Silver Leaf Acorns
I have never decorated my house for fall before. Never. Okay, one time we carved a pumpkin…which then sat on our front porch until it rotted. But other than that, nothing.
I’ve never been a big fan of redecorating for every holiday and season change – too much money, too much stuff to store, too much hassle.
But I really enjoyed adding a touch of spring to our home this year, so I’ve decided to go for a bit of fall décor as well. But with conditions – it needs to be super cheap. And it needs to either take up very little storage space or be something that can also be used other times of year.
First up, a little project I’ve been wanting to make for months. As soon as I finished my silver leaf seashell necklace, I knew I wanted to silver leaf some acorns this fall.
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This project is super simple and so beautiful. Every time I walked outside this past week, I collected a handful of acorns that fell from the huge white oak tree in our front yard.
I wanted to make sure I didn’t bring any creepy-crawlies in with them, so I baked them in the oven at 200 degrees for two hours to kill any stowaways. Once they cooled, I used a little white school glue to reattach any caps that had popped off.
I painted them to create a good surface for the silver leaf to stick to and then brushed on liquid silver leaf using a soft brush. Liquid silver leaf is amazing – it gives a gorgeous glow and is excellent at getting down in all the cracks and crevices smoothly.
I used a small craft brush – like the ones that come with kids’ watercolor sets. I would recommend wearing gloves while doing this. I didn’t and ended up with very silvery fingers.
And that’s it! Perfect for fall and just as beautiful as Christmas decor.
Now I can’t wait to tackle project #2! Anyone else starting fall projects this week?
Gorgeous, they look beautiful. I have linked to my Autumn decor post below. I too have never really managed to decorate for the season before. Maybe it’s a sign that we are finally getting life sussed? (Okay stop laughing now!)
Nicki, yay for fall decor newbies. I don’t know if it means we are getting it together or just adding more crazy!
These are crazy beautiful!! Love them Carrie- and amazing photography too:)
Thanks Krista!
I recently used gold rub’n buff on some faux acorns, but LOVE how the silver liquid leaf looks on yours. Plus you have real acorns which makes me jealous. I may just have to stalk some squirrels to see where they stash them, lol. Thanks for sharing this over at The Makers!
Thanks Katie! I really love how they turned out too – liquid silver leaf is amazing!
Love this! Where did you find liquid silver leaf and what brand please? All I see is rub ‘n buff or silver paint. Thanks!
Thanks! I found it at Michaels. I believe it is Plaid brand and they also have regular liquid gold leaf.
These look great! Such a simple yet elegant idea.
Thanks Lucy!
Love this idea for the Fall! So easy to do and it fits with my decor!
LOVE those acorns!
Thanks Heather! Me too!
I could kiss you! I recently bought 2 pendant lights from West Elm. They were to hang over our island & pretty much be focal points in our new kitchen. They are faceted at the top – hand cut in India – then hand painted over the facets with what looks like silver leaf, except for the brush marks. The bottom edge of the paint is a wreck on both of them – sloppy & crooked. I wrote to West Elm about returning them, even though they were final sale items, which they were hesitant to allow me to do, but I decided to keep them, because I loved them so much. Long story short – after spending hours scraping away the uneven paint, & cleaning overspray off of the clear parts with steel wool & vinegar, I am now faced with what to paint them with to put a straight edge on them. Liquid silver leaf! Who knew? Thank you so much!
Yay! So glad I could help. Your lights sound really beautiful too! Good luck!
Love this idea and will be getting some silver leaf in liquid!
Thanks Linda! Have fun with it!