Gild them with gold. Put them on pedestals. Coat them in elegant ecru.

Decorating with plain pumpkins is perfectly fine. They’re pretty in their own right. But I got inspired by ideas on Pinterest and transformed the versatile and iconic fall fruit from fresh-faced farm girls into dazzling sirens and elegant maidens.

If you don’t already have pumpkins, you should start looking for them now. Large pumpkins are nearly impossible to find, thanks to Halloween. I used mini-pumpkins and pie pumpkins from Trader Joe’s.

I started by painting several of the pumpkins with a matte ivory spray paint, then lightly dusting them with gold spray paint to give a hint of shimmer. You could also brush on white or ivory house paint. I covered the better part of other pumpkins with gold spray paint, leaving some orange showing through. I taped off the stems while painting.

To add variety, I also lightly sprayed pomegranates and gourds with gold paint.

Then I created three vignettes:

• A dining table centerpiece: Three gold pumpkins were set atop brass candlesticks on a large tray lined with purple cabbage leaves and feathery stalks from an ornamental grass shrub in a friend’s yard. Use candlesticks that your guests can see over.

I surrounded the candlesticks with more gold pumpkins, gourds and pomegranates, walnuts and cranberries.

The candlesticks and tray are my own. Everything else was from Trader Joe’s or Cosentino’s. The entire project cost less than $25.

• A coffee table vignette: A chalkboard serves as a base for this display, but a mirror, large tray or even nothing at all would work, too.

I placed pillar candles in a set of three cylinder glass vases from Ikea ($14.99 for the set) in one corner of the chalkboard surrounded by white pumpkins and tiny pots of mums from Trader Joe’s. If you can’t find these adorable pots, just snip mums from larger pots and put them in shot glasses filled with water. Dollar Tree sells three shot glasses for $1.

A large fall bouquet of greenery including magnolia limbs with big waxy leaves and more of the feathery ornamental grass stalks were placed facing the other end of the board. Fall leaves from the yard add a punch of color.

• Buffet decor: Place autumnal flowers in a vintage coffee pot, water pitcher or tea kettle and surround it with white pumpkins, fallen leaves, a votive or two, desserts and plates. The roses pictured were $9.99 at Trader Joe’s.

Here are many more easy, inexpensive ways to perk up pumpkins. Feel free to mix and match parts of each suggestion to create your own.

• Glue pieces of satin ribbon in a contrasting color to bottom of the pumpkin, running them vertically to the stem and glue again. Then tie a bow around the stem.

• Turn mini pumpkins into place holders in several ways: tie a name tag to the stem with twine (we created our own tags with scrapbook paper); attach chalkboard name stickers to them; paint a swatch of black chalkboard paint on them and write the names on the swatch.

• Paint “Give Thanks” on 10 pumpkins and line them up on a table.

• Push brass tacks into pumpkins in a line, like on an upholstered sofa, in a curly pattern or for a polka-dot effect.

• Line up several pumpkins down the middle of the table with votive candles and shot glasses, each holding a bloom or two.

• Trace a circle on the top of a pumpkin using the top of a drinking glass. Carve a hole, scoop out flesh, place glass of water inside pumpkin and arrange fresh flowers in it.

• Carve holes in the top of mini pumpkins to hold a few sprigs of flowers, succulents or candles, both tapers and votives.

• Line up several white pumpkins on a wood board down the middle of the table and surround with berries and twigs.

• Display a medium-size decorated pumpkin or several minis under a glass cloche or in a glass vase.

• Paint a large pumpkin gray, cut a hole in its bottom and scoop out flesh. Stencil a fall or Thanksgiving design onto the shell, then carve it out. Put an LED light inside and place on a cake stand.

• Decoupage pumpkins with fall-themed wrapping paper using Elmer’s glue or Mod Podge.

• Stack several mini pumpkins on top of a cake stand with dried moss between layers.

• Surround several white pumpkins of various sizes with flowering cabbages and twigs.

• Create a frost effect by covering pumpkins with glue and Epsom salts.

• Display white or metallic pumpkins in a bowl or vase with pine cones and whole cranberries.

• Display pumpkins on top of vintage books or books covered in white paper. Surround with tea lights and twigs.

• Fill a lantern with mini-pumpkins, moss and a string of battery-operated fairy lights.

• Put unpainted mini pumpkins in a glass vase filled with flowers.