How to Build an Amazing Pumpkin Arch Today
Today I’m sharing my pumpkin arch project with you. I’m dishing out my thought process, the materials I used and what I could do better so you can make yours even better than mine!
Oh the pumpkin arch.
She did take me a minute.
Sometimes I have an idea in my head of how a project is supposed to look and then the reality is very different. This was definitely one of those projects!
I’m sure you’ve seen them. The pumpkin arch has been all over social media last year and this year and of course I needed a colorful one for my house.
So here’s the story of how that project came about!
The Basic Structure of the Pumpkin Arch
We had already installed wires last year for my Christmas garland so it seemed that the easy thing to do was add some plastic tubing to attach all the decor too. By wires, I mean we (Darrel) drilled into the rock and set screws with some wire around them.
The wires were set in several places around the arch so that they could stay up all year but also wouldn’t be so noticeable that it would bother me, or anyone else.
To be as thrifty as possible with this project we used tubing instead of pvc pipe.
It’s not even that I was trying to be super thrifty, it was about working with something that we wouldn’t have to put up, take down, store and put up again.
The tubing seemed like something that we could leave up year round and it wouldn’t be an eyesore. I guess that remains to be seen.
We’ll see how it looks once the decorations are all down.
In reality it was a great idea, it just took me a few tries to figure out how to afix my pumpkins so that they’d hang correctly.
Which means that I dropped several from a tall ladder and scraped the paint off of them.
None of the pumpkins are damaged though. I can easily repair the paint and I had a few extra pumpkins so that all worked out.
Very few, but I’m just happy that I had enough pumpkins to complete the project.
So here’s how the project came together!
What I used for the Pumpkin Arch
I probably should say what I’ve used so far but I don’t think I’m going to have a chance to keep adding to the pumpkin arch because it has to come down for a party on November 5.
There’s another party two weeks later so I’m definitely not going to take it down, reinstall and then remove again. I’ll likely just have whatever party decor up there for a bit!
But back to the goodies!
I started off buying the treat buckets with the jack-o-lantern faces to use for my arch.
After many trips to several stores to accumulate them all. (48 total)
After several cans of different colors of spray paint.
After all that I had a crisis of confidence.
In my head I decided they weren’t going to be big or impactful enough for the front porch.
So I delayed the install.
I wanted to get a few bigger jack o lantern’s to add to the arch so that it would seem fuller, or even try making a couple of rows of the smaller buckets to make it fuller.
Well guess what happened?
There were pumpkins everywhere. I checked all the local shops and they were just putting out the decor.
I left town for 10 days.
When I got back there were no pumpkins.
No pumpkins.
They were sold out.
Everywhere. What the what?!
Even online.
They teased me with next day delivery and then when I’d get to my cart the delivery would be estimated for Nov 5.
The Pumpkin Arch Plan B
Well I didn’t start out with a plan B. I only started with the plan in my head.
Of course my plan is try this, then try that and if it doesn’t work then pivot. So you could say I carry a few plans in my head but I was unsure how this one would work out.
Plan B really consisted of gathering all the pumpkins I had painted and deciding that I’d either make it work or pack it up until next year and not sweat it.
What really got me in gear was that I had pumpkins spread all over my garage and I had to pick them up to park in there.
Installing the Pumpkin Arch
It took me two days to install the pumpkin arch because I started one evening and it got dark before I could finish.
Also because I had already decided how I was going to install the pumpkins and stubbornly refused to admit there was a better way.
That’s a definite no no in the DIY handbook. You can’t be stubborn, you have to be willing to learn.
What I ended up doing was drilling holes in the pumpkins so that I could suspend them from the plastic tubing.
The ones across the top had two holes drilled in the back and the ones down the sides had a hole drilled in the side and one in the bottom.
It did take a little experimenting to get them like I wanted and none of them are perfect but that’s okay.
Here are a few close up shots of what they look like.
So when I finally gave in and went with the easy route it looked like this!
Isn’t it so fun?
I’m really happy with how it turned out and now I really wished I had gone ahead and put it up sooner but I guess later is still better than never.
I’m just glad that I didn’t just skip it altogether and not see what it would look like finished because it’s definitely better than I thought it was going to turn out mid project.
Of course I have all kinds of ideas on how to improve it but they’re all going to have to wait until next year because I’ve run completely out of time.
I’m going to be okay with that.
Because the next project is figuring out how in the world I’m going to store all the pumpkins until next year.
I’m pretty sure my helper is going to be really busy that day ha!
Cheers to fun projects and trying new things.
Bigger cheers to bright and colorful decor!
Be sure to follow me on Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest for more inspiration!
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