Painting Gourds for Color & Whimsy to Your Fall Decor

Painting gourds adds a  little whimsy and color to your fall decor. Add a small hole, and you have a cute birdhouse look for your mantel or other vignette. 

Painting gourds is a great project to do with the kids, or even with a group of girlfriends, when hosting a girls night out. The process is pretty simple and the cost is minimal. Perfect for decorating during the fall season, or really any time of year.

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These gourd bowls above were painted by myself and my daughters 15 years ago. We were on vacation at Wintergreen resort, and they offered this wonderful activity for families. I remember that they used dried out gourds for this project. They were already carved for us. All we did was paint them with leather paints provided by the resort. 

I had these old gourds laying around so I decided to paint them for our fall mantel.

First I drilled a hole to give them a birdhouse look. All you need is a small hole saw that you can attach to your drill. You can also use a nail to make a pilot hole first. That helps keep the drill from jumping around.

Clean out the gourds by shaking out any old seeds or fiber. There were quite a few old seeds inside. Then use some sandpaper or an emery board to smooth out the opening.

Painting Gourds

In Wintergreen we used leather paints, and since I had some that is what I used here. I’m not really sure why but I bet you could use craft paints instead. Maybe give them a coat of spray poly for extra protection. 

Note: These painted gourds are meant to be decorative birdhouses only, and should be kept indoors.

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