16 Nov Painting Funko Pops for Seasonal Nightmare Before Christmas Decor

Now that we are in full-fledged fall mode (save for the few too-warm days scattered throughout each week), I wanted to share our transitional fall to holidays home decor with you. Is it geeky? I think so. Is it unique? Definitely. Are you going to love it? I hope so. I’m going to show you how we decorate a Nightmare Before Christmas-inspired fall table and fall decor. Of course we couldn’t resist a painting project, so here’s a DIY for painting Funko pops for your transitional seasonal decor inspired by the Nightmare Before Christmas.

The inspiration behind this idea is our Stan Lee Patina Funko Pop we found after meeting him in person. Although you can find some characters in the Patina-look, not all of them come in the strange but cool shade of metal. So, of course, you know we had to DIY a few so they would match our overall home decor aesthetic.

What is Patina?

Patina is the natural green film or discoloration of metal like copper or bronze. This natural oxidation occurs over time and gives metal that unique, often sought-after aged look. It can sometimes be mistaken for rust, which is flaky, while Patina is not. Of course, when you want to fake that aged patina-look, you can DIY it with tarnish, acid, some wood glazes, or paint.

You already know I’m grabbing my trusty Plaid FolkArt for this project!

Patina Pops

Funko created a Patina POP to honor the legacy of Stan Lee. It is amazing and we’re so glad we found and purchased one before he left us. Since that first POP, Funko has created a few others that are sometimes hard to find. I keep them in a shopping list on Amazon if you’d like to find your own.

Quick disclaimer about the shopping lists:

If you check the sidebar (on the right for desktop, and below the post on mobile), I have images of the supplies with links for you to find and purchase them. Some of those links will be affiliate links. Please see my affiliate disclosure statement for more information on which companies are affiliates. In short, when you click on a link to purchase an item, I will make a small amount for recommending that item to you. This comes at no extra cost to you, but will definitely help in the maintenance of this blog for you!

Patina happens to be perfect for our industrial-geek-chic decor style, and of course we want POPs that are not available in patina. This is where we have to put on our DIY hats and get creative. Eventually, we will want a sprinkle of industrialized figurines throughout our home, but we decided to start seasonal. This way if we don’t like how it looks, we can pack it up at the end of the season and not look at it again until next year.

Solid plan, right?

Quick Disclaimer for Funko POP collectors

If you are a serious Funko Pop collector, this is a disclaimer of sorts. Like a rated for mature content for TV, except this is a warning for collectors from this point moving forward:

There are those of us in the geek community who are serious collectors of figurines, comics, and all the things. And while the sight of someone ruining a comic book (or any book) will send my heart into uncontrollable palpitations, I am less inclined to get upset over someone removing the POP from its box. In fact, I believe hubs and I almost got jumped at our local convention when we not only removed our Pops from their box, but also had our favorite voice actors sign the Pops. Yes. The actual Pops. 

So the disclaimer is this: If you feel that you will grow faint from the mere mention of someone taking their Pop out of the box, then this post is not for you. Because we’re not only removing them from the box entirely, we are going to apply paint right on top of them. Please. Save yourself. This is your only warning.

Don’t worry, though. I have a huge respect for all collectors and how they choose to collect. In the new year, I plan to talk about how to start your own geeky collection, and we’ll talk about storing and displaying them as well.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Backlight Funko Pops

So I’m sure you’re asking why. Why on all that is Halloweentown would we paint over perfectly good Pops? Well I thought it would be less disturbing if I found less popular Pops to paint. So I looked and discovered the Backlight Pops. Neon Backlight. I have no proof they’re less popular – they’re just not popular to me. Now I’m not trying to say that anyone who uses neon in their home decor is tacky. After all, I saw some damn cool neon decor in Michaels for Halloween. 

But I am saying that we felt less bad about painting over the too-bright colors for our home. And they cost less than the usual-toned figures. So it was like getting more bang for our buck. Except the Pumpkin King Jack. That was a 30th anniversary special for nine dollars.

Does that make it less bad?

Either way, this is what we decided to go with.

Painting Funko Pops | Faux Patina for Industrial Decor

If you saw my Industrial Painted Pumpkins (also for The Nightmare Before Christmas), then you already know what I used and my distressing technique. The way I dab and press the metallic paint onto my pumpkins is exactly how painting your Funko pops will go. 

Once upon a time I would have created a video tutorial to show you how it’s done for those visual learners. YouTube was a lot of work for little reward, and I blogging is way more rewarding for me. So I stopped making videos. And I lived happily ever after.

Materials for painting your Funko Pops – Patina Industrial Style

Amazon delivered the two Jacks, Sally, and Oogie Boogie Pops in parts. Like a Netflix original. Because it’s not like I ordered them at the same time or anything.

