other ideas in this blog, will give your Halloween party a truly immersive feeling. Tear out any classic horror themed mirror message from old newspaper or scrap paper; “Behind You,” “Beware,” and “Your Assignment is Due Tomorrow” are all solid options here. Once you’ve torn your letters out, make sure they are not too uniform and stick them onto your mirror and spray with a matt finishing spray. Once the spray is fully dry, peel off the paper and your message will appear as if from steam of the shower. So that is it for our creepy decorative run down. Remember, the key to all of this is to let your creativity run wild, nothing is too weird or off the wall for Halloween. Having your uni mates over? You’ll need to rustle something up! Check out our latest post on vegetarian recipes here and we’ve also got some slow cooker bangers here.

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