Styling an adults-only Halloween party with Sainsbury’s Home

I admit it: since having children I haven’t been a huge fan of Halloween. Why? Let me present to you some of my with-kids Halloween moments from the past 8 years: 

• Creating the world’s most reluctant pumpkin – my baby screamed from the second I dressed him in his ‘cute’ pumpkin outfit to the moment I removed him from the party

• Coercing a trick-or-treating four-year-old to tell a joke in a stranger’s front room, only for him to burst into tears and scream, ‘I hate you all!’

• Following his crying/shade-throwing, my offspring grabs handfuls of chocolate skulls before legging it at a speed impossible to match while dressed as an unraveling mummy

• Bobbing for apples results in near-drowning

• Man dressed as a ghost jumping out from behind a hedge is so scary I have to spend the rest of Halloween singing Christmas songs to calm my toddler down

• The annual horror show resulting from two kids having eaten their body weight in sugar in approximately 10 minutes

How I sometimes feel about my kids on Halloween

This year, however, I’m determined to reclaim Halloween: why should the kids have all the fun? So instead of worrying about what outfits to dress them in, working out which houses are most likely to dole out spider-shaped Haribo, or wondering which apple variety is easiest to pick up with your teeth, I’ve teamed up with Sainsbury’s Home and used their excellent Halloween décor range to help me style up a scary drinks party at The Pink House, with absolutely NO kids allowed.

See bottom of the post for my Halloween party styling tips, plus click-through credits for the spooky Sainsbury’s Home stuff…Only here for the BOOS (as my black martini glass says, below)? You’ve come to the right Pink House…

Photos by Megan Taylor; pumpkin crafting by Martha Roberts

My top 10 tips, tricks and treats for styling Halloween in YOUR home:

1. Dress for the occasion – this will get you in the mood for some seriously scary fun – I couldn’t resist this pink sparkly witch outfit, accessorized with pink furry trick-or-treat bag in place of a handbag. The cat basket you see on my doorstep would happily hold your mobile for the evening too 

2. Scare-way to Halloween heaven – prepare guests for their terrifying night ahead by hanging a hot pink ‘Beware’ door sign and another saying ‘Boo’, complete with gold glitter spider

3. Create a frighteningly fabulous focal point – mine is the fireplace, which I festooned with glitter skulls and a glitter pumpkin. Add a spooky candelabra centerpiece filled with tea lights 

4. Turn off your regular lights – and replace them with seasonal illuminations, such as the BOO lamp I styled alongside the BOOze selection (ha!), or a string of pumpkin lights . My central pendant lamp then became a place to hang this brilliant bat mobile (bat mobile! geddit!).

5. Get some ghoulish glassware – I love these ‘I’m here for the BOOs’ cocktail glasses and these skull goblets

6. Dress up your drinks tray – stripy straws, a pink flower-filled pumpkin (who says you can’t have a pink Halloween?) and some creepy coasters and you’re good to ghoul

7. Choose wicked booze – my Halloween drinks selection includes a pumpkin-orange liqueur; a be-tentacled dark rum and blood-red port which guests spill on my Christopher Farr-upholstered sofa on pain of death

8. Creepify your cushions – and petrify your prints; twist the words you see around you. My ‘Ain’t nobody got time for BAT’ cushion and ‘I think you are HORRIBLE’ perverted print help set the scary scene with just a black marker pen and a bit of tape

9. Pimp those pumpkins – click HERE for more info on how the pumpkins you see here in The Pink House were created, and HERE for a pumpkin carving kit. Big thanks to my crafty friend Martha Roberts for all her help 

10. Add after-dark animals – Sainsbury’s Home has a brilliant selection of creepy creatures. This large spider was too much for an arachnophobe like me, but I love the naughty tinsel cat (which paid no heed to my ‘No cats…’ cushion), and these small and large ravens. And don’t forget a glittery ghost – every good Halloween home should have one.

So there you have it – a haunted house perfect for a kid-free Halloween party!

This post was sponsored by Sainsbury’s Home - but as always, all opinions, thoughts, ideas and urges to drink blood orange martinis from glasses saying ‘I’m here for the BOOs’ are entirely my own.