I also used my trusty Plaid FolkArt Brushed Metal and metallic acrylic paints. in various shades of grey. This really depends on the look and finish you want. Since this was basically a test run, I found a gorgeous orange-bronze brushed metal paint in my collection to use instead of the green commonly seen on Patina.

Stencil brushes are amazing for the distressing part (you can find them on my running Amazon supplies list). Plaid has a really nice one, but sometimes the surface is a bit bigger so I found larger brushes that make me happy.

I used Mod Podge sealer spray to finish them off.

See the sidebar (or bottom of the post for mobile users) for a full list of materials and where to purchase them.

Apply base paint to your Funko Pops

The base coat allows for smoother texture and distressing when painting your Funko Pops. Generally, I will choose between spray paint as a base coat, or I will just paint a layer of plain flat acrylic paint. But this time, hubs was helping me so we decided to put his Airbrush set to good use. He has discovered airbrushing as a hobby and it’s so fun to watch him create projects to paint. Let me know if you want to see his airbrushed Star Wars shoes or his latest airbrushed cosplay and I’ll ask his permission to share!

You absolutely do not have to have an airbrush, but I wanted to let you know that’s what we did here in case the base looks different for you. If I’m being honest, the airbrush gives a much smoother finish, however you have to apply more layers to get it that way. All in all we were very happy with how the base coat turned out. Thanks, hubs! 

Let all base paints dry completely before moving on to the next step.

Distress your painted funko pops

In other words, make them look aged. I use either a dry stencil brush or paper towels to apply metallic or brushed metal paint to the Pop. I pat it on to give it the texture I’m looking for. This takes a bit of practice, which I have from painting various masks for my costumes. It’s easy enough as long as you don’t wet the surface, the paint, and you allow the base coat to dry completely.

I find that just a dot of the bronzed orange color is enough to give a hint of rust. It looked so cool when I was done!

Seal your Pops

This is how you preserve your brilliant work. 

It’s also how we preserve our signed Pops.

I haven’t found anything to rival Plaid’s Mod Podge sealant spray. These are small enough to require only one coat, but I always spray two coats to ensure no dings or accidental damage to our work. I’m accident prone as it is.

Use your painted Funko Pops in your seasonal and home decor

This is the best part! Getting to arrange our newly-painted figures around our home for our seasonal decor is a ton of fun. I chose to tell a whole story on our dining room table with various items I thought would best represent our concept. 

Who says that you can’t have figures to match your home? Honestly, you can do this for any color, any texture, and any style you want.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Seasonal Home Decor

In Three Ways to Style a Geeky Dining Room Table, I explain how I use symbols and colors, floral accents, and accessories to create geeky tablescapes that are subtle and classy. Our seasonal home decor is no different.

Color Scheme

As you probably already know, I don’t follow the typical color schemes for any given holiday or event. In true Jin Mori (God of High School) fashion, I “do what I want” and try to keep our decor as close to our interests, personalities, and decor style as possible. That means the typical fall oranges, yellows, and golds will not work for our home. At least not in the typical way.

“My family has a saying.. “Do what you want.” That’s what my grandpa taught me.” Jin Mori, God of High School.

Instead, I went with a cooler palette, traded gold for silver, and used a more metallic orange for a pops of fall color. Instead of symbols, I chose to work with textures that would help bring the concept together, and kept it all minimal.

Floral Accents

While flowers or plants may not always go with a concept, I will usually find a way to add some greenery to my home. I just love plants and can’t help it.

In one scene in The Nightmare Before Christmas movie, Sally holds a plant. It’s on-screen and gone in just a few moments, but that was the flower I chose to use as the main floral element. I was so excited to find a faux sea holly in Michaels, and grabbed the last two they had. Hubs dusted the petals with a light coat of gray acrylic from his airbrush to tone it down a bit. Then I made a new jar look old (this seems to be a theme in our home) and painted it to match Sally’s Deadly Nightshade jar. I chose to leave the label off the jar so it’s not too obvious what it is. (We also have very “Christian” parents and one already commented about our “ghoulish” decor this year. ::rolls eyes out loud:: If you know, you know, am I right?)

As a vase to hold the floral stems, it looks pretty cool on the table. If I do say so myself!

Hardware and Accessories

Since we’re still working our way through the Fall season (despite my neighbor’s excitement to rush the holidays with trees and lights since October lol), we kept the Pumpkin King idea throughout with cute white pumpkins sprinkled all over the house. Oh, and two faux-metal painted pumpkins thrown in!

We also went with white fall leaves, and wooden and plush pumpkins for texture. Last year, we found large Nightmare Before Christmas ornaments that I also used for pops of color and pattern.

Our Transitional Seasonal Home Decor | The Nightmare Before Christmas

And that’s it – all about painting Funko Pops and our seasonal decorations that transition from Fall to Halloween to the Holidays. I can’t wait to show you how we change it up slightly for the Holiday season. Stay tuned after Thanksgiving for the geeky holiday decor update.