31 Pumpkin Decorating Ideas To Make This Fall

Pumpkin decorating ideas do not have to mean a carved face and a candle. Pumpkins make some of the best DIY home decor for autumn, and the ones here run in two directions: cute Halloween pumpkin ideas in soft paint, polka dots and faux milk glass, and scary pumpkins for anyone whose porch is meant to make the neighbors walk faster. Try them on the front porch, as a table centerpiece, and for creative decor around your home. Easy to make when you follow the step by step tutorials, you can make succulent crafts, polka dotted pumpkins and even faux milk glass creations to accent your vintage, country home decor.

Pumpkin Decorating Ideas for Fall Decor

1. Pumpkin Succulent Harvest Decoration

simplyhappenstance

2. Mini Pumpkin Vases With Fresh Flowers

diycandy

Real mini pumpkins hollowed out and holding a grocery store bouquet. You cut a circle around the stem the size of a votive holder, scoop the seeds out (save them for roasting, that part is free), press soaked floral foam into the little glass jar and slip the whole thing down inside the pumpkin. That jar is the entire trick, because the flower water never touches the pumpkin and you get a lot longer than the two weeks these last otherwise. Size up to a full pumpkin and the only thing that really changes is the jar, so trace the new one on the pumpkin before you cut, because a hole cut too big isn’t a hole you can uncut.

3. Baking Soda Textured Painted Pumpkins

thecountrychiccottage

Stir baking soda into craft paint and it stops behaving like paint and starts looking like stone. About 2 teaspoons of baking soda into 1 tablespoon of paint gives you real grit, and you can add more if you want more, just know it goes thick on you fast. A faux pumpkin will take a few coats with drying time in between, which is where I get on my soapbox: never buy bargain paint. It has less pigment and more filler, so you keep adding coats and it still looks patchy.

4. Copper Pumpkin Fall Centerpiece

uptodateinteriors

5. DIY Gold Leaf Dipped Pumpkin

erinspain

A real pumpkin, dipped on the diagonal in actual gold leaf. You tape the line off with painter’s tape (stand the pumpkin upside down on the tape roll to hold it still, one of those tips you feel silly for not thinking of), brush gilding adhesive below the tape and wait until it goes from white to clear and tacky before the leaf touches it. I have owned every adhesive on the planet, and this is one of those projects where the adhesive is the project, so do not rush that tacky stage. A dry brush buffs the extra away and you can patch any thin spots after, which makes it far more forgiving than it looks.

6. Gold Leaf Painted Pumpkin Makeovers

salvagedinspirations

Cream chalk paint first, gold leaf second and dollar store pumpkins underneath the whole thing. The clever part is the glue: brush Mod Podge on solid where you want full coverage and stipple it where you want broken flakes, so the gold falls apart on purpose instead of you trying to fake it later. This is the project I would practice on before I took gold leaf anywhere near a dresser, and I have done enough furniture makeovers to say that with some feeling.

7. DIY Gold Confetti Pumpkins

homeyohmy

8. Sweater Style Farmhouse Pumpkins

DIY Joy

These sweater style farmhouse pumpkins bring the coziest neutral texture to your fall decor. You slip soft upcycled sweater fabric over pumpkin forms, cinch the tops, and add a twig stem for that gathered from the patch look. They are warm, tactile, and perfect clustered on a mantel or console for the season. Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.

9. DIY Faux Terracotta Pumpkins

thenavagepatch

A plastic pumpkin that ends up looking like it came from the garden center instead of the seasonal aisle. You mix orange and yellow paint at about 1.5 to 1, stir in baking soda until it’s thick, brush it on in long up and down strokes, then dust flour over the still damp paint (yes, flour, out of your own cabinet). Seal it with spray fixatif rather than acrylic sealer, because acrylic wipes the flour right back off, and keep these indoors since they aren’t porch pumpkins. I have made my own chalk paint and it still never occurred to me to reach for the flour jar, which is exactly the kind of trick I love finding.

