30 Chic, Crafty and Creative Ways to Decorate With Pumpkins

Set the stage for a picture-perfect fall with our favorite ways to deploy pumpkins as decor.

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By: Lauren Oster

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Freshen Up Your Foyer

Welcome the arrival of fall by freshening up a foyer table or entryway with chic and cozy decor pieces. From the lantern filled with mini pumpkins to the addition of bright white pumpkins on the bottom shelf, this entry table is the perfect way to celebrate the season.

See More Photos: 5 DIY Decorations That Transition From Halloween to Thanksgiving

From: Kim Stoegbauer

Mix Real and Faux

Layer your entrance or walkway with a cascading arrangement of the season’s most festive colors. Half of the pumpkins seen here were purchased from a produce stand while the other half are faux pumpkins used year after year. Decorating your porch with both real and fake pumpkins is a budget-friendly design trick used to create a full and vibrant display.

From: Jenny Reimold

Keep It Classic

Heirloom varieties like this handsome Jarrahdale pumpkin are ideal for decorating, given their long shelf lives. Bonus: They’re also a tasty component of everything from pies to stews if you get a kick out of eating your accessories.

See More Photos: Cozy Up Your Front Porch With Farmhouse Style for Fall

From: Marian Parsons

Pair With Plants

Straight from the pumpkin patch, piles of pumpkins and gourds pair perfectly with potted croton and mums for a fall-tastic entryway brimming with fun. A personal touch is infused in the display thanks to the addition of vinyl house numbers on a tall pumpkin. The cheery hues on this front porch, featured in HGTV Magazine, are sure to brighten even the rainiest of days.

See More Photos: Fall Decorating Around the House

From: HGTV Magazine

Go Glam

Welcome to the simplest high-impact DIY of the fall: these beauties come together with little more than glue, coppery glitter, a paint pen and fresh green leaves brought in from the yard. Now, if we could just figure out how to upcycle lawn clippings as a craft.

Get the How-To: Easily Glam Up Your Fall Decorations With These Glittering Leaf Pumpkins

From: H. Camille Smith

Line the Mantel

Give your mantel a festive fall fix-up with the additions of cozy autumnal hues. Classic copper and heirloom pumpkins pair perfectly in this Instagram-worthy display.

See More Photos: Our Favorite Fall Decorating Ideas

From: H. Camille Smith

Create a Topiary

With apologies to shapely shrubs like myrtle and cypress, this trio of faux white pumpkins stacked on a footed urn could be the all-time coolest way to add living sculpture to your front porch. Reach for a neutral mix of fresh foliage, blooms and dried grasses and flowers to add texture and stabilize your stack.

Make a Succulent Planter

Mini white pumpkins make adorable vessels for small, sculptural succulents. A fun project for kiddos to help with, use these festive creations to mark each place at dinner or display them throughout the house.

Get the How-To: Make Mini Pumpkins Into Fall Succulent Planters

Cozy It Up

The sweater you can’t bear to wear for another year (or accidentally shrank in a hot dryer) is just the thing for dressing up a pumpkin and adding nubbly texture to a fall arrangement.

Get the How-To: Fall Upcycle: Give Pumpkins a Cozy Makeover With Old Sweaters

Go Graphic

Don’t get us wrong, we’re suckers for cleverly carved jack-o’-lanterns, but striped, metallic and textural beauties like these are curb-appeal MVPs that set a seasonal tone all autumn long. Get eclectic by mixing in striped faux versions, grabbing a few fabric pieces and splashing out with metallic spray paint.

From: H. Camille Smith

Nestle Into Arrangements

Too pretty to just store out of sight, a vintage dough bowl is begging to be filled and put on display. When selecting items to fill your dough bowl, skip the traditional fall favorite — orange pumpkins — and instead add pops of green, white and yellow.

Get the How-To: Create a Rustic Fall Centerpiece in a Dough Bowl

From: Marian Parsons

Craft a Wine Cooler

Champagne buckets are well and good, but the look of this casually chic white pumpkin is even better. Compostable party decor? Yes, please.

Whip Up a Wreath

Instead of making a wreath with bulky plastic gourds, try using putka pods, which are naturally dried seed pods that look exactly like tiny pumpkins. This wreath makes an elegant fall statement that can be displayed year after year. Pro Tip: Be sure to store putka pods in an airtight container, as mice love them even more than crafters do.

Get the How-To: Make a Mini Pumpkin Wreath for Fall

From: Marian Parsons

Stack as a Centerpiece

Heirloom pumpkins like this trio are ideal for a dining table display since they’re flatter than the varieties we carve as jack-o’-lanterns. Double down on the look by using miniature white pumpkins on chargers at each place setting.

See More Photos: 13 Rustic Thanksgiving Table-Setting Ideas

From: Marian Parsons

Surround a Lantern

Planters filled with a candle lantern and an assortment of pumpkins, gourds and fall foliage are easy-to-craft, high-impact decor pieces that will suit the season from now until Thanksgiving.

