Woman ‘obsessed’ with Nightmare Before Christmas spends £5,000 making her home creepy in black and white all year round

A Welsh woman has spent more than £5,000 to make her home look incredibly creepy in black and white all year round – adding some orange pumpkins at Halloween and spooky trees for Christmas.

Liz Borg, 32, is a full-time travel agent from Barry in Wales, but uses her two days off a week to pursue her love for eerie decor, decking her house in cobwebs, skulls and skeletons.

Sharing her three-bedroom home with partner Chris Bielfki, 32, a digital printer, and their dog Benji, a three-year-old Chihuahua and Jack Russell cross, she enjoys her monochrome decorations 365 days a year.

Liz said: “Even though it sounds really funny, I’ve got creepy decor that’s around all year and then specifically orange things that come up just for Halloween.

“The Halloween bits are pumpkins or things in orange or fall colours.

“Everything else that fits with my black and white monochrome aesthetic stays out the rest of the year, like witchy bits, ghosts, cobwebs, skulls, skeletons.”

She added: “It’s everything from bedding to kitchen plates, cutlery to chopping boards – I’ve probably spent £5,000 over the last 10 years.”

“Obsessed” with the movie Nightmare Before Christmas since she was 12, Liz began seriously collecting her eerie decor 10 years ago – and Chris, her partner of more than 13 years since they met working at a pub together, has gone along with it all.

And there’s a lot for him to live with. Liz and Chris’s bedroom stays spooky all year round with its skull-themed duvet cover and pillowcases.

Meanwhile Liz’s monochrome dressing room is “100% covered with decorations” and sees her personality and love for Nightmare Before Christmas spill into every corner, with pieces like black furniture, skull candleholders, pictures with quotes like “Home Sweet Haunted Home” and ghost tealights.

There is also coffin-shaped shelving and walls decorated with cobwebs, bats and ghosts, while black and white wallpaper, featuring images inspired by the comedy horror movie Beetlejuice, is found around the fireplace.

The kitchen permanently features “90% creepy things” like skeleton-covered pasta containers, skull-shaped salt and pepper dispensers, a vampire clock, as well as cobweb and skeleton covered cutting boards.

Then for Halloween, Liz temporarily brings out her 40 pumpkin decorations alongside orange – and quite a few black – spiders, bats and skulls, to decorate the whole house before taking them down after October 31.

“I have an awful lot of pumpkins now and I need to stop buying them – there’s only so much room for pumpkins,” she admitted.

But monochrome is her first love and she said: “Black and white are my favourite colours. I don’t know why, but I feel silly saying that to people sometimes.

“As I’m getting older, I’m starting to realise that you’re only here once so you may as well do the things that make you happy.

“And a home should be a reflection of yourself and your personality. It’s somewhere where you should feel safe and comfortable, and I feel comfortable when I have all my decorations around me.”

At Christmas, Liz certainly doesn’t hold back either – putting up her five trees all with different themes.

She said: “The first tree is black and white and all spooky, which goes up in the office around Halloween and stays until Christmas. It has handmade decorations like skulls on it.

“I also have a traditional tree in red, green and gold in the living room with a little train underneath.

“In the kitchen, I have a gingerbread-themed one, a Harry Potter-themed one in the dining room and a Nightmare Before Christmas-themed one in my dressing room.”

Liz remembers her decorating journey beginning when she was 19, when she and Chris moved into their first home together.

“I always loved making a home but making it different and quirky. Me and my partner Chris had our first flat and I started decorating a little bit for Halloween but put everything away straight after,” she said.

“Slowly, I kept things out every year that I thought would look nice all year and it started from there.”

She added: “Usually my partner wouldn’t notice for a while and when he did, I would just say ‘it’s been there a while’ and keep it there.”

10 years ago, aged 22, she started her collection, which she says now includes more than a thousand pieces.

She said: “Once we moved into our first house four years ago, I needed things to fill it and make it mine. So every Halloween when bits came out, I would need more and more to fill empty spaces – and would keep the ones out that match my monochrome style.”

She added: “My partner is on board with my decorations but sometimes I will pick up something like a skull or a Raven and go ‘oh that’s so cute’ and he’d say only I would find this cute.

“I started my Instagram account in 2018 and showed pictures of my home and the decorations there and people loved it – that’s when I realised there are other people like me that love Halloween and decorate their house all year.”

In July 2021, she started a shop, HomeSpookyHome, for followers who wanted to emulate her creepy look, and now spends her lunch breaks and nearly all her spare time shipping orders.

“People started asking if I’d take commissions for my handmade decorations and I realised that a lot of people enjoyed the same things I liked, so I wanted to open the shop,” she said.

“It’s also hard to get American decorations here, as often the shipping costs more than the actual decoration. With my shop, I can order in bulk and make amazing decorations like that accessible for people in the UK.”

To find Liz’s creepy shop, visit: www.homespookyhomeware.co.uk