If you are hosting a Halloween party or event this year, you may want to dress up a focal area of your home ready for the spooky season! Styling a key area like a fireplace mantel, hallway table or a sideboard is a great way to create a big impact at Halloween, rather than having just a few decor pieces randomly scattered about. 

I recently had the opportunity to dress my fireplace mantel for Halloween as part of some content creation work; here are five of my key tips when creating a hair-raising Halloween display at home:

1. Use foraged, dried flowers for a bigger display on a budget

2. Purchase black styling accessories

3. Apply the rule of three

4. Candles are essential for an eerie atmosphere

5. Stick to a theme rather than mixing up too many Halloween categories

Use foraged, dried flowers for a bigger display on a budget

The end of August/start of September is the perfect time to start foraging dried flowers for any forthcoming fall or Halloween display. Roadside plants and wildflowers will be browned off by the sun, yet dry enough to pick as they have not yet fallen victim to rainfall. Look out for dried thistles, old allium heads, browned cow parsley and oranged fern leaves, which are abundant as the season turns from summer to autumn and fall.

Use the dried florals as a base upon which to build up a display without having to rely on too many decorative Halloween pieces purchased from the store. You can brighten the display with Chinese Lantern heads (real or faux) to add a dash of vivid orange in with all the brown. Simply use a piece of dry flower foam (no water required, making it multi-use), or use chicken wire within a vase to keep your dried flowers in the right position. 

Purchase black styling accessories

For a stylish Halloween, opt for black tapered candles over white or cream and invest in a roll of luxurious black velvet ribbon that can be draped around your display to elevate that Halloween aesthetic (I tied bows with mine and stuck them onto the fireplace surround with blue tack). If you are giving gifts at your event, wrap them in black craft paper and use food dye in cocktails to turn clear drinks, black! 

Apply the rule of three

When displaying your shop-bought Halloween decor pieces, it is best to stick to the ‘rule of three’ when grouping items so that they appear considered, rather than just plonked down randomly in your home. Choose three items that complement each other and vary in height. Envisage a triangle, taking the tallest item and placing it at the back (this will be the triangle's peak). The medium-sized item should be placed slightly forward to the tallest and slightly to the side, with the smallest out in front. This arrangement of three appeals more to the eye and is a good rule to follow when placing down pumpkins or grouping smaller decorative pieces.

Candles are essential for an eerie atmosphere

Halloween is all about the atmosphere! Candles play an important part when it comes to Halloween decor, but don't worry about having an open flame lit in your home - Lights4Fun sells the most amazing replica flame taper candles that are battery-operated.

Stick to a theme rather than mixing up too many Halloween categories

Essentially, less is more, even at Halloween. Rather than mixing up ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, bats, gravestones, pumpkins and clowns all together which can feel chaotic, pick a theme of no more than three. For my mantel display, I chose pumpkins, skeletons and ravens.