Goth Glamour for Halloween and Beyond

When I think of gothic, three things immediately come to mind: Dickens’ Miss Havisham in her tattered wedding gown, Morticia from The Addams Family and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Goth design is dramatic and dark. It laughs in the face of death by adopting it. Think skulls crows and specimens . There’s definitely something creepy inside.

But it isn’t all eerie. It is also sophisticated, artistic and tasteful. It has a great sense of style and humor. And it does not need to be overdone. There is no need to paint everything black and hang red velvet curtains. Only a bit here and there adds a little refined ghoulishness to a room. Perfect for Halloween and outside.

Emily Winters

Skulls, Crows and Other Specimens

To embrace the dark side, you need to embrace the symbols of darkness, foreboding and death. This workspace is totally dim and old fashioned (can’t you picture Edgar Allan Poe writing here?) . Along with the crow perched on the wall is the cherry on top.

Mary Prince Photography

These taxidermy birds give this space a 19th-century conservatory feel. As in, Miss Scarlett with a candlestick in the conservatory.

Schwartz and Architecture

This wall of specimens floating in jars includes a menacing beauty to it. If you are not quite ready to go full-on Dr. Jekyll, you could achieve a much less shiver-inducing effect by filling the jars with leaves, acorns, stones and other nonanimal products.

Beth Dotolo, ASID, RID, NCIDQ

A customized skull pillowcase. It shows you are dim but you like to get.

Just one sketch one of a collection of art of a skull. It is dark but not obsessively so.

Wallpaper Collective

I adore this delicate skull wallpaper in the Wallpaper Collective. It comes in black also.

Seriously elegant eek element. Perhaps just for Halloween.

Thorson Restoration & Construction

Gothic Arches

This lovely salvaged window is a true gothic touch. The ornate chandelier ups the play factor also.

Hugh Jefferson Randolph Architects

This room is modern and spacious, however, the gothic arches along with the classic wooden doorway give it a little goth shadow. When you can’t place your finger on the reason why a room feels a little eerie, start looking for pointed gothic arches. Works every time.

Pursley Dixon Architecture

The high ceilings, taxidermy and contemporary fireplace give this space a creepy old-manor feeling. It is lovely, but there are most likely ghosts in this.

RAFAEL DAVILA

Dark Drama

This chamber includes important goth credibility: dark old paintings, religious art, a big chandelier, low light and dark furnishings.

Cravotta Interiors

The dark wood paneling helps, however, the dining table full of candles is what actually attracts the goth. Seance, anyone?

Duroque

Big, dramatic draperies in thick fabrics add puzzle (what is hiding behind them) And an 18th-century lushness to this room.

Lucid Interior Design Inc..

Blackness and Night

When in doubt, go with black. It is elegant, dramatic and not for the faint of the heart. Black is the color of death.

Thos. Ryan Design LLC

Even a bit will do. These black-framed windows add a somberness to the room. The painting that is dark and candelabras don’t hurt either. It is not creepy, but it’s also not to be trifled with.

Tracy Murdock Allied ASID

This bedroom has modern goth splendor: It is dramatic, it’s black and it’s coated in thick drapery. Unless you just happen to get a pet bat, it doesn’t get any better than that.

NICOLEHOLLIS

Another spacious, bright modern goth room. It is not just the black accents that give a bit of the dark side, it’s also the dramatic form of those oversized velvet chairs.

Koo de Kir

Candelabras and Chandeliers

Nothing ups the play of a space just like a big, bold chandelier. The more a chandelier or candelabra looks like it came out of an old gothic church, the greater. This stairwell isn’t particularly menacing, however, the enormous, spare chandelier adds significant play. Can not you just hear the organ music?

Tommy Chambers Interiors, Inc..

This bathroom has gothic arches in the cabinetry, but it also includes those castle-wall candlestick sconces helping its goth flair.

Laura Martin Bovard

A standing candelabra provides this room just a bit of the dark and striking.

Elad Gonen

A large, black chandelier. Elegant but not cheery. Morticia would l-o-v-e this.

Du Bois Design Ltd

Another black chandelier. Imagine if this light fixture were a white globe — that the room would have a completely different mood.

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