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The Frugal Homemaker

Your guide to turning your house into a home... one DIY project and yard sale find at a time

3 ways to paint pinecones–help me pick!

November 16, 2012

3 ways to paint pinecones

In between cleaning house, prepping my Thanksgiving menu, decorating a kids table, and all the other every day things, I am also trying to prepare for Christmas decorating!

I plan on making a lot of homemade decorations this year along with using many things from nature too and I don’t want the decorating to drag on for days and weeks when we get down the tree and boxes next weekend.  So I am trying to get some of it done now so it is ready to put up when the tree is ready!

I picked up a bunch of pinecones at my in-laws house last week and baked them (250 degrees for 30 minutes) to remove all the potential bugs.

DSC_0341

Then I thought I would experiment with 3 different ways to paint them and see which one I liked best.  But I can’t decide so I need YOUR help!

I painted just the tip of these pinecones with white paint.  (I would probably sprinkle them with Epsom salt as well but that is packed away in my Christmas stuff right now.)

DSC_0346

This to me is the most natural looking method.

DSC_0347

I dipped this pinecone all the way down into paint and let it drain off.  It took a good bit of paint to do this!  But I LOVE this look!  I can also imagine this done in other colors as well.  (And if I attached some wire to the top, I would dip it all the way into the paint so the whole thing would be covered.)

DSC_0350

These could be done in any color, like these…  So pretty!

pinecones

Then these pinecones were spray painted.  One coat of white primer and 2 light coats of white spray paint.  They actually look a little more gray in person since the spray paint doesn’t cover extremely well.

DSC_0361

And here’s some closeups.

Paint dipped pinecones

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Painted just the tips.

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And spray painted.  See how they sort of look gray or shimmery?  They aren’t completely white.

DSC_0367

By the way an easy way to hang pinecones is to screw a little hook like this into the top of the pinecone.

DSC_0369

Then you can slip some ribbon or jute or whatever you want through it to hang them on your tree, on a garland or however you want to display them.

DSC_0370

So which one is YOUR favorite?  Which one should I do for my tree?

Painted pinecones

 

31 Comments LABELS ~ Uncategorized

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Comments

  1. Kelly says

    November 16, 2012 at 5:07 PM

    What about combining the painted tipped pine cones and the fully dipped ones? A bit of modern mixed in with the more natural.

    Reply
  2. Sherry Hart says

    November 16, 2012 at 6:02 PM

    Well…..I think I like the ones that were dipped and the ones that just the tips were done! I like the idea of combining those 2 also!

    Reply
  3. Lena says

    November 16, 2012 at 7:40 PM

    I like the one with the painted tips best, but I think the fully dipped one in different color would look great, too. What kind of color did you use?

    Reply
  4. Lesley B says

    November 16, 2012 at 11:45 PM

    What a difference between these techniques. I like each one for different purposes. I think painting the tips, especially if you add epsom salt, is perfect if you want that natural snow-tinged look but the dipped ones would be very cool if you want to add a pop of playful colors to your tree. I agree with Kelly & Sherry that a mix of the two could be fun.
    Thanks for sharing all three techniques; this post is getting filed away for my future use!

    Reply
  5. Heather@ThriftyStories says

    November 17, 2012 at 8:29 AM

    I love all three. See how I make decisions…I don’t. lol!!!

    Ok, if I really had to choose, I like the painted tips and the fully dipped cones the best. I also love the thought of mixing the two possibly. Great post, Christina. I was planning on collecting some of these for our ornament fest starting this Monday. I’m so excited.

    Thanks for sharing. 😉

    Reply
  6. stacy says

    November 17, 2012 at 1:11 PM

    All three. lol Since you’re fully decorating three trees this year, right? 🙂 I like painted tips or a combination of painted tips and dipped. I’m sure whatever you choose will be beautiful!

    Reply
  7. Glenda says

    November 17, 2012 at 1:29 PM

    I like the painted tips the best but the dipped ones are very pretty too. I have a bunch of pinecones I am getting ready to paint so your ideas are just in time for me. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  8. Vicki says

    November 17, 2012 at 11:50 PM

    I love all 3 because they are versatile and unique for various ways. I think if they were going to be used in a ‘collage’ of items the dipped ones would be great; but if used in a bowl like balls you hang on the tree then the multi-colored would be cool! So I think you might have to decide where they are going to go and then make your decisions that way?! Enjoy…wish I had some to work with!

    Reply
  9. Jane says

    November 18, 2012 at 9:52 PM

    I love the fully dipped cones! I also love the basket of multi-colored cones!
    Can’t wait to see your trees.
    Happy Thanksgiving!

    Reply
  10. Andrea says

    November 19, 2012 at 12:13 PM

    The painted tips are my favorite. I have a silly question, put how did you just paint the tips?

    Reply
    • Greg says

      January 30, 2019 at 11:04 AM

      What paint did you uses

      Reply
  11. Brittny says

    November 19, 2012 at 1:59 PM

    I like the ones with just the tips painted the best. 🙂

    Reply
  12. Debbie says

    November 19, 2012 at 6:28 PM

    My favourite is the ones with just the tips painted. Like snow had landed on the outside of the pine cone.
    Debbie 🙂

    Reply
  13. Mary Anne says

    November 20, 2012 at 2:20 PM

    I love the dipped cones. Great idea!

