Bleached Pinecones

(A little late with this post as I forgot to get a picture of the finished product at Christmas.  Finally, got around to it.)

One thing I’ve been meaning to try on Pinterest is bleaching pine cones. I’ve seen some posts that say it didn’t work and others that did. I really like the way that they looked, so I figured I would try it out with some of my pinecones that are out for decoration.

 

 

I mixed equal parts bleach and water (I just poured the entire container in a bucket and filled it with water). Then I placed my pinecones in. I tried putting a towel over them to hold them down. Then I added some plates and cups and a tray to cover it up. I put it out on my porch and checked it in 3 days. Only the smallest pinecones looked different, so I covered it up… and forgot about it for another 5 days. By that time, we had some cold weather and my bleach mixture was frozen.

After letting it defrost indoors, I rinsed the pinecones well and placed them out on a towel to dry.  I have seen posts about people drying them in their oven, but that does not seem like a healthy thing to do to your family, so I placed them in a little used room.  They were closed up while they were wet, but I had read that it takes a while for them to open up, so I just let them sit.

At this point, I thought it was a waste of a few dollars on the bleach, because they didn’t seem to change much.

 

 

Over the next few days, however, they started to open from the bottom, and I was hopeful. Just 5 days later, this is what they looked like:

 

The smallest ones were fully opened and they all were looking lighter and less blotchy. I would move them around every day to make sure that they were opening nicely. Not really sure if it would matter, Here is another closer view of them  after 5 days.

By Christmas Eve, the pinecones looked beautiful!  I put them on my kitchen table with some evergreens.

They almost look like weathered driftwood and the different types/sizes are different shades- so much prettier than boring old brown. I will definitely be bleaching more pinecones in the spring.