Tiki Voodoo Halloween Swamp Hut

This year for Halloween I decided to do something a bit different with the decor in the living room...a theme!  I thought this would be a great idea because it would save me the aguish of taking everything down from walls, shelves, and tables and having to find a place to stash them and then having to do an entire room of decorating.  I thought it might be clever and easy if I used the decor of the living room and push it toward some kind of Halloween theme.  Over the past several years I have been slowly working on decorating the living room with a Tiki Elvis Jungle room theme: panthers, peacocks, tropical plants, leopard print, Tiki doodads...just infuse a little voodoo along with a curse or two and you got a Halloween theme!

Like I said before, I thought this was an easier solution...but I was so wrong.  I don't own any Voodoo items so I wound up having to make and source a crap load of things.  However the end result turned out creepy enough that any witch doctor would be fine with shacking up in our 

Tiki Voodoo Halloween Swamp Hut!

If there was ever a shopping list for what to pick up at the Voodoo store the top item would be shrunken heads.  I made two of them to display on the main wall out of paper mache and fake hair from a toy headband from 1.25 tree.

The top shelf of the green rack.  Insert skulls, feathers, bones and creepy cloth (all from 1.25 tree) to typical Tiki doodads for effect.

Tiki Gods tending to their cauldrons.

On the bottom shelf insert snakes, moss, bones, creepy cloth and feathers.  For 2 months I saved and dried out chicken bones to add to the voodoo look.  The bones in the glass vase are real, the ones on the shelf are from 1.25 tree.

We printed out a few vintage Voodoo themed movie posters for a couple of shelves.

Soups on!

This is my favorite shelf.  The wooden African idol on the right is something that Mr. Husband bought years ago at a New Orleans voodoo shop.  I found the feather in the yard...the cat probably played a part in that.  But the craziest weird thing has to do with that set of thin carved statues on either side of the African Idol.  Those things are made out of real bones and topped with real hair and we found them at the thrift store for a buck each within the last month!

I made a couple of these cannibal skewered skull poles to flank the green rack.

Skulls and bones were plain stryofoam from 1.25 tree which I painted and jabbed with bamboo I cut from the yard.

And while you are out at the Voodoo One Stop Shop, the other top item to have on hand are Voodoo Dolls.  I made a couple of these cuties out of scrap old tee shirts and some wooden picks from 1.25 tree.

The Green rack in all it's voodoo shrine glory.

Next to the tv I did a DIY Ghoulish Garden kinda thing with some of our everyday decor.  I added a few mini skulls to the flowers and tacked on a few spiders with dental wax. 

Ohhhh!  I love this.  I mentioned to you guys last year that for Christmas I wanted one big item and this fireplace insert was it.  It has dual features being a heater or you can enjoy the look of the fire without the heat for ambience.  I have plans of finding a MCM cone fireplace to put it in but that's going to take some minutes.  In the mean time I just enjoy it as is.  I Voodooed it up skulls and moss...no heat though!

In another spot of the living room I did our regular Saturday night thing with a Morbid mortuary vibe:

The whole living room had a darker look to it.  I could not get a good photo but inside the display case I did a Bride of Frankenstein vignette and on top of the record cabinet was a Universal monsters display with some of our family Halloween photos, all kinda typical of past decorating.

So for the Voodoo stuff here is a break down of things I bought, had on hand, or crafted:

Bought:

Plastic skulls, bones, feathers, creepy cloth : 1.25 tree

Puffy moss: Joann

Green plastic moss garland: Hobby lobby

2 real voodoo carved bone idols: thrift store

Had on hand:

Spanish moss green and brown

plastic cauldrons

plastic snakes/spiders

plastic alligator

Hoo Doo game

 

Made:

Shrunken heads

Skull totem poles

Voodoo dolls

bone garlands

The thing about doing this theme is the time I thought I was saving by not packing up everything and having to find a place to stash it was taken over by crafting and still having to do a lot of decorating...and it only put off the inevitable.  I will still have to take everything down for Christmas.  No matter how clever I am there is no common holiday theme that can mesh Tiki and Christmas!

And the decorating is not all done yet folks!

In the dining room I put a good amount of our vintage and kitchy cute stuff so that post will be up next!