Home > Just for you > How To Bleach Pine Cones > Page 2

How To Bleach Pine Cones

 

SUBMERGE THEM IN SLIGHTLY DILUTED BLEACH

Trending videos

Do this outside or in a very well-ventilated area and avoid breathing the bleach fumes.

 

 

Put about 15 to 20 pine cones in a bucket.

Mix up about 80% regular household bleach (not the non-splash kind) with 20% water.

Pour the mixture over the pine cones. Make sure they’re all submerged in the bleach.

Put bricks, or another bucket filled with rocks on top of them to keep them from floating up.

Leave them in the bleach water for about 2 days.

 

 

REMOVE THEM FROM THE BLEACH

When the pine cones look all bleached out and kind of yellow, take them out of the bleach water and lay them in the sun to dry. They’ll be closed up when they’re wet but they’ll open back up once they’re dry.

Leave them in the hot sun for a few days to open up and continue to bleach out. Be sure to turn them every once in a while.

 

 

OPTIONAL: LIGHTLY SPRAY THEM WITH PAINT

Once they’re all dry and opened up, if you don’t love the natural yellow bleached look you can lightly spray them with a soft white paint in a flat finish

 

 

Be sure to put on just a very light mist — you still want to see the color and texture of the bleached pine cone

 

 

You might be thinking ‘why go through all the trouble to bleach them if you’re just going to paint them — why not just paint pine cones?’

 

 

Well here’s why:

The one on the left is a bleached pine cone misted with white paint and the one on the right is a regular pine cone painted with white paint. See how the bleached one is softer and looks more natural? I think it looks a lot better.

 

 

Now you’re ready to decorate!

Pin for later

I put mine in a vintage bucket in my armoire.

Pin for later

Quick tip: you don’t need to fill the whole bucket with them. Fill the bucket about three-fourths of the way with chicken wire and just put the pine cones on top

Pin for later

And I put a few on my bookshelf