DIY Painted Mini Pumpkins

By Lauren Rose Correa, August 12, 2024

Miniature pumpkins are a cute way to decorate for the fall season! They are a great addition to your bookshelves or placed in a bowl as filler. You can buy real pumpkins, or pick up some faux ones to reuse year after year.

I’ve always wanted to paint some chinoiserie style pumpkins for my fall decorating. I’ve seen them on Pinterest and never quite got around to making them until this year. You may have painted pumpkins before, but these are elegant and go great with grandmillennial or traditional décor.

For this project, I picked up three small white pumpkins from Hobby Lobby. They were $3.99 each, but I bought them at 40% off. I also picked up a few paint markers from Hobby Lobby for $1.99 each. Read on for instructions and tips for creating your own painted pumpkins!

Supplies

Miniature Pumpkins (real or faux)
Paint markers in your colors of choice (I used metallic aqua and navy blue)

Directions

Determine a simple design that you’d like to paint on your pumpkin and carefully sketch it out on the pumpkin. If you need to, trace the design lightly with a pencil first to give you guidelines to follow with your marker.
Draw carefully and slowly, ensuring that you don’t smear the paint with your fingers before it dries.
I did three different designs: leopard, checked, and a floral and dots pattern.
I found that the leopard and floral patterns were very easy to draw, while the checked one was more challenging. It was hard to avoid smearing the paint and it was hard to get full coverage with the paint marker.
If your design requires full coverage, I recommend working slowly and doing multiple coats with the marker, allowing the paint to fully dry between each coat.