DIY Halloween Candy Bowl (West Elm Dupe)- TheNavagePatch.com

DIY Halloween Candy Bowl (West Elm Dupe)

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This beautiful Halloween candy bowl is a classy DIY that looks every bit as good as its $56 West Elm inspiration for a fraction of the cost!

Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Just weeks ago I was spraying foam like Rambo sprays bullets and creating hideously beautiful monstrosities like our fire wreath and Vecna’s Bakery. Mine was a world of smoldering bones, smiling skulls and dislocated jawbones. Glowing, pulsating lights – orange and red – were the lights I worked by and the pitiful screams of the damned were my soundtrack.

I was a Halloween DIY machine, and it was glorious!

But now look at me! Busted down to candy bowl duty.

DIY Halloween Candy Bowl (West Elm Dupe)- TheNavagePatch.com

Gah! I was built for blood and guts not chocolate and nuts! Give me back my foam! Arm me with full cans of red and black spray paint. Adorn me with pulsating LED lights and let me create Halloween Chaos!!

I am the Witch King, ruler of-

[Hmmmm…or, you could just make me the candy bowl I saw in West Elm. -Handan]

Ugh. Fine!

This is the bowl in question:

Source: WestElm.com

At $56, I wondered if the bowl came with its own candy factory or perhaps a timeshare in Cozumel. Well, at least it has skulls. Maybe it won’t be so bad after all.

DIY Halloween Candy Bowl SUPPLIES LIST

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We love to see our DIY Halloween decor out in the wild! If you make this Halloween DIY decor for your home, take a picture or video and post it on Instagram, be sure to tag us @TheNavagePatch!

Halloween Candy Bowl Video Tutorial

Check out our Instagram video below before scrolling down to the written tutorial!

West Elm Dupe Candy Bowl Tutorial

Step 1 – Cut the skulls

Using snips, a hot knife (or even a miter saw), cut off the backs of the skulls. The West Elm bowl has 8 skulls, but we used 6. Totally up to you.

Step 2 – Paint the skulls

Spray the skulls with flat black spray paint. We think flat looks best for this project, as it matches our bowl, but if glossy is your thing, then go for it!

Step 3 – Fill the void

Here’s a little trick to make gluing hollow skulls a little easier. Instead of trying to carefully lay a bead of hot glue around the rim of the skull and then press it in place before the glue hardens, we like to fill that void with aluminum foil.

I wadded up enough aluminum foil to fill the brainpan. If only it were so easy to fill my own head!

Then I squeezed a bit of hot glue into the skull.

I then pressed in the aluminum foil until it was just below the surface of the cut skull.

Step 4 – Glue the skulls

This makes gluing the skulls a breeze. I filled the rest of the small cavity with hot glue and pressed the skull onto the bowl.

I used a small popsicle stick as a spacer to ensure I placed them all at the same height.

This method gives you more time to work before the glue hardens and doesn’t allow for the glue to squeeze out onto the bowl.

I glued the 6 skulls in this manner, and that was it!

If your skulls weren’t cut cleanly, an optional final step would be to lay a small bead of black caulk around the skulls to hide any imperfections. The caulk would also make this water-tight in case you wanted to wash it.

Variations: If you don’t have or can’t find a suitable black bowl, you can do the project with any color bowl and then spray paint the whole thing black at the end.

This is a simple project that gives you a classy candy bowl for a tiny fraction of West Elm’s price.

DIY Halloween Candy Bowl (West Elm Dupe)- TheNavagePatch.com

Aren’t the little squid-fingered candy-clenchers in your neighborhood worth it? đŸ™‚

DIY Halloween Candy Bowl (West Elm Dupe)- TheNavagePatch.com

But look, who are we kidding here? You’re going to make this bowl tomorrow, fill it up, set it on the counter and have your own little Halloween feast every night of October!

DIY Halloween Candy Bowl (West Elm Dupe)- TheNavagePatch.com

And hey, a bowl this handsome doesn’t need candy! Perhaps some fruit? Maybe a wallet and keys? The skull’s the limit, as we say around here!

DIY Halloween Candy Bowl (West Elm Dupe)- TheNavagePatch.com
DIY Halloween Candy Bowl (West Elm Dupe)- TheNavagePatch.com

Well, would you look at that! Look whose hand just couldn’t keep away from her beautiful new West Elm dupe Halloween candy bowl!

DIY Halloween Candy Bowl (West Elm Dupe)- TheNavagePatch.com




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24 Comments

  1. Wow, so cheap to make but it looks just as good as the original! Great job. Your comments always make me laugh out loud. You really should be writing books or work for some of these comedy shows. You are much more funny than most of the comedy shows and comedians that are out there today.

  2. This was, what, maybe 45 minutes total work time start-to-finish? That’s perfect for an evening project, which frees up the weekend for big, messy projects. And your version is acacia wood (I looked it up), compared to the pricier terra cotta version that could be easily damaged. I like your version better. Thanks for sharing!

  3. You are as funny as Dave Barry. I’m sure you can write a book. Those skulls sort of disappear on that bowl. Maybe they need a touch of red! Oh and West Elm must have heard of your DIY cause the now have them on SALE for $53 and some change.

    1. LOL, they’re a bargain at $53! I’ll take two! Yes, red would work. We even toyed with the idea of leaving the skulls skull color, but then it wouldn’t really be a dupe!

  4. What a great dupe! So, I was wondering with all the work you put into your house and yard decorations, do you and Handan dress up to hand out the candy. That would be a good video, costume on the cheap! I agree with Mona, you are a crack up!

  5. Wow! All the wonderful Halloween creations just keep a coming! You guys are just too much! So many awesome inspirations! I love them all and I think it’s time for a Halloween party or a big celebration! There’s going to be a huge let down if you don’t do something! Oh, I know! You’ll just flow into making fabulous Christmas crafts and I can’t wait!

    1. hi Gail, thank you so much! We won’t be having a Halloween party this year, but we will be outside partying with the neighborhood on Halloween night. We can’t wait! đŸ™‚

  6. Greg,
    I love the bowl. But, beyond crafting, I’ve been worried about the hurricane and your family. It looks like you’ve faired fine since you’re back to craft blogging. did the wind and rain do any damage to your place?

  7. Awesome trick for filling out the gaps! Shopping around now to figure out a similar project to this for the upcoming Halloween!