Halloween party can be sophisticated — and macabre

Q: I’m dying to have a Halloween dinner party for friends, but I don’t want the decorations to be juvenile or overly cliched. Any ideas?

A: My hometown of Atchison, Kan., may be a quiet hamlet on the Missouri River, but for the spirit world, it’s party central. Dubbed one of the most haunted towns in Kansas, Atchison does it up right when it comes to Halloween parties, so you’ve come to the right place for advice.

When we were decorating my home for my fall open house this year, I asked Angela and Chery, two designers who work with me at Nell Hill’s, to come up with the same kind of look you’re going for at your party: something sophisticated pepped up with a playful touch of Halloween fun.

This talented twosome know how to put together a tablescape that’s so drop-dead gorgeous even Queen Elizabeth would be tickled to pull up a chair. And they know how to scare the socks off of Halloween party guests, so they couldn’t wait to concoct a Halloween table that featured the best of both looks.

First, they plotted the perfect position for the party table. What better place to entertain guests than in my courtyard, under the brooding October sky, with the clouds floating past the moon and the blowing autumn leaves tickling guests’ feet?

To give the alfresco dining room a cozier feel, they put the table under my glass-topped wooden gazebo. From the crest of the gazebo, they suspended two crystal chandeliers, so they hung at different heights.

Then they created a macabre mood by stringing a few spider webs to the gazebo’s top and sides, strategically positioning icky black spiders on the webs, waiting for their prey. You can easily achieve this eerie effect with webs you’ll find at novelty shops or, if you’re feeling ambitious, create your own webs with fishing string or silver wire, then give it some sparkle by working in crystal prisms.

Next, the gals dressed the table in formal opulence. On top of a white linen tablecloth, they used black framed mirrors as chargers, then built luxurious place settings out of my antique gold-banded china, crystal and silver flatware.

Now that the stage was set, it was time to add a bit of Halloween fun. Angela and Chery had a blast poking in quirky Halloween touches, all the while being mindful to keep the emphasis on elegant for this event.

To give guests a bit of a start when they sat down to enjoy their soup course, the designers placed cherub heads, dead leaves and plastic spiders in miniature iron birdbaths used as soup bowl. These petite terra-cotta busts made darling summer garden ornaments, but when they peered up from the bottom of a soup bowl, they were a bit creepy.

The multidimensional centerpiece was also packed with spooky surprises. At the center of the table, they displayed a black iron urn holding a bouquet of craggy twigs. Peeking out from behind the blanket of twigs was a bust of a haunted woman, whom they affectionately dubbed Mrs. McMeany.

A beautiful silver compote held squirmy porcelain frogs. Another silver server was filled with icky eyeballs, the bouncy-ball kind you can find at the dollar store.

The bottle of wine on the buffet next to the table was held in the clutches of a quirky dismembered hand I fell for at market this year. And on the ground by the corner of the gazebo, they placed a black iron birdcage that held a huge horned toad.

In addition to using an abundance of faux fall foliage, berries and grasses to pull together the richly layered centerpiece, Angela and Chery dotted my courtyard with bouquets of oddly shaped gourds.

Let your imagination loose and have fun brewing up a sophisticated Halloween party full of wit, imagination and just a touch of terror.

Mary Carol Garrity owns three home furnishings stores in Atchison, Kan., and wrote several books on home decorating. Write to Mary Carol at nellhills@mail.lvnworth.com. Her column is syndicated by Scripps Howard News Service.