Make way for your fall decor! Natalie from A Ray of Sunlight is joining us today to show you how to modernize your fall decor with beautiful neutrals and cool tones like Vanilla Frosting, Jitterbug, Happy Hour, Liquorice, and Hollow Hill!

It's been chilly and wet all week, making it feel like fall a little bit earlier than we're used to. Chilly weather brings fall decorating and lot and lots of baking, so what better way to start than to grab a paint brush and cheap pumpkins!





I gathered these pumpkins from a few different places. The paper mache ones came from craft store last year, and the small white and green ones this year. I also picked up a couple of dollar store pumpkins and our yard selling adventures brought us the other. I'm sure you have some old pumpkins laying around, begging for a makeover this year.

I started by taking all of the stems off. I used quite an array of Country Chic Paints that I had on hand. The best part about Country Chic Paint is that the paint will adhere to almost anything! Simply just start painting! Wahoo!



For this project you'll need:

• Vanilla Frosting
• Jitterbug
• Happy Hour
• Liquorice
• Hollow Hill
• Foam Brushes
• Sticks and Twigs from our yard
• Hot Glue / Glue Gun

The white pumpkins just got a few coats of Vanilla Frosting. Super simple and easy.



The deep green pumpkins were first painted in Hollow Hill. When the paint was almost dry, I dry brushed Liquorice on, leaving Hollow Hill peaking through here and there. If you're not familiar with dry brushing, it's super simple! Basically, we just made sure there was a very very small amount of paint left on the brush before we started applying the paint. If you get too much paint on the brush, just dab it off on a paper towel before applying the paint. Super simple, but it gives a textured layer feel by letting the base color peak through.



For the tall light blue pumpkin I gave it a base coat of Happy Hour. Once that was dry, I painted a light stripe of Jitterbug in each crevice and then dry brushed Vanilla Frosting over everything.



And last but not least, my very favorite pumpkin, the layered, textured blue pumpkin got a base coat of Happy Hour and Jitterbug mixed. I used the brush that had been already been used for Happy Hour and dipped it into a little bit of Jitterbug. When I brushed it on, it left an uneven mixture of Happy Hour and Jitterbug. Once the base coat was dry, I lightly brushed on Vanilla Frosting, and then used a damp paper towel to wipe it off seconds later. This gave it a textured white wash feel. Once the first coat of white wash was dry, I gave it one more coat of white wash.

In the photo below you can see one third of the pumpkin with it's base coat, then the other third with the Vanilla Frosting already brushed on and wiped off, and the last third with Vanilla Frosting just brushed on.



While the paint was drying, I went outside and gathered a few twigs and sticks for our new stems. I absolutely love the affect the real wood makes instead of leaving the foam or fake stems on. It really brings them to life and sets them apart from store bought pumpkins. When all of the paint was dry, I just stuck each new stem into each pumpkin. The sticks stuck really well into the foam pumpkins, but the paper mache ones needed to be hot glued into place.



Now these aren't just your regular store bought pumpkins! They have so much texture and depth because of the many layers of paint. Bright orange pumpkins are a thing of the past, and muted colored pumpkins are hot hot hot. With Country Chic's amazing color line, there are so many options to choose from for your own painted pumpkins!