Yard sales and thrift stores are a great place to shop for vintage Halloween decorations and other items you can use for seasonal decorating. I’m sharing my favorite vintage and thrifted finds tthat can be used to create inexpensive Halloween decorations.
If you want to spook up the place for Halloweens, don’t go shopping for new stuff. Haunt thrift stores, yard sales and your parents’ attic for rusty, dusty and musty items that can be used as vintage Halloween decorations.
When it comes to decorating for Halloween — and most holidays, actually — I love using vintage and secondhand items, to create a festive, spooky vibe.
This approach allows me to be use my creativity, whether I’m styling a haunted tablescape or a spooky Halloween porch to greet trick or treaters. It also saves me money and space in my attic because by using vintage items, I can use my Halloween decor in other ways throughout the year.
Sometimes, I even raid the junk pile for items I can use to make inexpensive Halloween decorations
Below, I’ll show you some of my favorite vintage and thrifted Halloween decor.
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How to Decorate for Halloween Using Vintage Items
As a former journalist, who has actually written newspaper stories on a manual typewriter, I originally bought this old Smith Corona to display year round. But add an aged piece of paper with a passage from Poe, and the entire vibe changes. I’ve used the typewriter in my Southern gothic Halloween decor and as part of my literary-inspired spooky porch.
Old books also make great inexpensive Halloween decorations. Sometimes the titles or the color of the books make them appropriate for Halloween. This tiny volume above is very old, written in another languauge with gothic lettering, and that adds to its mysteriousness.
Propped on a thrfited pedestal with a vintage brass easel, it looks very spooky indeed.
Old books help elevate Halloween props.
The titles of these vintage books speak of battles of good versus evil.
If you look closely, these vintage dominoes send a secret, evil message.
Speaking of secret messages, someone from beyond is trying to send a message on these ceramic alphabet balls that I picked up at an secondhand shop.
Empty vintage wooden clock boxes, lanterns, glass cloches, glass clock domes and doll displays can be used to hold scary specimens for Halloween.
Keep an eye out at thrift stores for glass floral shadowboxes and glass-encased taxidermy and specimen shadowboxes to use in your Halloween decor.
Vintage candlesticks and candlabaras are must haves for Halloween. Look for wrought iron, tarnished silver and patinaed brass ones or paint them black.
An old bird cage — decorative or functiional — becomes Halloween decor when used as a perch for black ravens or crows.
Birds, bats and rats also like to hang out in a greenhouse made from old windows. (If you can’t find old windows, here’s a similar design you can DIY.)
Speaking of salvaged items, barbed wire can be used to make a rustic Halloween wreath.
An old pallet can easily be transformed into a scary zombie Halloween decor with paint, dollar store masks and chain.
Old furniture and scrap are easily transformed into Halloween decor with paint. The more chipped and worn, the better.
I like using vintage cabinet doors and old windows to make Halloween art with vinyl cutouts. You could also paint a spooky scene if you don’t have a Cricut or Silhouette diecutting machine.
Secondhand frames can hold all sorts of eerie images, including dictionary page art and scary black-and-white photos.
Vintage glassware can be upcycled, repurposed and styled for use at Halloween.
Add a Halloween label and skull stopper to a glass apothecary bottle for instant Halloween ambience.
Add dead or dried flowers to a pretty vase to use in a Halloween tablescape.
Even old food jars can be upcycled to make Halloween decor. Learn how I made these Halloween specimen jars here.
I’m always on the lookout for interesting plates at the thrift store and yard sales. These miniature animal plates were perfect for my haunted harvest tablescape when paired with my wedding china and black glass chargers or silver chargers.
I also never pass up silver plated goblets, champagne flutes and wine glasses.
The more tarnished the better for Halloween decor.
They look great on a bar car with vintage crystal decanters and skull mugs.
I find decanters quite often at estate sales and use them yearround on my barcart.
When you’re shopping at thrift stores and yard sales, don’t overlook vintage Halloween decor. My mom found this cast iron jack-o’-lantern at a yard sale and passed it along to me.
Oftentimes, the best time to find vintage Halloween and holiday decor is off season. My best advice is that you should always be on the lookout for items you can use in your Halloween decor. You’ll get better prices in spring, summer and winter than you will in October.
Shop for Vintage Halloween decor
Here are some great vintage items to use in you Halloween decorating.
Pin This! Thrifted Halloween Decor
If you like vintage Halloween decor, be sure to snag these free printable treat bags, available excluisvely for Atta Girl Says subscribers.
[…] it comes to Halloween, I’m very much a budget decorator. Our trick or treat decor is a mix of vintage items and dollar store Halloween decorations. It’s all about the cheap […]