Gothic room decor – cheap ways of getting your own bat cave

Home decoration is something I have a crush on but though I have a foot into the goth scene I don’t like this extremely black thing. My wardrobe is indeed filled with black garments – but this is something I’ve been changing lately because I don’t have time nor the patience for dressing like a victorian crow all the time. This is pointless. Instead of buying everything black I’ve given a chance for other colors, like red and blown. My house is far from being a goth or medieval realm. Actually one would never guess a goth girl lives here, except for the witch dolls on my shelves: the walls are light yellow, the curtain almost white and there’s absolutely nothing indicating my tastes. I don’t usually hang band posters on the walls, though I had a few pictures of random bands a while ago, but it also said nothing about me enjoying the subculture. I joked a little on the title referring to batman because of my cousin. He mocks me every time he visits us by saying: I’m going up there in your bat cave”. I’d never take it as offense. I think it’s pretty cool since he’s a very religious guy.

People look forward decorating their houses to make it a cozy place, and I don’t see why it should be different with Goths. So I thought up a few ways you can decorate your sweet home to make it resemble your personality. Remember: Good sense is always a helpful tool, there is no point in turning your home into a satanist temple, alright?

Rugs, tapestries, curtains and such: always a good start

Instead of buying paraphernalia such as pumpkins, fake blood and spider webs (save them for when you throw a Halloween party), consider adding customized bed linen, curtains and rugs to your room. Victorian rugs are by far the easiest thing to find, since it’s a classical pattern and any good store should have it. For tapestries it might be a little harder, for you must order it from specific shops specialized in customization (unless you customize them yourself). The second option is obviously the cheapest but it requires talent. Bed linen is also a simple way of giving your room a quite elegant look. Overall vintage patterns are commonly seen in the goth subculture, specially polka dot and stripes - remember they're trendy right now. Red roses and skull linen would go perfectly well with red walls, but if you think red is way too heavy for a wall you can put only red victorian frames to match the linen. Either way is fine. 

I bought three black provencal framed portraits to hang on the wall but since I live in a rented apartment I’ll probably have to bring them to my family’s house, it’s not a good idea to make holes in the wall when the apartment is someone else’s, hehe. I found them for only $ 6 in a second hand shop I frequent. I personally love these frames because of their elegant and antique look, once you have a black and white picture of you on them it feels like you’re from another time^^. Mine are made of porcelain, but you can also find wooden frames in crafts stores.

This bedspread reminded me of Emilie Autumn, lol. 

These cushions are not at all hard to do it yourself. And again, these patterns are trendy nowadays so you should find them easily. All you will need is a sewing machine, some meters of lace, the fabric, something to fill the cushion and a few pattern pieces for cutting the fabric correctly. Depending on the shape of the cushion you must draw either a circle or a square on the paper, as simple as that! 

Furniture, candles, skulls and paintings

If you have too little money even for the ideas given above there’s still something pretty cheap you can do. Buy wooden frames and paint the borders yourself, then google for artists whose works fall within the scope of goth. I can name a few ones: Mark Ryden, Jessicka Addams, Natalie Shau, Kukula… the list could go on forever (nah). The ideia here is to print your favorite pictures and hang them on the wall using your newest customized frames. Old clocks are also a good alternative and are among the stuff we find in attics.  We goths love candles, antique dolls, skulls and this sort of creepy stuff, don't we? On this post Gothic Furniture I uploaded a few images of what might look great for our bat cave. 

Gothic decorations are typically arranged with antique furniture. Like I said before: vintage is trendy nowadays which means you can get them for lower prices. The industry has been manufacturing furniture inspired in old centuries though the quality of the wood is not the same. At least you can get an old-fashioned bookshelf customized in different colors. I would personally recommend black, red or purple.

In the city where I’m currently living there’s a point where second hand shops of all sorts are located, so I’ll usually hang around over there whenever I’m shopping for clothes. I remember passing in front of a store that was selling a victorian purple sofa.I didn’t dare to ask for the price but it really caught by attention. I just wondered where it had come from, who had owned it and why the hell they were getting rid of such precious thing!

If you want to "goth" the rest of your home this tissue holder might be interesting:

Haha this is great.