Joliet resident repurposes old items into new Halloween decorations

Danielle Franchetti of Joliet has always loved Halloween and was known for her creative Halloween costumes and overall love for the season.

Even Franchetti’s dogs bear that love.

“I have two German shepherds,” Franchetti said. “Their names are Kruger and Cruella.”

But Franchetti’s “obsession” for vintage and repurposed Halloween decorations took off during college and overtakes her yard during October.

As a food science major at Iowa State University, Franchetti found – and then purchased – “old unique Halloween stuff” at antique shops. After Franchetti bought her first purchase home, she started to collect large Halloween items for her yard.

“It just gets bigger every year,” Franchetti said. “I have five large pieces that move and talk – those are all from Halloween stores. A lot of the smaller stuff I either made myself or found at estate sales.”

For instance, Franchetti bought an old, wooden baby stroller and then filled it with dolls she had painted red to resemble blood.

Franchetti also has some “really old dolls” hanging from trees near a witch and her cauldron.

She has light-up plastic globes from the 1980s or the 1990s and some old Halloween lights.

She has assorted vintage figurines around the yard and red-painted hands hanging from trees.

But those are just the items Franchetti has arranged outside. She’s also filled every room of her house with Halloween décor. That includes a wooden skeleton Franchetti found at an estate sale. It was her understanding that a carpenter made the skeleton.

“I whitewashed it and painted it to look like an antique,” Franchetti said.

She keeps a Ouija board from the 1920s displayed all year, which Franchetti embellishes with lights and pumpkins in October.

“I have a ton of those little figurines that move on their own and talk,” Franchetti said. “Those are from the ‘80s into the ‘90s.”

Franchetti has assorted vintage Halloween decorations made from clay around the house, along with a ventriloquist doll she found in an antique shop, she said.

Most of her clowns (of all sizes) are in the dining room.

Except for the clowns on the swings. They sit outside.

“And then I just pull it all together,” Franchetti said. “I have cobwebs everywhere. I have a bunch of lights. Every room in the house is fully decorated.”

How does she sleep at night? Very well, actually.

“I love horror movies and Halloween,” Franchetti said. “So it doesn’t bother me. I actually have a very large collection of Halloween movies. So I’m one of the rare people that still buys DVDs. I have a huge bookcase in my family room filled with horror movies.”

Franchetti said the fun of horror for her is the escape from reality. But the fun of collecting the items goes much deeper.

“It’s the memory of hunting it down and finding it,” Franchetti said of each item. “And then, just knowing the history behind it, I think, makes it more unique and means more to me, especially when I find items at estate sales. Like when I know somebody else has owned it and it meant something to them. I’m just excited to carry it on.”

Franchetti said it can take several full days to get her Halloween decorations unpacked and displayed. Once Halloween ends, Franchetti is eager to take everything down and put them away. She laughed at the memory of people saying to her, “I can’t wait to see what you do for Christmas.”

“Halloween is the main one,” she said. “I have one little reindeer for Christmas.”

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Danielle Franchetti of Joliet decorates her house inside and out with vintage Halloween and other antique items she has repurposed for that purpose. It takes days to arrange the displays, but she takes the items down soon after Halloween. (Photo provided)