What’s the October holiday that brings with it all things scary and sweet? It’s Halloween, of course! Its popularity continues to grow, making it one of the most anticipated U.S. holidays of the year. In fact, according to a recent Harris On Demand poll (conducted on behalf of The Hershey Company), 86% of Americans ages 35-44 “are either more excited or as excited about Halloween this year than in previous years.” Plus, nearly 60% of those who are parents with kids under the age of 18, plan to do more for Halloween than in the past and for months have already been thinking about Halloween celebrations.

Even with the sometimes frightful elements, the holiday is just plain fun and that’s something everyone can use more of in 2021. At DIY Steel, we’re here to help make your Halloween decorations especially “spooktacular,” with some appealing kits and projects that are right on trend this year. In fact, we carry the top two Halloween decor trends for 2021 cited in Charleston Crafted: “modern black” and “metallics.” 

All of our cutouts and Halloween kits start out as matte black metal. We’ve included photos here so you can start thinking of ideas about how to incorporate these metal pieces into your holiday decorations — both inside and out. 

How about some larger-than-life spiders to make arachnophobes’ skin crawl. Our big tarantula cutout will look awesome on webbing or a wreath that you create, or climbing up your home’s exterior (we’ve got a black widow cutout, too). Leave it black or choose to paint its body a bright red with our supply of high-quality paints and patinas.

Next, you can go a little “batty,” with our 3D bat. We really think it is kind of cute, so it could be appropriate for homes with younger kids who might find it a bit more charming than scary. What fun to get the kids to help put it together and then paint and decorate. Perfect for a Halloween party and as a favor the kids (even adults) can make to take home.

Of course, it’s not Halloween without pumpkins — and we’ve got two great ones for you. These pumpkin cutouts can be painted, and we’ve also got materials to help you make a platform to stand them on with candles to set a dim-light mood. Then place them on your porch, inside, or again, use them for a party decoration game. We’ve got steel tubing you could also use to attach to the pumpkins (or any of the other decor items we’ve featured) to create yard stakes.

To safely hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, you might want to set up an outdoor station. Along with sweet treats, make the station festive with our scary black cat and skull cutouts (or any of the other items we’ve shown you here). Again, you can leave these matte black or we’ll help you look through our large inventory of paints and patinas to find the perfect colors to make these decorations pop. Another idea is to incorporate several cats within your design to create a litter of felines that will make your yard the best on the block. Consider putting battery-powered lights behind their eyes to add to the spooky factor or entwine them with twinkle lights for some extra fun.

These are only a few of the ways you can make your Halloween home the best decorated it has ever been. For more inspiration, this HGTV article will give you additional ideas about how to decorate with the items you pick up in our shop. Come see us soon, so you can be ready on Oct. 1, to wow the neighborhood with your creative and eye-catching Halloween decor.