From: H. Camille Smith

Go Boho With Macramé

A bit spiderwebby, a bit ‘70s and entirely cool, this hollowed-out pumpkin is laced with leather and draped with simple cotton knotwork. Thanks to the holes you’ll create to thread the leather cords, this piece doubles handily as a luminary; just tuck a flameless candle inside to cast pinpricks of light throughout your space. Stevie Nicks would be proud.

Get the How-To: How to Make a Boho-Chic Macramé Pumpkin

Embellish a Bookcase

Mini pumpkins are ideal for layering on shallow shelves with colorful leaves, and the big guys are heavy enough to serve as seasonal bookends. Bonus points if you perch them beside spooky classics like Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Get Fancy With Fabric

Give fabric scraps or upcycled clothing new life — and give faux pumpkins with smooth texture and shallow ridges fashionable makeovers — with kid-friendly DIY decoupage. Could black and white be the new orange?

Get the How-To: Trendy Fabric-Covered Pumpkins

From: Marian Parsons

Accent a Neutral Arrangement

Sugar pumpkins like this little fella add autumnal color to pale tabletop arrangements like the pieces on this lovely vintage dresser. And in a cool space with lots of air circulation, they can last for several months after picking.

Top With Moss and Succulents

No spare planters at your place? No problem. Atop a simple cake stand, this heirloom pumpkin doubles beautifully as a one-of-a-kind seasonal vessel.

Get the How-To: Craft a Succulent-Topped Pumpkin Centerpiece

Mix It Up

Use a mix of gourds, seed pods and even sunfowers to create a feeling of eclectic abundance at the table. Think of a cornucopia as your inspiration here, and let your decorations flow (and overflow).

From: H. Camille Smith

Take a Cue From Textiles

With a spray-painted base coat and pops of gold leaf, this pumpkin recalls the intricate patterning of Japanese textiles and African mud cloth. Patterning doesn’t have to be perfect here — in fact, variation will add to the handcrafted-fabric look.

Get the How-To: How to Paint a Mudcloth-Inspired Pumpkin

Channel Chinoiserie

If you’re after a porcelain look, these hand-painted beauties look fabulous at the front door and pair well with ceramic collections and garden stools. Again, perfectly straight lines are beside the point: use three shades of paint in the same colorway to emphasize the low-tech heirloom vibe.

Get the How-To: How to Make a Chinoiserie Halloween Pumpkin

From: Sam Henderson

Display With Hurricanes

Yes, these are technically realistic pumpkin-shaped candles rather than pumpkins — but the look is a lovely one, no? Recreate an arrangement like this one with mini-pumpkin candles surrounded with inexpensive seasonal fillers like dried black beans and candy corn.

Plant Leafy Greens

Inexpensive ornamental plants like kale, cabbages and lettuces look right at home in pumpkins full of potting soil. Herbs will take root in containers like these as well — and how handy would it be to pluck seasonings for holiday dishes right from your own front stoop?

Get the How-To: DIY Pumpkin Planters

Create a "Guest Book"

Add gold glitter to the stem of a faux white pumpkin, then plunk a jar of black and orange markers beside it and ask visitors to leave their signatures on your decor. The loveliest thing about holidays, after all, is the friends and loved ones who share them with you.

Repurpose Trellises

This look requires some serious commitment (and ideally, a big black barn). That said, a miniature version of this display with miniature pumpkins or gourds on a scaled-down cone trellis would be equally charming — and pretty useful for growing tomatoes next summer.

Head for the Coast

Use spiky grasses and a sand-filled, straight-sided glass hurricane to evoke seaside holidays. Double down on that beachy feeling by serving guests pumpkin spice punch (a very real and very delicious thing).

Get the How-To: Pumpkin Spice Halloween Punch Recipe

Go Mad for Plaid

Let flannel season extend to your stoop, where colorful beauties like these accent a buffalo check mat. If the shibori and chinoiserie pumpkins we featured earlier still feel intimidating, this craft is for you: with painter’s tape to guide your hand, creating this pattern is a beginner’s dream.

Get the How-To: 3 Stylish Painted Pumpkin Ideas for Fall

Think of Winter

Let faux white pumpkins straddle the seasons by adding simple, sylvan embellishments like twine and pinecones. Use a printable calligraphic tag to add a simple, universal message like this one.

Get the How-To: 49 Printable (and Free!) Thanksgiving Templates

From: Kim Stoegbauer

30 Chic, Crafty and Creative Ways to Decorate With Pumpkins

Related To:

Shop This Look

Freshen Up Your Foyer

Mix Real and Faux

Keep It Classic

Pair With Plants

Go Glam

Line the Mantel

Create a Topiary

Make a Succulent Planter

Cozy It Up

Go Graphic

Nestle Into Arrangements

Craft a Wine Cooler

Whip Up a Wreath

Stack as a Centerpiece

Surround a Lantern

Go Boho With Macramé

Embellish a Bookcase

Get Fancy With Fabric

Accent a Neutral Arrangement

Top With Moss and Succulents

Mix It Up

Take a Cue From Textiles

Channel Chinoiserie

Display With Hurricanes

Plant Leafy Greens

Create a "Guest Book"

Repurpose Trellises

Head for the Coast

Go Mad for Plaid

Think of Winter

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