How To Make Beautifully Bleached Pinecones - Sand And Sisal

I have been wanting to do this project for so many years that I don’t understand what took me so long. While decorating for my Coastal Fall Home Tour I was wishing I had more bleached pinecones. Buying them seemed like a waste of money (they aren’t cheap). My youngest sister was cursing the gazillion pinecones covering her yard and decided to pay my little nieces a penny for each pinecone they could collect. Those sweet girls made a killing! So I called my {pinecone} supplier and asked if I could take some off her hands. A resounding YES was the response. Because this was my 1st time bleaching pinecones, I’m going to walk you through How to Make Beautifully Bleached Pinecones and a few lessons learned and tips. These will be perfect for my fall and Christmas holiday crafts and decor.

Start off with pinecones that are in good condition, brown, not green, and have already started opening. The drier they are, the more open the pinecones become. The very dry pinecone will also accept bleach better than one with lots of moisture in it. Many tutorials out there show using a bag of purchased craft pinecones. Those packaged pinecones have been baked and are very dry. They are a great option to use if you do not have any pinecones available to you naturally in your area. My goal here was to do this project as cheaply as possible.

How to Make Beautifully Bleached Pinecones

You will need the following items:

• very dry, fully opened pinecones (approximately 30)
• bucket (I used a 2.5 gallon bucket)
• 1.5 gallons of bleach (regular basic bleach, not the “no-splash” kind)
• water
• bricks or rocks
• tarp for drying
• rubber gloves

***Do this bleached pinecone craft outside or in a very well ventilated location!***

Step 1: Place your pinecones into the bucket.

Step 2: Pour 1.5 gallons of bleach over the pinecones.

Step 3: Add water to completely cover the pinecones. (I found best results were 80% bleach/20% water). Do not add too much water.

Step 4: Place bricks or rocks on top of the pinecones to prevent them from floating.

Step 5: Leave in the bleach solution for 36-48 hours. Don’t freak out. They will all close up tight while wet.

Step 6: At around the 36th hour, put your rubber gloves on and start removing any pinecones that look like the white-ish pinecone in the pic above (bottom right pic). If you remove them earlier (24 hrs) they will still be bleached but the bleached pinecones will have more of a driftwood or weathered look to them. They will not be the bodacious blonde bombshells your are going for. 😉 Place them on a tarp outside in the sun, preferably on a concrete, asphalt or brick surface to start drying. Rotate them every few hours. Sometimes if you leave the pinecones in the bleach too long then they might start disintegrating in some spots, so just be aware of that possibility.

The drying process takes a few days. After a full day in the sun and 85 degree temps, I moved my pinecones down onto my brick patio where it was hotter. This worked great! It took a 2nd full day of being in the sun before the pinecones would open fully. When they open FULLY then you know they are ready.

Note: If your pinecones are not as bleached as you like then your can repeat the process. Check after 24 hours if this is your 2nd soaking.

You will be giddy with excitement when they open and reveal their Marilyn Monroe gorgeousness. The decorating possibilities are endless with bleached pinecones! I can’t wait to start crafting. A frequently asked question is, “Will they smell like bleach?” The answer is no. Drying outside for a few days in the hot sun should eliminate any bleach scent.

I hope you try to make some of these beautifully bleached pinecones for yourself!

KIM

You might also like this pinecone project:

Snowy Pinecones