DIY Faux Stone-Look Painted Pumpkins
Looking to elevate your fall decor on a budget? Those cheap (and ugly) pumpkins can be easily transformed into chic, stone-look painted pumpkins with just a bit of effort! It’s a quick project that adds a touch of sophistication to your seasonal setup. Here’s how to get started!
When I start thinking about DIY fall decor, one of the first things that crosses my mind is painting some faux pumpkins. Pumpkins are an obvious choice for fall decor, and when you don’t want to spend the big bucks on pumpkins that already look great, painted pumpkins are a great choice. I snagged some (pretty ugly) faux pumpkins from Walmart recently and gave them a faux stone look with just a little bit of paint. It was SO quick and easy, and today I’m sharing how I did it.
DIY Faux Stone-Look Painted Pumpkins
Video Tutorial
Materials Needed
- Faux pumpkins (I used a variety of these, but anything will do!)
- Paint (I used Laurel Garland by Behr, mixed with some dark gray to deepen it)
- White paint
- Paintbrush
- A paper towel
- Brown + Black acrylic paint
Step One: Paint Your Pumpkins!
You can paint your pumpkins any color you want (obviously!), but I love to use a moody, muted color for this kind of project. That’s what fits in with the rest of my home decor the best, and I’m a big believer that you don’t have to use traditional fall colors for something to feel like fall! If it’s shaped like a pumpkin, it’s gonna feel fall-ish no matter what color it is.
I painted my pumpkins using my paint sprayer, but of course this isn’t necessary. It’s just a little easier to skip the paintbrush with all of those cracks and crevices! Of course, another great strategy is to simply use spray paint. I did that a few years back, and it looked great.
Whatever method and paint color you choose, be sure to get good coverage on them and allow the paint to dry fully before moving on to the next step. Depending on the material your pumpkins are made of, it might take a few coats of paint. Just remember that it’s always better to do multiple thin coats than one thick one!
Step Two: Add Marbled Effect
Once your painted pumpkins are dry, it’s time to add the stone-look effect. This actually wasn’t initially a part of my plan, but I wanted to add a little depth to them. When I first got started adding the marbled effect, I immediately hated it. But, I decided to push through and do it on one full pumpkin before I made a decision. And, surprise surprise, as soon as I finished I LOVED it. So, keep that in mind as you work – you might think it looks awful at first. Just keep going and trust the process!
To add the marbled effect, I just dipped a dry paintbrush in a tiny amount of white acrylic paint. I dabbed the excess off on a paper towel, then I started randomly dabbing it onto the pumpkin. Let me emphasize here: a little paint goes a very long way with this! I used a combination of dabbing the paint onto the pumpkin and slightly moving my brush to smear it a bit. Don’t overthink this! It’s a very artistic process.
As I finished a section of the pumpkin, I grabbed a paper towel and smeared the paint a little. You want it to be just barely there. It’ll take a little trial and error, but once you find your rhythm it’s incredibly simple. Keep going until you’re happy with it!
Step Three: Paint the Stems
An important reminder here: don’t leave the stems unpainted! It will shock you how much of a difference it makes to get those painted – it really elevates the entire thing.
The other thing I’ll recommend is to not paint them a straight brown. I tried this at first, and the color was far too stark and saturated against my moody green. Instead, mix some brown and black paint together to create a deeper, more muted tone. It looks far more realistic and lets them blend right in with the rest.
And that’s all there is to it! This was such a quick and easy project and I absolutely love how they turned out. These ugly little pumpkins have been transformed to something I would never display to something I’ll be thrilled to pull out year after year. And I spent less than $20 total on the pumpkins! Doesn’t get much better than that.