Spray Painted Pumpkins for Thanksgiving Table Decor

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Last year I saw a killer deal on a handful of faux pumpkins. I wasn’t a fan of the color, but I swooped them up because I know that changing the color of almost any decor is a simple as a can of spray paint.

Typically I’d grab a can of a my favorite Krylon Fusion All-In-One color or maybe some chalk paint, but this time, I wanted to try something different. Rather than a color, I wanted to add some texture. I wanted to make these pumpkins look like they were made of stone.

Krylon has a handful of different stone-textured spray paints. I tried out both a fine finish and a course finish on these pumpkins.

Alright, let’s start DIYing!

How to Spray Paint Pumpkins

New to DIY? Download our free 5 Steps to Getting Start with DIY guide!

STEP 1: REMOVE THE STEMS

To remove the stems on our pumpkins, I simply twisted them until they came out. A few of the small ones broke when I tried to take them out, but that’s okay – I’ll just superglue them back on at the end.

If your stems don’t come out, you can tape them with painter’s tape instead.

STEP 2: PREP YOUR PUMPKINS

My favorite thing about Krylon spray paints is that they require minimal prep work. I wiped off my pumpkins to make sure they were free of dust, but other than that, I was pretty much good to go.

Note: if using the coarse stone finish and are trying to drastically change the color, you might want to prime or apply a base coat of a color similar to the stone finish you chose. The coarse stone spray paint releases paint differently than other spray paints (I’ll show you in a minute), but that can make it hard to completely cover up a color that’s drastically different.

If you have some really small pumpkins like we did, the force of the spray paint will be enough to blow them right over. To help keep them in place while spray painting, loop a piece of painter’s tape and attach it to the table and to the bottom of the pumpkin.

STEP 3: SPRAY PAINT

Whenever you’re spray painting, there are two key things to keep in mind: always shake your spray paint can before starting and apply multiple thin coats instead of trying to apply one thick coat.

Let’s start with the Krylon Fine Stone Textured Finish in Limestone.

There is no required dry time between coats, which makes this spray paint super quick to apply.

We covered each pumpkin in 3 thin coats. This was enough for us to hit every angle and get in all the nooks and crannies.

We started by spraying one pumpkin and then worked our way around from pumpkin to pumpkin. Once I finished the last pumpkin, I immediately looped back to the first pumpkin to apply the next coat.

If a pumpkin looked a little wet when I got back around to it, I knew I likely sprayed a little too thick of a coat previously. I skipped any pumpkins that looked wet and then came back around to them once they looked dry.

Overall, it took less than 5 minutes to cover all of the pumpkins with 3 coats of spray paint.

Since the pumpkins weren’t lifted off the table, I wasn’t able to get to the bottom side. I waited 24 hours before flipping the pumpkins over to spray paint the bottom.

24 hours is Krylon’s recommended dry to handle time, so since I have to tape the super small pumpkins to the table, I wanted to make sure the paint was fully cured before flipping them over and taping them.

Once I flipped them over, I repeated the process, spraying 3 coats on each pumpkin.

Overall, I used 1.5 cans of the Limestone finish to fully cover my pumpkins.

Now let’s talk about the Krylon Coarse Stone Textured Finish in White Onyx spray paint.

The first time you use this spray paint, you’ll be amazed how different it seems than typical spray paints. It almost feels like you’re shooting silly string!

Below is what my first coat looked like. You can see that the coverage is completely different than other spray paints. Instead of an even coat that’s still a little transparent, the first coat of the Coarse Stone Textured spray paint is more sporadic by design.

You might be tempted to continue spraying until you cover more of the surface, but don’t. This spray paint was designed to be applied in layers. If you continue spraying, you’ll actually spray off some of the texture that you already put on there.

Spray a coat, then wait the full 15 minutes for it to dry before adding another coat. We did 3 coats on most areas, and 4 coats in a few additional spots.

Overall, we used one can of the Coarse Texture paint to cover the pumpkins that we sprayed.

Note: if your pumpkins are going to live outside or be exposed to any sort of water, I’d recommend sealing them with Krylon Clear Sealer once you’re finished. Since ours are just going to be table decor, we didn’t seal them.

STEP 4: ADD THE STEMS

Once your spray paint is fully dry (we waited 24 hours), you can add your stems back in. If any of your stems broke off when you tried to remove them, use a dab of super glue to secure them back in place.

STEP 5: DISPLAY YOUR PUMPKINS

We spray-painted these pumpkins to use as decor for our Thanksgiving table. This year we kept things simple by using just 3 things for decor.

First, we added a few candlesticks. Candles are always a good idea when it comes to table decor. Not only do they add some ambiance, but they also add some much-needed height.

Then we added some preserved eucalyptus stems to the middle of the table. Instead of a traditional green, we opted for a beautiful burgundy color that just screams Fall.

Finally, we added in our pumpkins. I placed all the larger ones first and then sprinkled in the smaller pumpkins. The stone texture makes them look so elegant!

There you have it! Now you know how to take some foam pumpkins and turn them into stone pumpkins! You can use this same technique to spray paint pumpkins any color you like. We actually followed this same process and used Krylon Fusion All-In-One for several larger pumpkins that we used on my mom’s front porch. It’s a great way to make mismatched pumpkins look like a cohesive set.

For more inexpensive and impressive home decor projects, check out these other spray paint ideas!