Hi there, My Way Home readers! It’s Ashley from 7th House on the Left guest posting today – you may remember my last post on His + Her Decorating! Today, I’m here to chat about this beautiful fall season:).

Changing leaves, cooler weather, cranberry apple cider, pulling sweaters out from the back of the closet… fall is in full swing! It’s time to start sprucing our front doors, mantles, and porches with our favorite fall-time gourd. Yep, I’m talking pumpkins!

I’ve come to realize that anything and everything can be done to a pumpkin. You can paint, decoupage, upholster, monogram, hot glue, spray paint, and even sequin your way to creative fall decorating. Today, I’m here to share seven of my favorite unique pumpkin decorating techniques.

1. Fall is the perfect time to bring warm, rustic touches into your home. With a bit of chalk paint and some fine sandpaper, this method is an interesting and super easy way to bring an unexpected rustic element to your fall decor.

2. Ready for one of those, “Why didn’t I think of that?!” moments? Use an apple corer to punch perfect holes through the pumpkin. Then punch another hole in a different-colored gourd and place the piece taken out into the pumpkin. You can mix and match different colored gourds for a fun (but classy!) look.

3. Hollow out the pumpkin, then using a washable marker, draw a letter. Using the same apple corer technique as mentioned in #2, punch holes along the lines. Illuminate the inside of the pumpkin, and you have a festive greeting for your guests.

4.I am a huge fan of paper tape! I use it all around the house in different ways. This is the perfect way for fellow paper tape fanatics to decorate pumpkins. Since the tape doesn’t leave any residue, you can easily peel it off if you decide to go natural instead.

5. Chalkboard paint is one of my favorite DIY tools. We’ve used it on a few projects around here (like gift tags, a magnetic memo board, and an inspiration board), and even went as far as painting an entire room with it. Needless to say, these chalkboard-painted pumpkins were an easy addition to the list, and you can change out the chalk design whenever you want. This would be perfect for a countdown to Thanksgiving Day!

6. Good news if you’re a DIY’er, you already have everything you need to make these cool Fretwork pumpkins at home—a drill, drill bits, painter’s tape, and Q-tips. I love the simple and fun look of this pumpkin, and I bet it casts off a great design at night.

7. To finish off the round up, I thought I’d share how we decorated pumpkins at our house this year. I wanted to do something ultra-simple with a touch of modern rustic. After giving the pumpkins a good cleaning, I painted a few of them with white paint and some others with gold glitter specialty finish paint for a little sparkle. Pairing the painted pumpkins with a few natural ones and some accessories we already had on hand resulted in nice fall-inspired vignettes. Check out more about how we decorated with pumpkins over on our blog.

The possibilities of decorating with pumpkins is endless—and easy! All in all, it’s a great and affordable way to bring the fall season indoors. Happy fall ‘yall!

- Ashley