We don’t normally do Halloween, but with this year being such a wash-out, and so many touchstones for autumn and Christmas cancelled, I decided to bring an autumn festival indoors. There’s an autumn wreath made up of dried flowers from the porch and foraged foliage, black Halloween decorations, and painted pumpkins. The pumpkins started off in quiet muted scandinavian tones, with two coats of paint from old tester pots, and ended up a little in anarchy as I freestyled some decoration one afternoon this week(!).

I wasn’t really expecting to enjoy this task, having taken it on mainly to bring some cheer to a tier-two half-term in London with Ted. But the decorations and garland have brought a festive vibe to the living room and cosy cheer to a gloomy week when the rain didn’t stop and the clocks went back. I may even do a Halloween interior next year, perhaps this is a 2020 tradition I’m happy to keep.

I was surprised at how easy it was to paint and pimp the pumpkins. I remembered Kerry Lockwood did some leopard print pumpkins a few years ago so I freestyled one with a sharpie and some paint. Next I daubed one with a splatter pattern in the same way I did with our Christmas wrapping last year (this time using watered down grey paint and not ink). And on the final pumpkin I drew gold stars with a Bic marker.

I’m most surprised that we managed to pull off something that felt festive without it being garish or in your face, I’m quite happy that this feels understated-ly celebrational and winter-y. We are going to have a Halloween party as a trio in here over the weekend in place of my son being able to have a proper birthday party this year, wish me luck with my witches costume and apple bobbing!