I know. Isn’t this outdoor pumpkin pillow from Pottery Barn gorgeous? When I saw it I loved it too. But, two pillows with shipping would be close to $100. Plus, two identical pillows like this would be a bit boring. Instead, I was walking though my local fabric and craft store last week and noticed outdoor fabric was on sale at 60% off. I had a few extra 20×20 pillow inserts in the closet and felt I could re-create the Pottery Barn pillows for a much smaller chunk of change. I bought 1.5 yards of of outdoor fabric at a grand total of $12 and picked up three colors of fabric paint for an additional $8 (had a coupon). This is what I ended up with. Can you spot the little lizard?
I cut two 20×20 inch squares and started on the hand painting process. I didn’t want the pillows to be exactly the same as Pottery Barn because, honestly, I couldn’t make them look exactly the same even if I tried really, really, hard. I used them for inspiration and then just went with it. I squirted my paint on a paper plate and just started with the orange and built on from there.
Because the outdoor fabric has a naturally repellent texture, it lends itself nicely to the hand-painted weathered look. There were naturally spots that dried lighter because it wasn’t as saturated. The Pottery Barn pillow had that quality about it also. I can draw but I am no fantastic artist. I just kept layering on the colors mixing my orange and brown together to get different shades of orange and mixing the green and brown together until I was happy with the stem and vines.
It was easy to paint over something that didn’t look the way I wanted and the more I blended colors and used them the more interest the pillow took on. I used skirt hangers to hang the panels up over night just to give them time to really dry before I started sewing the pillow.
I sewed them together with a really easy envelope style so that I can remove the covers once the season is over, store them away until next year nice and flat, and put a new outdoor cover on the pillows. I already bought some pretty green and have something in mind for Christmas. I love how they turned out!
This was such an easy project that was totally affordable. I really like it because no one else has anything exactly like this. It adds so much to front porch. I am getting ready to show the front of my house decked out for fall soon. With a new house I find it takes time to figure it all out. In my old house I could tell you exactly where I was going to place each item. This house is like starting from scratch. But it is a fun process and really has me thinking more creatively than I have done in years. I hope you like them and will try your own DIY hand-painted pillow soon!
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i can’t believe you hand painted this. it’s amazing. you’re so talented!
Thanks Coco! It was such an easy project and I’m so happy it turned out well.
These look easy enough for someone like me! Very, very cute!
🙂