Make a bright-orange plastic craft pumpkin look more like a real pumpkin, by using acrylic paint to give it a more natural looking finish.

If you’re the crafty type, you can transform a carveable plastic craft pumpkin with acrylic paint. You can can easily make it look more like it came from a pumpkin patch than a craft store! All it takes is a bit of creative faux finishing. A Plastic Craft Pumpkin Makeover is a quick and easy way to make a piece of DIY fall décor.

Getting started

These bright orange craft pumpkins are available just about everywhere this time of year. You can find a wide variety of sizes and shapes online, at craft stores or even at dollar stores. If you don’t already have one on hand, just shop around for the best price to fit your budget.

This particular 9″ pumpkin was on hand from a previous project, that required cutting a wide lid in it. Leave the pumpkin intact or cut out a lid beforehand, depending on how you’re going to use it. Don’t worry if the pumpkin has dents, scuffs and scrapes-those will add to the more natural look you’re going for.

All you really need to get the finish are two or three bushes. You’ll need a wider one for spreading a base coat, and one or two brushes with shorter, stiffer bristles for spattering on additional colors. You could also use old toothbrushes for that part of the project.

Choose a neutral color for a base coat. I chose this Waverly chalk paint in Cashew as a base color. Really any matte finish acrylic paint will do for the base. Also, I used dark green and medium brown art acrylics that I already had on hand for the rest of the faux finishing. You can use any fine art or craft acrylics, as you will only need a little of each color. Select a shade of orange to paint the interior of the pumpkin if any of the inside will show.

You will also need a small mixing bowl for each color, and some paper towels or clean rags to get the finish.

Paint a convincing interior

If you’re leaving your pumpkin uncarved, skip this part!

Since a lid was cut on this pumpkin, part of the inside will show on my final project. I painted the entire inside of the lid, and painted close to halfway down in the bottom. And don’t forget to paint the “rind”! I would recommend painting the whole inside of the pumpkin if it is going to show. Note: once the paint is dry, the inside of the pumpkin is not food safe. It will be fine for holding wrapped candies, or ice if you’re going to chill drinks in it. But I wouldn’t recommend putting food directly in it, like using it as a punch bowl, for instance.

Prep your paint

Make a wash with your base color. Put a dab of paint in a mixing bowl, and add just a bit of water. A little bit of paint will go a long way. Mix the paint and water so that you have an opaque wash.

Applying the base coat

Apply the wash of milky paint with the wider brush to cover more surface on the pumpkin, including the stem. This base coat can be uneven or drippy. You have to be at peace with imperfection here. A real pumpkin won’t always have an even finish on it, so that adds to the look.

Buff

Once the base coat dies a bit-for say, ten minutes or so-you can buff the raised areas of the pumpkin with a slightly damp towel or rag. Leave plenty of the light wash in the grooves and low areas of the pumpkin.

This step is optional if you want more of the orange undertone to show through. Feel free to skip this step if you prefer the base coat as is.

Create spatter

Layering on one or two darker colors gives the pumpkin more of an authentic variegated color. A real pumpkin might sometimes have some beautiful dark green speckles on it, or some pretty brown “freckles” in its finish.

Make washes with your darker paint colors. These can be as transparent or opaque as you like. If you’ve never created this spatter effect before, use this art technique: Dip a stiffer bristled brush or toothbrush in the paint wash. Hold it close to the pumpkin in the area you want to spatter, but not touching the surface. Run your index finger or thumb along the bristles, so the wet paint sprays flecks onto the surface. Keep flicking on paint if you want a denser area of spatter. Repeat the process on different areas of the pumpkin. Note: apply one color and let it dry a few minutes, before adding another color. I started with a layer of the brown, then added the green about half an hour later. This keeps the colors from running together.

Dry and Display!

Now you have an artificial pumpkin that looks more like a real pumpkin!

Let the beautiful patina on your pumpkin cure up and dry for at least an hour before displaying or carrying on with any next steps of your project. If you want to preserve the finish on the pumpkin, you might want to spray it with a matte finish fixative like this Krylon UV Resistant Clear Acrylic Coating to protect the paint.

I am going to add a floral arrangement to this, so be sure to look for part 2 of this project soon.

For another fall decorating idea, take look at these Drip Glaze Pumpkins.