3 Gorgeous Gourd Decorating Ideas For Your Fall Tablescape
I don't know about you, but I can never pass up the gorgeous fall gourds when I'm shopping at Trader Joe's. Let's take a few home and see what we can do with them. Here are three simple gourd decorating ideas you can try out at home.
This post was transcribed by a member of the Hometalk editorial team from the original HometalkTV episode.
Tools and materials
- Gourds
- Stainless steel scrubby
- Hot glue gun
- Crackling medium
- White paint
- Wax
- Wax brush
- Flour
- Gourd or leather dye
- Shoe dye applicator
- Clear varnish spray
Gourd decorating ideas
1. Crackle paint gourd
Clean the gourd
This is a dirty gourd, so you simply want to have a bowl of water and a stainless steel scrubby. Just scrub off the mold, the dirt, and this white finish that they put on to protect them until you've got your gourd as clean as you'd like it, and then let it dry.
Create a vine design with hot glue
I have put two coats of crackling medium on this gourd, and I've let it dry. Now I'm going to use a glue gun to create a pattern on the gourd.
You don't want the tip of the glue gun to hit the gourd. Start at the top, drag it down, and make a vine. Make leaves coming off of the vine on both the left and the right side. Then, add some berries by making a few dots with the glue gun.
It dries rather quickly, so as soon as you're done and you have all the berries and leaves on your gourd that you want, remove the little fine hairs of glue.
Paint the gourd white
Now we're going to paint the gourd. I'm using a Dixie Belle chalk paint. Now remember, I've got that crackling medium on, so you do not want to use too many brush strokes. Just put the paint on and let it be so it can create the crackling process.
Make sure to fill in all the leaves, cover all the glue, and go all the way around your gourd.
Once you're finished, you'll see the crackling process start to happen. Isn't that fun?
Apply wax
The last process I'm putting on this gourd is to wax it. I'm using a little bit of dark wax and clear wax from Annie Sloan, using a wax brush. I put a coat on and then use a rag and wipe off the excess. Once finished, we will let that dry.
2. Wax drip gourd
Create the hot glue drips
For my second gourd, I wanted it to look like I dripped white wax all around the top of the gourd. So I made drip marks using the glue gun. Again, the tip of the glue gun is not touching the gourd.
Add flour
Then I sprinkled flour on top of the glue. You can only do about two or three drips at a time because you want to make sure that the flour gets on the glue before it's dry. I repeated this process several times and went all the way around the gourd.
Once I was finished, I even went back and put a couple of drips on top of some of the other drips to make it look as realistic as possible.
3. How to dye a gourd
The third process I'm going to show you is how to dye a gourd.
Apply the dye
This one sort of looks like an apple, so I chose the color green. I'm using a dye made by GourdMaster and I'm putting it on with a shoe dye applicator. You can also use leather dye.
I'm putting a coat on and then using a paper towel to wipe off the excess. You can see the beautiful color that it leaves.
This is a copper color. I'm putting it on my shoe dye applicator and I'm just rubbing it on the gourd just like I did the clean gourd. So you wanna make sure that you cover every spot and then you're going to let it sit and dry.
Spray the dyed gourds with clear varnish
Once you've let your gourds dry overnight, it's time to spray them with a clear varnish. I use this oil-based varathane from Home Depot.
Give them two to three coats until they're nice and shiny. Don't forget to let this dry in between coats, as it is oil-based
Gourd decorating ideas
Look what you get, this beautiful fall tablescape full of gorgeous gourds; dirty ones, clean ones, painted ones, and stained ones. I sure hope this inspired you to use gourds in your fall decor. Do you have any other gourd decorating ideas to suggest? Share them in the comments!
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?