Design Happens

When we’re not out trendspotting or dreaming up spooky Halloween decor, the team here at HGTV.com likes to put the ideas we’ve been tacking on our pinboards (real and virtual) to the test.

Pumpkin photos by Jeff Romaniuk.

Since there’s no better way to celebrate Halloween than with a bedazzled pumpkin, we stockpiled some craft supplies and procured as many pumpkins as we could carry (both real and faux) and got to work. Halloween candy, of course, was the fuel for our creativity.

The team at work during Pumpkin-palooza.

After hot-gluing, painting and pinning all afternoon, here’s some of our best work. There’s still time to try ‘em before October 31!

Spider Webs:  Halloween and spider webs go together like milk and cookies — that’s why so many of us ended up with webbed pumpkins. Make a spider web pattern along the grooves of your pumpkin with glass beads, sequins or stick-on jewels, or make a bold statement on the front of your pumpkin with a nail head (or thumb tack) pattern.

Mini Mustachios: A pack of mustache stickers (available in the scrapbooking section of craft stores) and your choice of eyes — we used sequins, paint and pushpins, from left to right — are all you need to turn mini pumpkins into, well, pretty much the most adorable things ever. I like to call these guys “the three amigos.”

Hoot the Owl:  Kayla turned a foam pumpkin into a wise owl with two types of feathers, foam board and a little glitter glue. Doesn’t it look like he knows something we don’t?


Metallic “Studded” Pumpkins: Marianne from HGTV Home Studio made these by dotting pumpkins with dimensional paint, then painting them with titanium-hued craft paint.

Pumpkin Within a Pumpkin: Lili crafted this stunner by pinning jumbo sequins in the shape of a pumpkin, then outlining with thin black ribbon.

More pumpkin ideas from HGTV.com: Paint a monogrammed pumpkin inspired by a European grain sack, create a sophisticated black-and-white silhouette pumpkin or make a spooky stacked pumpkin jack ‘o totem.

What does your pumpkin look like this year? Tell us in the comments below.