DIY Faux Gingerbread Houses

A few weeks ago, an Etsy ad jumped into my Pinterest feed pushing a faux gingerbread house to me. These weren’t just any old gingerbread houses. These were dollhouse-sized replicas of historical homes. They were gorgeous and way out of my price range. But they gave me an idea. Can I make these in real life? And then I saw a video of someone making faux gingerbread houses on Pinterest. I knew it could be done.

Gingerbread seems to be a trendy decoration this year. I see Gingerbread people and house pillows, mugs, ornaments, and candles surfacing everywhere. I even bought some Pottery Barn gingerbread people pillows! I was holding out hope for Starbucks to bring their Gingerbread latte back from the dead. That did not happen this year.

I started working on these faux gingerbread houses in October. By Halloween, I bought all my supplies. Between these houses and our DIY photography boards, I went through a lot of spackling. I spray painted and decorated the houses over the first weekend of November. Since the ceramic houses I bought were just landing in stores, I needed to do this ASAP in case I needed to buy more.

Trial and Error

I did this project twice. On the first round, I got as far as “icing” the houses with spackling. However, the contrast of the brown houses and the bright white spackling was too stark. The spray paint color bothered me because they looked like chocolate, not gingerbread, houses. I needed to fix two things: 1. the color of the houses, and 2. a smaller icing head.

Luckily, it had only been a few hours since I decorated them. I scraped off the spackling, wiped them down with a damp cloth, and went back to square one. Initially, I bought flat brown spray paint. When I was in Home Depot on the first trip, I went back and forth between a few colors: flat brown, warm caramel, and chestnut. Before my second trip to Home Depot, I pulled a few gingerbread comps and decided ‘warm caramel’ was the closest color and best alternative. I also picked up a smaller container of lightweight spackling just in case I ran out. I had already used about 8oz of spackling already.

DIY Faux Gingerbread Houses

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All in, this project cost me about $66 (~$7.30 per house/tree… if I did this once*):

• Ceramic Houses ($5 each; different variations) – $25
• Large ceramic tree – $10
• Small ceramic trees (pack of 2) – $10
• Mini ceramic house ornament – $3 (cannot find it online, was an in-store purchase)
• 16oz Spackling – $11 (half of this was enough for the 6 houses, 3 trees, and 1 ornament)
• “Warm caramel” spray paint – $7
• Sealer – optional
• Cost to redo the color and spackling – $12 (adds $1.30 to the cost per house/tree)

When I was in Target in early November, I swung by their Christmas Wondershop. I walked out of there with ornaments for my whole family and an adorable ceramic house ornament ($3!). If these houses don’t last for years, at least I’ll have this little ornament to remind me of the project.

Painting and Decorating

Let’s transform these houses and trees into gingerbread masterpieces.

1. First step is to spray paint the houses and trees. I followed the directions on the back of the spray paint can as I painted them.
2. Let all this dry for a day. Touch up where needed and let dry another day.
3. Decorate with lightweight spackling.
   • Before I started decorating, I took pictures of the houses on my iPad and drew in their designs to know how each one would look and how they’d all look together.
   • I filled pastry bags with the spackling and decorated the houses like they were cookies. I followed my designs and made a few changes in the moment.
   • Let it all dry for at least 24 hours (read the back of the spackling container for the directions).
4. Once everything is dry and you’re happy with the final product, spray them with a matte sealer.
5. Display proudly or gift away.

I love how these turned out the second time around. I love the new color and the designs. I just hope they last me at least a few Christmases.