    Reply
  14. stacy says

    November 21, 2012 at 10:14 PM

    Thanks for this idea! Just painted the tips of some pine cones a few days ago with the kids. They look awesome in a garland. Even the ones the kids did turned out great. So simple, quick and easy!

    Reply
  15. Linda Staudt says

    December 9, 2012 at 6:09 PM

    Did the fully dipped pinecones close up after they were dipped?

    Reply
    • Stephanie Duncan says

      December 16, 2012 at 10:19 AM

      My neighbor and I painted 145 pinecones yesterday. It was divided between dipping and painting the tips. This morning when I went to check on them all the fully dipped ones had closed – bummer – why. The ones tipped are fine. Just a tip on painting the tips.
      We were wearing gloves with nitrile that you can get cheaply at home improvement stores. We were getting paint on the gloves as we handled the ones we dipped. Rather than waste the paint we used our gloved hands to paint the tips. Works great.

      Reply
      • Jana says

        September 8, 2018 at 8:26 PM

        It’s the moisture that makes them close up. If I gather pinecones and then leave them outside, and they get rained on, they close up. Leaving them outside for a couple of dry days makes them open up again. Hopefully your dipped ones will reopen.

        Reply
  16. Linda Gorman says

    May 3, 2013 at 11:11 PM

    I like the paint dipped cones, it’s different. I saw Sarah Richardson do this on her show and she “thinned out” the paint with water. Her colors were beach colors because she was decorating her her beach house. They were really pretty.

    Reply
  17. Molly says

    July 30, 2013 at 10:55 AM

    Hi, How did you spray paint them? I don’t want a ton of drips and I’m not sure the best approach!

    Reply
  18. Mireyda Vela says

    December 4, 2014 at 1:26 PM

    I like the tip painted ones, I’ll probably try doing it.

    Reply
  19. Peggy Aldridge says

    January 21, 2015 at 5:19 PM

    When I want just a hint of color for my wreaths I spray them and some I put glitter on before the paint dries. When I need more color I dip them. I’m not a fan of the painted tips.

    Reply
  20. Kitty Marie says

    August 8, 2015 at 9:17 AM

    Thanks for the pinecone demo. This is the first place I’ve seen that actually tells how to hang them with the screw in hooks. Very helpful. I like the fully dipped best but all are beautiful in their own way.

    Reply
  21. Jionne says

    October 3, 2015 at 5:41 AM

    Wow!!!! I like all of them but I am really partial to the tipped and spray painted ones. Out of those two ideas, I like the tipped ones the best!!!!

    Reply
  22. Karen C. says

    April 18, 2016 at 4:53 PM

    We tried all three techniques. We are using all three! Tipped plain cones. Dipped some…..a bit messy. Spray painted some and then tipped some of them. We used newspaper with wax paper on top to drain them and let them dry. The ones that we dipped were made with three parts paint, two parts water. It was a bit runny and translucent on the cone but when dry, had a nice effect. We are very happy with the results!

    Reply
  23. Bonnie says

    November 23, 2016 at 10:21 PM

    Your dipped ones look great. I did not get the same effect on my dipped cones. I think I’ll stick to the spray painting method.

    I like the tip dipped ones, adding epsom or coarse sea salt would probably be a great addition.

    Reply
  24. Noel Bunyak says

    December 3, 2016 at 8:58 AM

    I absolutely love all of them. But if I had to choose between all of them, I’d say the painted tips because it’s probably the most natural.

    If your looking for more DIY pine cone decorations, visit this website. https://www.google.com/amp/www.countryliving.com/diy-crafts/how-to/gmp312/all-about-pinecones-1206/?client=safari

    Reply
  25. K Kuchiya says

    June 16, 2019 at 6:31 AM

    My favourite style is the one where you have dipped the pinecone completely in paint, and then allowed it to drip off. That came out really nicely.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Weddings On The Square » Blog Archive » 5 Simple Autumn DIY Centerpieces says:
    September 17, 2014 at 1:42 PM

    […] gather a bowl-full and paint them gold and red for some autumn character? Try out some different methods of painting pinecones and see which one you like […]

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  2. 8 Christmas Party Styling Tips from an Event Designer to You | Radiant Rumble by Radiant Rose Creates says:
    December 10, 2014 at 9:30 AM

    […] your own backyard or take a walk to find things that will look great as they are or even painted. Pinecones, small twigs, leaves, acorns, flowers and even a bag of cranberries all add a bit of life and […]

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  3. 5 Last-Minute Christmas Craft Ideas - Child Mode says:
    December 19, 2014 at 10:14 AM

    […] this craft after finding it online, since my paints were still out from the Handprint Santa above. Three Ways to Paint Pinecones. I painted the tips of them (right) like the Frugal Homemaker showed (left), and added white […]

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Hi!  My name is Christina . . .

I love doing simple, frugal things to make our house feel like HOME! Come learn along with me how to have a beautiful home on a budget.

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