Tutorial: Faux Chocolate Easter Decor

I recently fell in love with faux chocolate Easter decorations when I saw these faux chocolate bunnies on Martha Stewart's website. However, I was intimidated by how time-consuming and involved the project seemed, so I headed over to Pinterest to see how I could get the same look for a lot less time and money. I knew that I had found my solution when I came across Sisteroo's gorgeous milk and dark chocolate Easter tree. Using spray paint, they transformed papier-mâché eggs into chocolate. I decided to try the same technique to make a chocolate bunny.

I perused the Easter decorations at a few different stores without finding any bunnies that looked quite right before I stumbled upon this bunny for $2.99 at Goodwill. I actually had a mini freakout when I realized how perfect it was for my project, much to the amusement of one of their employees. With my bunny and six papier-mâché eggs from Michaels in hand, I was ready to start spray painting.

I raked back some gravel in our backyard (so that the bunny and eggs would have an even surface to sit on and I wouldn't get paint all over the gravel) and set up this little spray painting station with newspaper.

I saw some tutorials online that suggested setting the eggs on top of covered cooling racks or on top of toothpicks poked into styrofoam, but I happened to have an empty egg carton, so I just laid them on that.

First, I primed the eggs and the bunny with Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover Primer in white. It took about two thin and even coats to get them covered. I waited 20 to 30 minutes for them to dry in between coats, but I started spray painting in the middle of the afternoon when it was warm and sunny outside, so the coats dried pretty quickly.

I finished by painting the eggs and the bunny their final color, Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover in espresso. I wasn't able to find a brown spray paint that I liked with a glossy finish (I was going for more of a dark chocolate look), so I settled for satin. I was worried that it wouldn't be glossy enough and wouldn't look like real chocolate, but I think it turned out great!