Debi has done orange and black checks plenty of times, and black and white more times than she can count, but this week was a first: an orange and white checked pumpkin. The pumpkin itself was a $12.99 paper mache find from Hobby Lobby, on sale that weekend — cheap enough that she wasn't going to pass it up, even with one obvious problem staring back at her.
The problem with an odd number of ribs
Checks need an even number of spaces to alternate properly, and this pumpkin only had seven ribs. "But here's the problem with this one. It does not have an even number of ribs. So what do you do? We cannot cut one rib out." The fix was simple once she thought of it: take an orange colored pencil and draw a line straight down the center of each rib, splitting seven into fourteen. "So all I did was took a orange pencil, colored pencil, drew a line down the center... Otherwise, can you imagine how big these checks would be? But I'm in love with it. I am, like, totally in love with this."
For anyone painting a lighter color check — pink, say, instead of orange — she pointed out the trick works even without a matching colored pencil, as long as the guideline is kept as light as possible so it doesn't show through the paint.
Getting the base coat right
Before any checks go on, the whole pumpkin gets a base coat — and it is not meant to be a flat white. "You don't want your pumpkin to be pure white, trust me. It's not gonna look great." Her base is Benjamin Moore OC-117 in a matte finish, with a bit of DecoArt Fawn blended in on the brush. "I want it to have a little bit of an antique look," she explained, loading mostly white with just a touch of tan on the underside of the brush so the two blend together as they're applied — and so the whole pumpkin only needs one coat instead of two.
“Isn’t that magic? That is magic. That is better than girl math.”
Marking out the checkerboard pattern got the same care. Using a flexible ruler (sold at Walmart, and purely optional — she normally eyeballs it) she measured one inch increments up and down from a center point on one rib, then carried that spacing all the way around, working one direction and then the other so the lines stay true. "I'm trying to impress you guys today and act like I'm, like, a professional." Before any paint went down, she marked a dot in every other space first, so no check gets painted in the wrong spot by accident: "Because we're professionals and we're ladies, we're gonna make sure that we put a mark in every other space. This way, when we start checking, we don't, by accident, start painting the wrong check."
Building real depth into the checks
The checks themselves take more than one color and more than one pass to get real dimension. Her palette for this one: Jack o'Lantern Orange and Warm Sunset for the lighter tones, Antique Gold, Bleached Sand for a soft cream, and a mix of Folk Art Pueblo and DecoArt Earth Red Maple for a deeper brick tone worked in on a second pass with a dry-brush technique — loading the brush, then wiping most of it back off on a paper towel before barely brushing it across the check. The goal is a pumpkin that reads the way a real pumpkin does, with color variation rib to rib rather than one flat shade throughout.
A new stem, and a story behind the glue
With the checks finished, the pumpkin's plain paper stem came off with a steak knife, making room for something prettier — a decorative wood finial from the unfinished wood aisle at Hobby Lobby. After hot gluing it in place, she let a little extra glue run down the sides on purpose, giving the look of candle wax dripping down the pumpkin. The technique traces back to a dear friend: "My crafting business partner that passed away from colon cancer, this is a... something that she came up with. And when she did it, I was like, Mary, you are such a genius. And it works every time, and it's beautiful every time."
Gold gilding wax went on next, applied only to those glue drips with a soft brush. Oddly, the wax clings to the glue and skips right over the painted surface around it, so the gold stays exactly where it's wanted without any extra masking.
Sealing, antiquing, and the finished look
A coat of Liquitex high gloss sealer goes on first, for a shine Debi compares to ceramic. That sealer isn't just for shine, though — it also controls how much antiquing wax will grab onto the pumpkin in the next step. Applied straight to bare paint, antiquing wax "grabs onto that white paint and hold[s] on for dear life"; with the gloss sealer underneath, she has far more control over how much stays. A light, haphazard pass of bare antiquing wax knocked back the brightness of the gold and softened the whole piece. "It looks like it just came out of grandma's attic." One more coat of gloss sealer over the top brought the shine back without losing any of that softened, antique color underneath.
The finished pumpkin sits on a thrifted candle holder for display, which she says makes it look like one single piece rather than two parts stacked together. And for anyone who wants to take it even further, she floated a bonus idea for another time: skip the candle holder, sit the pumpkin on a block of Oasis or styrofoam instead, and surround it with florals for a fuller fall arrangement — the same approach she's used before with other seasonal pieces.
Supply List
Everything used for the orange and white check pumpkin, organized the way it comes together — the base pumpkin and paint first, then the finishing touches.
The Pumpkin
Paper mache pumpkinFrom Hobby Lobby, in the fall section — any paper mache pumpkin works, even and odd rib counts both
Paint & Checking
Base coat paintBenjamin Moore OC-117 in matte, blended with a touch of DecoArt Fawn for an antique off-white
Check colorsJack o'Lantern Orange, Warm Sunset, Antique Gold, Bleached Sand, and a mix of Folk Art Pueblo and DecoArt Earth Red Maple for depth
Orange colored pencilUsed to split each rib in half, turning an odd rib count into an even number of checking spaces
Flexible rulerOptional — found at Walmart, used to measure even one-inch check spacing
Finial & Finishing
Decorative finialFrom Hobby Lobby, unfinished wood aisle — replaces the pumpkin's original plain stem
Gold gilding waxApplied only over the hot glue drips — it clings to the glue and skips the surrounding paint
Liquitex high gloss sealerFirst coat for shine, also controls how much antiquing wax grabs onto the pumpkin afterward
Antiquing waxA bare furniture wax from Home Depot — knocks back the gold and softens the overall look
Display
Candle holderThrifted — the pumpkin sits on top for display
Also Seen in This Video
Chunky gold braceletDebi's original is out of stock — here are two close matches: option one and option two
Upholstery tacks, gold Featured as a supply for this week's projects
