Colorful Candy Halloween Mantel - Attempts At Domestication

This candy Halloween mantel is inspired by Nerds and SweetTarts. It combines fun pastels with black and white pieces for a festive mantel.

This fun Halloween mantle may be one of my favorites ever. I always let symmetry, what people will think and practicality get in my head. I end up overthinking. Then I’m never 100% in love with what I come up with. This year I committed to 2 things: spend a minimal amount of money and HAVE FUN! The result was this fun, colorful candy Halloween mantel.

I’ve been embracing my love of color more and more when it comes to home decor. So I really wanted to incorporate colors beyond orange and black for Halloween this year. I was brainstorming what I could use that would add a little color, but still be Halloween-y. Then it suddenly hit me: CANDY!

I personally love SweetTarts and Nerds, so that’s what I picked to use with my decorations. They are bright, fun, and perfect for a colorful candy Halloween mantel. In retrospect, having my favorite candy sitting on the mantle staring at me all day may not have been the smartest idea. I’ve totally given in to temptation and grabbed a few treats while watching TV at night.

My husband’s latest hobby gave me a lot of fun colorful backdrops to choose from. He creates abstract art in a variety of colors, so I just picked from one of his 50 paintings. I tried to find the ones that reflected the colors of Nerds and SweetTarts the most. They aren’t all the same color or style to keep it visually interesting. I’m really into layering art for the backdrop of my mantels because it adds so much dimension. And, of course, color!

I spent a total of $6 on this mantel because the only “new” thing that I purchased was the little black and white pumpkins. And the candy. Everything else is from my bin of Halloween decorations!

It can be so hard year after year to not buy all of the cute new decor that’s out in stores. But I try to remind myself that I have plenty of decor at home and it all just ends up in storage after a few weeks. And the candy may seem like a waste, but I plan on handing out whatever I don’t eat to trick-or-treaters.

All of the decorations for my colorful candy Halloween mantel either came from Target or At Home, though I did make a few of them several years ago. I’m a fan of buying seasonal decor on clearance and saving it. Or buying smaller items at a cheaper price in general.

Where I Bought My Candy Halloween Mantle Decor

None of the items are online anymore, but here’s a list of where I got everything anyway so you can be on the lookout next year. (From left to right):

Green pumpkin – Dollar Tree foam pumpkin (I painted it all green so it wasn’t bright punch-you-in-the-face orange anymore.)
Black and white mini pumpkins – Target Dollar Spot
White pumpkin with sprinkles – At Home
Colorful mini skulls – At Home
Trick or Treat sign – Target Dollar Spot
White pumpkin with long stem – Real from a local pumpkin patch
Grey ceramic mini pumpkin – Target Dollar Spot
Black glitter pumpkin – Target Dollar Spot
Green ceramic mini pumpkin – Target Dollar Spot
Bat and ghost garland – The bats and ghosts came from JoAnn Fabric, but I made the garland.

I feel proud of myself for taking my decorating in an entirely different direction this year, without spending a lot of money, to create this colorful candy Halloween mantel. It was a bit of a creative challenge and it has me feeling more inspired for the rest of my holiday decor!