Getting in the howliday spirit is a must for office morale. Halloween is a time to show off your best costume ideas and fangtastic décor – we apologize in advance for the puns. If you're not the creative type, we've got plenty of desk decorating ideas for Halloween!
1. Apothescary
There's nothing more disturbing than sinister doctors and questionable remedies, swirling in mysterious elixir bottles. Decorate your desk with old-timey medical gear, pinned bugs, various jars, (fake)candles, mirrors, old textbooks, skulls, plants, and bones to nail the esthetic. Mini corked jars can be found at most dollar stores and can then be filled with eery-colored liquids. Get creative with the labels ("cyanide", "newt", "venom", etc)!
Hallo-Hack:
Edit and size a photo of a head/face in Photoshop (in a panoramic format) and print it to the size of a large mason jar. Laminate it and line the jar with the face and fill it with formaldehyde-colored liquid to add dimension. Head-in-a-jar pranks await!
2. Franken-Fort
If you work in a cubicle set-up, it may not be too hard to cover the stall in a tent-like manner, with curtains for entry. Fill this office fort with artificial mood lighting (blacklights are perfect) and monstrosities of your choosing and turn it into a mini haunted house or creepy carnival for coworkers to check out! Write a spooky message on the sheets in invisible UV ink (petroleum jelly works!)
But beware…
Make sure all fire escape routes are still accessible and computers' ventilation ports aren't covered by sheets or props!
3. Retro Resurrection
Why not raise old technology from the dead and modify your desk area to be totally retro! Add a bulky cardboard backing to your computer monitor (with proper ventilation), a fat old hard drive underneath the monitor, and an unreasonably big keyboard base. Top it off with an old rotary phone, some retro posters, and a Furby or two. Don't forget some old Reeboks and a Rubik's cube.
Hallo-Hack:
Use the show Maniac as a reference for esthetic and you'll have the office feeling nostalgic for neon.
4. Fortune Teller Box
Incorporate your Progressive Desk into the Halloween decor theme and use it as a framework for your fortune teller stand. Build and paint a box-like structure around the desk to imitate the coin machines that hold animatronic fortune tellers and center your desk and self with a crystal ball prop and some mystical accessories.
But beware…
Crystal/glass balls refract sunlight in a way that can set very real fires!!! Think microscopes and sizzling ants. Keep out of sunlight and cover it up.
5. Prison Hell
Hopefully work doesn't usually feel like a prison cell, but on Halloween, a jail is a great visual theme to pair with the Brutalist architectural nature of some offices and their simple and sparse furniture. Hanging a curtain rod from the ceiling allows for vertical jail bars (rods, streamers, duct tape poles, etc) to be hung in front of the desk. Pair that with steel accessories (coffee mugs, plates, bedpans, and cuffs) and you've got a basic cell from hell.
Hallo-Hack:
Put up 'Wanted' signs with your photo up around the office, make a height measurement backdrop, and a mugshot crime placard with names and crimes.
6. Serial Killer's Lair
Best in a cubicle structure, creating a disturbing psychopath's lair is bound to send chills around the office. Sport some gloves for the day, pin-up polaroids of 'victims' and crime scene (chalk outlines, evidence tags, etc), add clippings of hair, fake teeth, children's toys, binoculars, masks, and a (fake) murder weapon around your stall.
But beware…
Make sure you check company policy on weapons first, even fake props.
7. Candy Wasteland
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Turn your surroundings into a sickeningly sweet candy witch-house (like from Hansel and Gretel)! Outline everything with gumdrops, candy canes, candy corn, and cotton candy spiderwebs. Throw in some fake spiders, some menacing gingerbread creatures, and some sugary green ooze where you can and voila; trick or treat yo' self!
Hallo-Hack:
Paint two baby pumpkins with pastels and sprinkles, stack and glue them upside down onto a waffle cone for DIY fake pumpkin ice cream! Cover a large pumpkin in gumballs and glue it on top of an upside down plant pot and detail it to look like a DIY pumpkin gumball machine! Oh, the pumpkinbilities are endless!
8. Little Flower Shoppe of Horrors
Themed retail desk decorations for Halloween are vast, but flowers are delightful and, as seen in Little Shop of Horrors, can also be sinister! Go for black and blood red colored flowers, and don't forget a Venus Flytrap or two! Make a price list on a backdrop and create a flowery, viney window opening to frame you at your standing desk.
But beware…
Always check with colleagues about scent or pollen allergies! If present, go for fake flowers.
9. Crime Scene
A Halloween workspace should be grisly and gruesome. What better than to use desk area as a crime scene? Throw in a couple fake bloody limbs (don't skimp on blood!), a tattered rope, some chains, a scary-looking fake beheading blade at the top of the simple structure, and whatever else you want!
Hallo-Hack:
Make non-staining realistic fake blood with corn syrup, red poster paint, and cocoa powder.
10. Spy Lab
Already likely equipped with laptops, accessorize your desk with more futuristic-looking gadgets and detective tools. Props could include microscopes, disguises, fake IDs, sunglasses, watches, and walkies. Add some 'Classified/Top Secret' stickers to any work folders for added effect. Use strings to create laser beams to decorate a workspace from floor to ceiling. Try to move through them without touching them!
But beware…
Make sure the laser strings aren't a tripping hazard!
Final Word
At the end of the day, ghouls just wanna have fun, corporate ghouls included. With these ideas and your added imagination, setting a spooky scene will be a cinch.
Progressive Desk’s standing desks can help these ideas really come to life and they're great for improving posture, outlook, and productivity! We should only be rickety zombies on Halloween! You can learn more about them here.