I made these gorgeous Terracotta Jack O’ Lanterns, they are so affordable, amazing quality, and a fraction of the price!
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I love the style and look of the Pottery Barn Jack O’ Lanterns, but not the price! I was just strolling through Michaels when I came across some of their ceramic pumpkins – and immediately knew I needed to recreate it. Keep reading for how I made these beautiful Terracotta Jack O’ Lanterns, and scroll to the bottom to view the How To Video.
Materials Used and Cost:
- Large Ceramic Jack O’ Lantern ($18)
- Small Ceramic Jack O’ Lantern ($9)
- Folk Art Terra Cotta Lightly Textured Paint ($4 – if painting more than one, I’d buy two! I bought Pueblo)
- Paint Brushes ($8.50)
- Baking Soda
- Flour
I highly recommend the ceramic pumpkins (they also light up), as it only needs one coat of paint – so you will save money here! Other DIYs use plastic pumpkins, but it requires a lot more paint layers to get the look right.
For your reference, Pottery Barn’s SMALL Jack O’ Lantern retails for $50, the Large retails for $90 – and on eBay the Large and XL ones are selling for high $200’s to high $300’s – it is crazy!! And I’m not going to lie – I kinda like the look of mine better 👀
Let’s get into it!
This was such a fun project and only took me about 30 minutes—maybe even less if you’re moving fast. I started by laying down some cardboard (you could totally use newspaper too). Then I grabbed my paint, brushes, baking soda, and flour. I used a paint tray for mixing, but you could easily just use a section of the cardboard as your palette.
Even though the paint I used already had some texture, I wanted it to be extra thick and gritty, so I added baking soda—and I feel like it made a big difference! I also decided to paint one of them black for a little spooky touch.
To mix it, I just scooped about a tablespoon of baking soda and added paint until it formed a thick paste.
I ended up adding a little more paint than what you see in the photo below—just enough to make the mixture slightly more liquid. I used a wider brush to apply the paint to the ceramic pumpkins and did a lot of dabbing to build the texture I wanted. One coat was all it took!
Once it dried, I used my hand to sprinkle a little flour over the top, then grabbed a small sponge brush to work it into the crevices. I also used my hand to gently brush it around for a more natural look. There’s no exact amount—just start with a light dusting and add more wherever you want that aged, textured finish 😊
And voilà! Your terracotta Jack O’Lanterns are done—and they look way more expensive than they actually are! You can absolutely style them outside, but I recommend keeping them under cover so they don’t get rained on.
Here’s how my three Jack O’Lanterns turned out! I’d love to see if you try making some of your own—don’t forget to tag me in your posts @jennanicolehome 🧡
