If you have kids around at home at this time of year then you can’t help but get into the horrors of a Halloween kitchen. In fact, most parents we know love Halloween more than their kids…
What’s involved in a Halloween kitchen we hear you say? Well, the gloomier and more terrifying you can turn those kitchen cupboards and kitchen worktops into, the better. And here are some super skeletal, spider and seriously spooky ideas right here to do that. Get your craft knife, cardboard and Sellotape at the ready…
Halloween kitchen spider’s webs
No Halloween kitchen is complete without the requisite scary spider’s webs. Buy them cheaply from a supermarket or joke shop (or find some real ones – just kiddin’!). Alternatively, make your own spider’s webs for pennies and with much more fun involved than buying them. Simply purchase several metres worth of cotton wool netting and get to grips with the tops of your cabinets, bringing the material right down to the worktops at an angle while pulling and stretching it out at various angles. Hang some of the make-ship web from a pendant light or your kitchen cabinet handles. The tops of chairs or body of bar stools are ideal too. Kitchen corners are a must since that’s where spiders really like to hang out; look out for real deal while you’re in there!
Pimped pumpkins
Let’s face it, Halloween just wouldn’t be the same without the odd gruesome and toothless pumpkin staring out at you. Thankfully these days, we no longer have to use naked lights either since LED tee lights are just as effective – and a hundred times safer than a naked lamp. Alternatively, get a string of LEDs and wrap them round a glass jam jar. Secure the lights to the jar with tape then place your finished item inside the jar. Make sure there’s a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin where you can feed the cord for the plug through.
While choosing your pumpkins from the corner shop or supermarket, make sure they’re medium soft as this will make them easier to carve out. When ready to start carving, slice off the top of the pumpkin and scoop out all the seeds and fibres inside using a large plaster scraper or similar. You will know you’ve done enough scraping out when you can see light shine through the orange shell. Next, draw a scary face on the front of the pumpkin using an indelible marker and carve it out using a good, serrated knife. You might actually find it easier to do a stencil of the face first and then stick it onto the pumpkin to copy.
Bloody worktops
No, we’re not having a temper tantrum here, rather we want to tell you how to cover your worktops – or rather, a cloth covering your worktop – with fake home-made blood that the kids (and even the dog) can eat if they so desire. Simply put one cup (240 ml) of water and one tablespoon of flour into a jug and whisk. Next, pour it into a small saucepan and boil; turn down and simmer for 30 minutes. Once the mixture has cooled down add a couple of drops of red food colouring to the pot and whisk again. Now get pouring…
Hideous Halloween miscellaneous accessories can be added to both the spiders web and the table cloth for extra eeriness. Edible eyeballs, bats cut from black cardboard and giant plastic spiders and/or severed fingers are all good fail safes. If there’s space between the top of your kitchen cabinets and the ceiling then fill it with a row of black witches’ hats turned on their sides.
If you happen to be fortunate enough to live near to woodland then collect large twigs to stick in vases; tie the cardboard bats to the twigs with black sewing threat. Stick magnets on the plastic spiders and you can have them climbing all over the kitchen cabinets and the fridge, wherever you like, in fact. The spiders, eyeballs etc are also harmless stuff the kids can chuck at each other once they’ve had too many Halloween sweets and need an outlet for their sugar rush. Just make sure you don’t get caught in the crossfire…
But maybe you’re thinking of a whole different type of kitchen decorating for Autumn? If so, and you’d like new kitchen cabinetry or cabinet doors, then take a look at our website www.kitchenwarehouseltd.com. There’s definitely no horrors – Halloween or otherwise – there!
