I was bored this week, so I decided to try and make some fun pumpkins for our fall décor. I had a few of these fake pumpkins in the basement (for those who follow me, you know I have SO MUCH STUFF stashed in my basement or shed!) So here’s a fun little project that you can do with your own faux pumpkins and turn them into something way more stylish!

this site contains affiliate links which may earn me a small commission but does not increase your price

Faux Pumpkins

Before & after

For this project, you’ll need the following supplies:

fake pumpkin
Glidden Gripper paint from Home Depot
Thinset Set 2 from Home Depot
chip brushes
drop cloth, old newpaper or my favorite, shower curtain from Dollar Tree!
paint can opener
disposable container for water

LET’S GET STARTED

So start by protecting your working surface. As I mentioned above I love using shower curtain liners from the Dollar Tree! You can use them over and over again, and because they are waterproof, your working area is protected and they fold up really small for storage.

brushing on Gripper

The first step is painting your pumpkin with the Gripper. This is a fantastic bonding primer that sticks to virtually everything. Just brush on one nice coat and let it dry completely. You might want to use an old spray can lid or something similar to set the pumpkin on or you can paint the bottom first, let dry, then paint the rest of the pumpkin, so the bottom doesn’t stick to the drop cloth. It usually takes about two hours.

TIP: wrap your brush in saran wrap tightly, so you don’t have to wash it out between doing coats. DO wash your brush out after you have completely painted the pumpkin (or throw it away, but I never throw away a brush, even if it’s beat up, cause I always have a use for these!)

applying thinset

Once the Gripper is dry, open your container of Thinset and have a small container of water handy. Dip your chip brush in the water, then dip into the Thinset. It might not seem to want to adhere to your brush, so keep smooshing your brush in there to pick some up, then slather this onto your pumpkin bottom first and let dry. (or skip doing the bottom, cause after all….who’s really gonna see the bottom! lol)

Once dry, repeat this step on the rest of the pumpkin… I like to make the brushing go up and down on the pumpkin in line with the ridges. Keep doing this until you get all the surface covered and let dry. It’s not gonna look perfect, but that’s ok….you’re going to do this step again. (after you do the first coat, just pop your brush in the container of water, covering the bristles! no need to wash between layers)

After you let the thinset dry completely, I’d give it an hour or two, then repeat this step again & let the pumpkin dry.