10. Framed Fall Pumpkins

craftaholicsanonymous

11. DIY Glitter Pumpkin Votive Holder

diyjoy

12. Chalk Paint Pumpkins

perfectlyimperfectblog

13. Pottery Barn Inspired Mercury Mirror Grout Pumpkins

tatertotsandjello

14. Gold Glitter And Grout Pumpkins

tatertotsandjello

15. Gold Thumbtack Polka Dot Pumpkins

ohsolovelyblog

Brass thumbtacks pushed into a pumpkin in a loose polka dot pattern, which is about as no carve as decorating gets. Spray paint the pumpkin first and let it dry all the way (coral against gold tacks is unexpected and it works), then press tacks in wherever the spacing looks right to you. Push each one all the way flush or they sit proud and catch on everything, and that is genuinely the only way to get this wrong. It works on a real pumpkin or a faux one, and the faux one comes back out of the box next fall.

16. Splatter Paint Mini Pumpkins

onelittleproject

Thin a few acrylic colors with a drop or two of water, then flick them at a white pumpkin with a brush and your finger until it is covered in confetti. These are the pumpkin decorations for fall that kids can actually help with, and I have volunteered to bring a group craft to an event many times, so trust me that the messy ones are the ones they remember. Lay newspaper down first, wear something you do not care about and let a few mini ones dry inside a glass hurricane for a centerpiece nobody sees coming.

17. Gold Glitter Monogram Pumpkin

unoriginalmom

One big gold glitter initial on a white craft pumpkin, and the whole thing takes about 20 minutes. You cut the letter out of a sheet of double sided adhesive, press it down into the grooves of the pumpkin as you smooth it across, peel the top layer off and pour glitter straight onto the sticky letter. A cutting machine makes quick work of it, but a printed letter and an X-Acto knife do the same job. Do the glitter part over a bin unless you want gold in your floorboards until Christmas.

18. DIY Dry Brushed Chalk Painted Pumpkins

andersonandgrant

19. DIY Faux Milk Glass Pumpkins

sweetcsdesigns

20. DIY Confetti Pumpkin

thecraftedlife

21. Vintage Doorknob Pumpkins

findinghomefarms

22. DIY Marquee Light Letter Pumpkins

karaspartyideas

24. DIY Dropcloth Driftwood Petite White Pumpkins

cityfarmhouse

23. Lace Pumpkin DIY

vintageprettypearl

24. Pumpkin Door Hanger

smartschoolhouse

25. Turquoise Rhinestone Pumpkins

danslelakehouse

Paint a mini pumpkin turquoise, then bedazzle it, which is not a sentence I expected to write about fall decor. Stick on rhinestones do all the work here, so there is no carving, no glue gun and no drying time past the paint. I know almost every aisle at Michaels because I have tried almost everything in them, so take this from me: buy the gems that come in strips as well as the loose ones, because a strip gives you an even line without any measuring.

26. Fall Flower Pumpkin Centerpiece

delineateyourdwelling

A real pumpkin turned into a flower holder, no vase and no water hiding anywhere. You drill holes straight through the pumpkin wall, matching the bit to your stems (zinnias get thick right under the bloom, so size up for those), then push the cut flowers in one at a time, keeping them in water until the last possible second. Give backyard blooms a little shake first so the ladybugs stay outside where they belong. Flower arranging isn’t a skill I can claim, but I can tell you the cosmos give you about two days and the zinnias hold on much longer, so photograph it the day you make it, which is my advice on everything you make.

27. Faux Pumpkin Aged With Paint

divaofdiy

28. Glitter Pumpkin Candle Holder

DIY Joy

This glitter pumpkin candle holder adds just the right amount of glam to a fall table. You coat a pumpkin form in glitter and hollow it to cradle a candle, so it glows beautifully once lit. It is a quick, sparkly project that dresses up a centerpiece in no time. Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.

29. Decoupage Pumpkins

confessionsofaplateaddict

30. Yarn Wrapped Pumpkins

twoshadesofpink

31. DIY Rope Pumpkin

DIY Joy

This rustic rope pumpkin is a farmhouse favorite that costs almost nothing to make. You coil sturdy rope into a rounded pumpkin shape, gluing as you go, and finish with a stem and a little greenery. It is a charming, textural piece of fall decor that looks great on a shelf or porch. Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.