Muted DIY Pumpkin Hack Using Dollar Store Pumpkins

Turn your dollar store pumpkins into beautiful, muted green and beige ones with this DIY pumpkin hack.

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Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere. Once September hits, one can never have enough pumpkins in their home. Am I right?! 🙂 I wanted to keep my fall mantel elegant this year using mostly muted green and beige tons. I threw in some plum-colored berries, too.

I had all of the pumpkins in my fall decor stash, but they were all the wrong colors for the look I wanted to create on my mantel this year. Instead of buying new pumpkins, I used the ones I already had and painted them…again.

Last year I painted them white and silver. Here’s how they looked when I pulled them out of the bins:

The small pumpkins and medium pumpkins are from the dollar store. The large white pumpkin was handed down to me. When I received them, they were orange. That goes for the small and medium sized pumpkins, too. The medium sized pumpkin is actually made of styrofoam, so yes, it’s super cheap. I’ve had my small faux pumpkins and gourds for years. I also had the large pumpkins for a couple years.

Last year when I was arranging the pumpkins in a display, I needed something in between. That’s when I found the medium styrofoam pumpkins at the dollar store. They did the trick by providing me with the missing size I needed.

The colors weren’t quite right, but fortunately, a little paint can go a long way.

I bought two different paint colors from Michaels:

I used the Khaki color for some of pumpkins, but I knew the green would be a bit too dark. I couldn’t find the exact muted green tone I was looking for, so I mixed the two colors together, giving me the perfect muted green tone.

I ended up having to give each pumpkin two coats of paint.

The most important thing to remember when you’re painting is to let the first coat of paint dry completely before applying the second coat of paint.

I also painted each stem a dark brown/gray color to give it a more realistic look. Fortunately I had some leftover paint that was the perfect color for the stem. Any dark brown or gray paint will work.

Once they dried completely, I got to do the fun part: decorate!