The 30 Best Painted Pumpkin Ideas From Our Editors

Directions

1. Gather your supplies: craft paint, decoupage medium, adhesive tape, gilding liquid, brushes, and stencils.
2. Start with a black spray-painted pumpkin. Once dry, paint a face and hammer studs, nails, and pins into the pumpkin. Add extra details like a nose piercing using superglue.
3. Spray your pumpkin any color. Apply thermochromic pigment as a handprint. In cooler conditions, the handprint shows; in warmer conditions, it fades to a clear powder.
4. Apply stenciling tape in an overlapping pattern across the pumpkin. Paint each taped-off section with different colors, staying within the lines. After drying, carefully remove the tape to show the pattern and orange pumpkin lines.
5. Coat the pumpkin with chalk paint, then use large stencils to create elegant floral designs.
6. Dust pumpkins with gold and copper shimmer. One gets polka dots, the other a dripping luxury effect.
7. Stick a leaf stencil onto the pumpkin and fill with white paint. Remove the stencil and reposition it elsewhere. Continue until the whole surface is covered with leaves.
8. Paint the pumpkin matte black. Draw spider and web patterns with erasable liquid chalk.
9. Apply chalkboard paint to make the pumpkin writable. Use chalk for event messages like trick-or-treat or Thanksgiving greetings.
10. Paint eerie Halloween phrases on the pumpkin with a dark, creepy font.
11. Create abstract designs inspired by Pollock, Rothko, and Franz Kline.
12. Paint the pumpkin white (or start with a white variety). Once dry, add bright neon geometric shapes.
13. Sand the painted surface to achieve a worn, rustic vintage appearance.
14. Base coat with yellow, then apply alternating black dashes for a herringbone pattern.
15. Give the pumpkin a high-gloss black finish. After drying, place adhesive gems in a web pattern. Decorate a fake spider with paint, glitter, and gem eyes, then attach it.
16. Paint a skeleton face with a mischievous grin.
17. Use tape to create a checkered pattern, then paint the squares with metallic gold.
18. Paint the whole pumpkin in your chosen color. Once dry, stick an alphabet stencil on the front, paint inside, and peel off. Add plenty of glitter to the stem.
19. Punch scalloped and plain circles from tissue paper. Brush decoupage medium on the pumpkin, arrange the circles in overlapping layers, and seal with another coat of medium. Meanwhile, paint the stem white for a monochrome look.
20. On half the pumpkin, stamp circles using pouncers—largest at the middle of ridges, smaller as you move. While dots dry, tape the other half into thin lines. Dab paint over the taped area, then remove tape to reveal stripes.
21. Freehand paint the Cheshire Cat's grin on the pumpkin.
22. Paint the pumpkin white. Once dry, dab gold paint onto it with a craft sponge for a marbled effect.
23. Paint the pumpkin with mottled green and black. Dry, then sponge gray paint on the bottom half using a sea sponge for a rotted appearance.
24. Cut out gem images and decoupage them onto the pumpkin. Apply liquid gilding to the stem.