Painted Pumpkins

While planning a Fall table setting in our dining room I wanted pumpkins to match the decor in there, which is basically neutral.  My neutral lovin' heart really enjoys the fact that there are a variety of different colors and tones of pumpkins available these days.

I have nothing against the typical colors of fall, or orange pumpkins, and I've used them for my Fall decor in the past.  This year however, my preference was to use lighter colored more neutral pumpkins, in our dining room.  I found some little creamy white pumpkins at the grocery and I just love them, they are the sweetest things, they're called "baby boo pumpkins."  I looked for some larger pumpkins of that color, but didn't find any at the time.  

A visit to a couple craft stores for artificial cream or white pumpkins, led to finding some that were larger than I'd wanted, and they just didn't have the look or feel I was going for.  My 'plan b' would be to just paint some pumpkins instead.  I've had great success with painting some little artificial pumpkins before, so I decided I'd do that.  I wanted to share how easy it is to paint pumpkins.

I found a pair of the perfect sized pumpkins at HobbyLobby and with the forty-percent off Fall sale, they were very reasonable.  Plus I liked their un-perfect shape and the stems were quite real looking too.

My finished pumpkins were just perfect.  The end result was exactly what I had in mind!  Chalk paint and a little of my time spent painting one afternoon was all it took.

The pumpkins started out looking like this one pictured above.  They're not bad or ugly, or anything, I just wanted a different color instead.  This burnt orange color is actually a beautiful color.  I felt a little guilt at the thought of painting them, well maybe for a only moment, since I had envisioned them with a different beautiful look after painting them!

The paint I used is DecoArt-Americana Decor chalk paint, the color Timeless.  It's a dreamy color if you ask me!  I applied the paint using a painting sponge/brush, and then used an artist brush to paint around the stem so I could get nice and close to it.

I had just begun to paint and got to thinking about painting the bottom of the pumpkin, and how I would have to wait for the top to dry first before turning the pumpkin over when dry to then paint the bottom.  I quickly tied on a nice length of jute twine to the stem and figured I could paint the whole pumpkin all at once while holding the pumpkin by the stem...

...and by simply having tied the twine to my cabinet door it could then hang as it dried.  It worked well and I was quite pleased with my great idea!  I do amaze myself sometimes ...as well as amuse!

After the first coat was applied on one pumpkin, I started on another that I'd also hung from a nearby cabinet.  I applied two coats of chalk paint on each, with dry time between the coats, which was only about a half an hour.

And, here is one after the second coat of paint, and while drying.  After the pumpkins were dry they were exactly what I had wanted, the color was perfect! 

I couldn't be happier with the results after painting the pumpkins.  It was so easy, and quick to change the look of them.  I love chalk paint, it is magical!  I decided they were perfect as is.  I didn't do anything further to them.  I didn't use any wax or other layers of paint color, as I have in the past when painting other pumpkins.

Here's a peek at the painted pumpkins on our dining room table.  The color really is so perfect!  I can't wait to complete my table setting.   

I'll be sharing more on that soon!...