Silver Painted Pumpkins, Halloween Decor options

The steps below follow the order of the work for this holidays project.

Over at Nice Girl Notes she made some striking silver painted pumpkins, that I absolutely had to share because who doesn’t love fall and Halloween?   The Pottery Barn catalog is like crack. No, like an abusive boyfriend. (I told you I was bad at metaphors.) I love Pottery Barn, but it doesn’t love me back. I legitimately get angry if they bump me off their mailing list for going longer than three months without purchasing something. It’s simultaneously sad and pathetic. I sing their praises, but they’re not well fitted. Their prices and shipping costs can be cruel and bitter. (Oh, but I do love the words “Out for delivery,” don’t you? I love you, UPS. I do!) I made this Pottery Barn Kids knockoff, but wanted to try something from the Big Kids store. Fall’s coming, and I’m faced with a decorating predicament. I’m a creature of habit. My entire house is bathed in lattes, browns, whites, reds, and blues. I’m predictable. And patriotic, apparently. Fall is full of orange. Full of it. Orange pumpkins, orange leaves, orange candy corn, orange Oompa Loompa faces. Orange doesn’t fit here. I was surfing the PB site, and I fell in love with these: They’re $24 a piece, but they’re actually pretty small. At six inches in diameter, you’d probably have to buy the three as a set. One small, solitary pumpkin would seem a little disjointed in my living room. So, I thought I’d try to copy it. 1) Acquire some pumpkins. The orange and white ones are foam. The other two are ceramic. 2) Spray paint the acquired pumpkins. I did a coat of white paint first, to act as a blank canvas for the good stuff. Better already. 3) Spray a coat of silver paint. I actually did this while the white paint was still wet. I wanted the white paint to “move around” a little bit and give the pumpkins some texture. It worked, I think, although it’s hard to tell from these pictures. My original plan was to cover them with silver foil leaf to add a little depth, but I liked them so much that I skipped that step. I’m actually digging silver these days. When we first bought our home, I was all about the oil-rubbed bronze. But, I think silver looks so fresh and bright. And I especially like it with white. So I played around with some options. Like them? Materials for making six silver pumpkins totaled at $10. Three at Pottery Barn cost $72. I win this match, PB. I win. Oh, did you catch that hurricane candle holder accompanying my blingy pumpkins? That’s another Pottery Barn Knockoff.  Check it out here.  It’s still very much summer here, so I’m packing these decorations until… um, when? Where’s the Emily Post of decorating etiquette? I’ll at least wait until Labor Day to put fall stuff out. I think. How lovely those silver painted pumpkins look!   Very classy! What do you think?