DIY Pumpkin Decor: Painted Paper Mache Pumpkins

Happy almost fall, friends! I can’t believe it is nearly here! I just love September. The weather is finally cooler, and decorating for fall is my favorite! I thought this year I would try something new with my fall decorations. I decided to do a little decorative painting on paper mache pumpkins. I just love how this DIY pumpkin decor turned out!

Because my living room is decorated in shades of blues and greens, I went with a cooler color pallete. You can use this same technique with whatever colors you want! A traditional fall color palette of oranges and reds would look great too!

Painted DIY Pumpkin Decor Supplies:

Darice Paper Mache Pumkins
White Chalk Paint
Craft Paint (in your choice of colors)
Darice Paint Brushes

To get started with your DIY pumpkin decor, first base coat your pumpkins in white paint. I used chalk paint as the flat finish makes it a great primer, and it dries very quickly.

Using a small paint brush, load the paint brush with one of your palette colors. Then dip it in a secondary color, and place a brush stroke on your pumpkin. Repeat this process several times to create a leaf or flower.

There is no right or wrong way to do this technique, and it may help to first practice on paper.

By dipping your paint in different colors each time you get a really fun whimsical look to your leaves.

Once my paint was dry, I went back with the tip of my paintbrush and dotted a few of the leaves for variety. If you look up close, my painting certainly isn’t perfect. That’s what I love about this technique, it’s really hard to do it wrong!

Since I painted three pumpkins, I did the middle one slightly different by adding a little more yellow to my palette. Mix it up however you want to!

You could also use different sized pumpkins, and not do them all the same. My DIY pumpkin decor will eventually go on my mantle. I liked the look of them all being the same size since they will be displayed with other decor.