Fall Pumpkin Decor

Royal Inspiration

A few years ago I fell in absolute love with some checkered and harlequin patterned home decor items I’d seen. They repeatedly popped up on Pinterest and home shopping channels. I knew I had to try my hand at creating my own version of similar pieces. I just wasn’t willing to pay the amount that these beautiful items cost.

Getting Started

Since it happened to be fall at that time, I settled on some indoor/outdoor faux pumpkins from my local Michael’s craft store to kick off this project. Luckily, they were on sale. Rarely do I pay full price for anything. These particular pumpkins were, I believe, somewhere around 50% off.

Going in, I didn’t have particularly high expectations for my “royal-feeling” pumpkins. Tackling straight lines with paint brushes is far from my idea of a good time, and the spherical curves of a pumpkin’s surface seemed like a nightmare in the making. But in the true fashion of a hopeless crafter…I dove right in…head first.

Michael’s had a couple large wire crates full of orange, white, and aqua blue pumpkins in a selection of sizes. The three I chose were between 7 and 9 inches tall and from about 6.5 to 9 inches wide. Not thinking it through, I bought the orange ones. This would not happen again. I had to apply far too many layers of white and then cream (my ultimate base color) acrylic paint. That took a lot of paint. I knew that if I were to try this project again, I’d definitely start with the pumpkins that came in white.

In an all-too-familiar fashion (for me, anyway) I jumped right in thinking I could freehand a checkered pattern on one pumpkin and a harlequin pattern on another. Any inspiration for the third pumpkin would have to come later. The free-handing failed. Keeping lines remotely aesthetically pleasing on a curved surface is a lesson in torture. My solution , or so I thought, was to design a harlequin stencil using my Cricut Air and Design Space. This was yet another nightmare! There is no easy way to attach a self-adhesive stencil to a spherical object with uneven and tapering humps. In a few rare places I thought good adhesion had been achieved. Unfortunately paint still made its way underneath the stencil edges.

Cue the tears…and an extensive break in ALL craft-related activities!

Making It Work

Attempt #3 was to measure the circumference of the pumpkin at its largest point (the belly) and then to figure out the size of the diamonds I was hoping to produce and how many would fit. Since math and geometry are my kryptonite, it required multiple tweaks to establish what I would use for a center row.

To apply this initial ring of harlequins/diamonds, I created a grid on a piece of construction paper and stretched it around the pumpkin along my center line. So, around the belly of this thing, I began gently poking a toothpick into the four points of each diamond to leave indentations in the pumpkin.

At this point, I realized that this ring of diamonds in my harlequin pattern was going to consist of the largest, most symmetrical individual diamonds on my pumpkin. Every subsequent ring of diamond shapes (both above and below this line) would have to be altered to address the shrinking circumference of the pumpkin’s sphere. But, at least, I had a good start.

Don’t Give Up

Now I have my anchor ring of diamonds/harlequins to work from creating higher and lower rings. I tried to keep every ring the same vertical size or height. So, to get another row/ring, I measured the appropriate distance up or down (depending on whether I was working above or below my anchor ring) from a diamond middle dot in my anchor ring. Holding a toothpick, I estimated a visual center point between the two previous diamond tips below or above (depending on whether I was working above or below my anchor ring) which would serve as the middle (top or bottom) dots for my new ring of diamonds. I pressed new indentions for diamond upper and lower tips using this method.

These diamonds were slightly narrower making them appear almost elongated toward the top of the pumpkin in rows above the anchor ring. By the same token, the diamonds in rings below the anchor ring are narrower appearing to be elongated toward the bottom of the pumpkin.

Now I had a cream-colored pumpkin with a whole lot of indented dots covering its surface. To give myself guidelines for painting, I used a pencil to lightly connect the dots creating more a more visual line of diamonds. The edge of a piece of construction paper was very helpful in getting straight lines from one dot to another. Now the pumpkin was covered with diagonal gridlines. It was at this point that I tried using painter’s tape to achieve perfectly straight lines with black paint. This worked to some degree, but still left imperfect lines requiring some meticulously tedious hand-painting.

I painted alternating rings with black acrylic paint. And “Voila!” A harlequin pumpkin was taking shape before my eyes. It was not exactly beautiful or even neatly-done, at the point, however. It literally took hours upon hours of repainting lines in an attempt to get them acceptably straight. Eventually, I got them to a point at which I felt I could stop and just accept a few imperfections.

To add a bit of depth to the pattern, I added a touch of metallic gold paint to the connecting harlequin points. I also painted the pumpkin stem black and added the gold paint to its grooves in haphazard dry brushing strokes.

Keep ‘Em Around a While

After allowing a couple days for the paint to dry and cure, I clear-coated the pumpkin with a UV clear coat spray. I used KRYLON UV-Resistant Clear Acrylic Coating. I applied three coats allowing each coat to fully dry before adding the next. My pumpkins have survived three fall seasons as outdoor decorations. I do, however, recommend applying an additional coat of the UV Clear Coat at the beginning of each fall.

Check It Out

My second pumpkin in the set of three was painted in a checker board or checkered pattern using a similar method of application as the harlequin pumpkin. For this one I used a seamstress’ tape measure to mark my vertical lines. For the horizontal lines I held a ruler next to my pumpkin. With a pencil taped to the ruler at two inch intervals, I spun the pumpkin around to get my marks.

A Touch of Style

The third pumpkin was my wildcard. Since my granddaughters were obsessed with leopard print clothing, I decided to add a touch of animal print to my fall decor. The shorter pumpkins in my set seemed the perfect place to do this. Finally, to personalize the set, I painted an initial “T” inside a decorative frame.

I won’t lie and say I had a blast creating this bit of fall decor, but I can say that I couldn’t have been more pleased with the finished product. I absolutely love my fall pumpkin set!