Everyone likes a simple DIY project to spruce up their annual fall décor, right? This one fits the bill – dig out a few of your plastic eggs left over from Easter and put them to good use by turning them into a sweet seasonal acorn vignette. These would look great in some sort of apothecary, too.

Display them however you want, really (ooh, you could even write people’s names on them for Thanksgiving dinner place settings!). These are a great Fall twist on a classic spring staple. Let’s get to it.

DIY Level: Beginner (but probably too much hot glue gun for kids)

Materials you’ll need for this project:

Plastic eggsJute twineSpray paint in colors of your choiceHot glue gun & sticksSuper glue (not shown)

How To make the Acorn Plastic Eggs for Fall:

If your eggs aren’t already separated, cut them apart and trim off the plastic tab.

Divide them into two piles – the top part of the egg and the bottom part of the egg. Gather all the top halves together. These will be the spray painted part.

Set up the top halves of the eggs onto an old sheet. If you’re using more than one spray paint color (this example uses a gold and silver), divide them up at this point so you can spray both groups and allow them to dry simultaneously.

Shake up your spray paint (paint + primer is recommended).

Work in light strokes and move around the eggs to spray them from all angles. Do two or three coats until you can no longer tell what color the egg was originally.

Let the painted halves dry completely.

While the top halves of the eggs are drying, you can work on creating the “hat” part of the acorn on the other halves of the eggs. There are a few methods to doing this successfully; I’ll share the two that worked best for me. Cut 5-8 short strips of jute.

Glue the strips to the apex of the egg half, closely together. This simply creates a “subfloor” of jute so that when you go to wrap the jute around this center part (which was, for me, the hardest to do), you won’t have plastic colored egg poking through.

Start at the equator section of the egg, and lay down a bit of glue all the way around the egg. Working quickly, wrap the jute around and around, trying to keep the edges of the jute touching each other.

Take care to leave the inner section of the equator free and clear of glue and jute, as this will need to slide inside the outer (now spray-painted) half of the egg.

Continue in this manner – lay down some glue all the way around then wrap the jute – until you cover the entire egg half in a way that looks satisfying to you. You can double up the layers of jute if you want, if your jute is thin. (I recommend a thicker jute, if possible.) Trim the jute, and make sure the end is glued down completely.

The other method I like was gluing down the end of the jute through the hole in the egg half (if your egg has holes; otherwise, just glue down a little bit on the top of the outer side), after having threaded about 1cm through the hole.

Then, with the end secured on the inside of your egg half, work from the pole of the egg half toward the equator, again laying down glue all the way around the egg in small sections, then wrapping the jute quickly. However you choose to do it (and you may very likely find a strategy that works even better for you), complete all the acorn hats.

When things are dry and ready, go ahead and attach the two egg halves. You can glue them closed if you want.

They look great! I love the mix of silver (flat nickel iron, to be precise) and gold with the twine.

These are a pretty subtle piece of Fall décor, and I love the muted palette with a hint of metallic shine. Perfect.

You could use them as a table centerpiece if you wanted.

However you choose to display them, these DIY “acorn” eggs are a perfect way to upcycle those ugly (albeit festive) plastic Easter eggs for Fall. Enjoy!

You could even use these like you use plastic Easter eggs – stick some candy corns or other treats inside, hide them, and let the kids loose on a Fall Acorn Hunt. We love a DIY project with practical applications!