The American House Dresses for October in Nineteenth-Century Black

Decorators say this Halloween's front halls and parlors will look back to the Victorian era, with dark, formal touches and the drama of an old family home. Artificial cobwebs are also on their short list for the season, draped where real ones would never be allowed to stay. The forecast runs to seven looks in all, a sign that the holiday now gets the same design attention as the dinner table in December. For a house with good bones, from a Palm Beach Mediterranean to a Hamptons shingle cottage, October is one more occasion to show them off.

With reporting from Veranda.