How to Bleach Pinecones {Tutorial}

Hello all! I am so happy to be back this month at Amidst the Chaos and I am so EXCITED to share this Fall/Winter approved tutorial with you. This project is a little different than my normal DIY’s in the sense that it deals with nature. When it comes to Fall decor I normally do not decorate for the season, only for Halloween. This year, I wanted to step out of my normal tradition and do something different. I also wanted to incorporate a bit of nature into my decor without altering it as much. So I thought that I would take on this challenge and experiment with it on pinecones.

This project is essentially free depending on where you live. It requires a bucket, something to weight down the pinecones, pinecones (picked from nature or purchased), and bleach.

Place your pinecones in a bucket. 

Pour bleach into bucket and weight down pinecones with a dish. I filled my bucket with bleach until most to all of the pinecones were covered.   

I let my pinecones sit in the bleach solution for 3 whole days…(I was hoping to get them as white as snow). You can simply leave your pinecones in the solution for 24 hours. Once you are finished soaking them, take them out of the bucket, rinse them off and throw them in the oven at your lowest setting. Increase the temperature to 250 degrees about an 1.5-2 hours into them baking in your oven. Keep them in at this time until the pinecones are fully open. It took me approximately 5 hours to bake them and once they were open and AFTER I turned the oven off, I left them in there until the the next day to absorb the rest of the heat. 

Although the pinecones did not turn as white as snow, the results are still astounding and beautiful. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Please do know that you can also add a little spice to these pinecones by adding glitter to them or making them into a garland.  

*Prior to attempting this project please research how to use bleach properly. 

Note: The pinecones WILL have an subtle odor (The nature picked ones)
Use gloves or tongs when taking the pinecones out of the bucket
I do not advise placing the pinecones into the oven without running water through them. 

—
Jessica Rey (Reilly)