Do-It-Yourself: Creating Metallic Pumpkin
Difficulty Rating: Easy
Time investment: ~ 1 hour
Enliven your autumn decor with some gorgeous metallic pumpkins! This DIY project is perfect for beginners, but so gorgeous the pros will also love it. Bring a chic, modern twist to your table and provide an instant conversation starter with “Oh these cute little pumpkins? I made them!”
Follow our easy photo tutorial to make your own gilded pumpkins, perfect for decorating your doorstep or dazzling your tablescape! (Don’t forget, our black & white striped tablecloth is perfect for your Halloween decor.)
Here’s what you’ll need:
• Pumpkins Real or faux; make sure your faux has an acrylic finish, stay away from styrofoam
• Metallic Spray Paint We used gold and silver
• Thumbtacks A 100 pack fit our large pumpkin and two small pumpkins
• Acrylic Paint (optional)
• Sponge brush (optional)
Step 1: Embellish
First decide what type of pattern you’d like on your pumpkins and try to pre-visualize it. We wanted to go an easy route, so we chose to do a singular stripe down the middle of each rind indent. Starting at the top of the pumpkins near the stem, insert one thumbtack and continue the stripe downwards. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect – that’s part of the charm of DIY decor projects!
Step 2: Paint
Wipe down the pumpkin surface with a dry cloth. Then, start with spray painting. For those unaccustomed to spray painting, do it in a well-ventilated area with a covered surface. Cardboard, poster board, newspaper, and tarps all work well and won’t stick to pumpkins. You can start spraying about ten inches away. Then gradually move closer to find the right range for a light coat. Once the first coat is on, move a bit closer and do a second coat. Repeat until you achieve thoroughly metallic decor for pumpkin. Avoid spray-painting too close as in an inch or two. It will produce harsh paint drips going down the pumpkins.
Note: Be mindful of what artificial pumpkins are made of. We made the mistake of using Styrofoam during the first go of this project. The spray paint dissolved. It looked more like a dinosaur egg than a pumpkin at the end of it. Although it made an interesting texture, we wouldn’t recommend it. Be sure your faux pumpkin has an acrylic overcoat. We picked our pumpkins up for a total of $10 at Target.
Step 3: Wait
We ended up doing three coats of paint in 24 hours on each pumpkin, so be sure to re-evaluate your pumpkins every few hours once they have had a chance to dry from the previous coat.
Step 4: Decorate!
Once your gorgeous decoration is finished, give your creations context. Set them against a black & white striped tablecloth with candles in metallic holders, or make a centerpiece with pine cones and dried moss to bring an extra autumn detail! You could even paint the stems with acrylic paint to give them extra interest.
Happy decorating! We’d love to see what you create, so if you make a pumpkin be sure to email us a photo! We can’t wait to see your black & white striped tablecloths in action with your new metallic pumpkin decor. 
The post DIY: Metallic Pumpkin Decor appeared first on CV Linens Design Blog.
