There are a lot of things to love about this time of year. The crisp air, the gorgeous colors of the fall foliage, the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks….the list could go on and on. For me, one of the best things about this time of year is the opportunity to bring the essence of the season inside my home. It’s like the prelude to Christmas: a chance to ease into the season of making your home warm and cozy and festive without quite as much fuss (and work). And if you take a tour through my house, you’ll find that at the heart of my fall decor a common theme: pumpkins.
Pumpkins are super versatile when it comes to decor: You can get a shape, size, or color to fit almost any room in your house. For example, I have a white ceramic one in my kitchen, grapevine pumpkins in my dining room, and silver pumpkins in my den (more on those later!). Pumpkins also give you a lot of bang for your buck. They can take you from September right up until you trim the tree after Thanksgiving (as long as you resist carving a spooky face on the front!). Suffice it to say: pumpkins are awesome and if you don’t have any in your house, you need to remedy that situation STAT.
This year, I was eager to add to my ever-growing pumpkin collection but my budget was not (read: I had a baby this past year. Kid is EXPENSIVE.) So I started scrolling through blogland looking for ways to pumpkin-up without spending a lot of dough. I found a lot of great projects that I was eager to take on, and tonight, I want to share one of my favorites.
One of the first lessons I learned from my craftier counterparts was quite simple: spray paint is a budget-conscious crafter's best friend. A can of spray paint allows you to breathe new life into something on the cheap. It yields high impact results with very little investment. Thanks to Melissa over at 320 Sycamore, Natalie and I were tipped off to a sale on spray paint at Michael’s. We raced right over and snagged up two cans of Valspar’s Metal Spray Paint in Silver. And I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do with it. 
Let me go ahead and warn you: I am a little bit obsessed with pottery barn. However, I am less than enchanted with PB’s prices. I had admired these beauties from afar for quite some time and I had seen a few crafty ladies’ takes on them.
Armed with three mini pumpkins I had picked up earlier at Dollar Tree (for $1 each, duh!) and our newly-acquired can-o-goodness, I set about making my first attempt at a Pottery Barn Look-for-Less craft. And hey, with only $5 invested in the whole project (including the can of spray paint which can be used for many, many more projects) I figured I didn’t have much to lose!
Armed with three mini pumpkins I had picked up earlier at Dollar Tree (for $1 each, duh!) and our newly-acquired can-o-goodness, I set about making my first attempt at a Pottery Barn Look-for-Less craft. And hey, with only $5 invested in the whole project (including the can of spray paint which can be used for many, many more projects) I figured I didn’t have much to lose!
We started our project with this set of lovelies:
And with a quick coat of white spray paint (to act as a base), they were already looking much better!
After the coat of white dried, we gave them a quick coat of the silver.
And this—this is the moment that I fell in love. You guys, this silver spray paint is MAGIC. It went on so smooth and covered so well. It was absolute instant gratification. I was immediately dreaming up what else I could cover in this glorious substance. I mean, can you imagine the Christmas craft potential of this stuff?
At any rate after one quick coat for touching up, we were good to go. I had the Pottery Barn look I was going for the price of, well, a pumpkin spice latte. And I had the perfect spot for them on the hearth in my den:
So here’s the Copy Cat Rundown:
Total Cost: $5 (if you count the spray paint, which I still have PLENTY of)
Total Time: 15 minutes for spraying (including drying time between coats) then another hour to let them dry completely before moving them inside
Would we do this craft again?: Are you kidding? At this point, I’m lucky my entire house isn’t covered in this stuff. If there’s a turkey I can spray silver, then my thanksgiving decorations are SET.
Credit: For this project, there isn’t really one blogger who showed this craft. However, there are plenty of crafters out there that have taken inexpensive pumpkins and turned them into something fabulous. Our favorites? These blue beauties over at Tater Tots and Jello and The puffy paint/spray painted pumpkins that Young House Love created.
With Halloween a week away, and pumpkin season in full swing, we’ve got lots more pumpkiny goodness to bring you this week. Check back for the easiest monogrammed pumpkin you never knew you could make and paper pumpkins that are so sweet and simple they’ll have you buying out the scrap book paper section of your local craft store immediately!
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