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Unless you are
going to have your coffin on the ground in your Halloween
graveyard, you will probably want to display it off
of the ground.
When displaying our coffin, we like the
top of the lid to be somewhere between knee and waist level when
our visitors pass by. To do this, you will need to buy or
build a set of coffin stands.
Wooden
Pedestals
You can build a pair of
do-it-yourself wooden pedestals to set a coffin
on as part of a Halloween display. While the stands below
were used for the
Toe Pincher Coffin,
they could be used or adapted for just
about any type of coffin or casket.
We cut
two pieces of
12"x1"x8' pine lumber into eight pieces of equal lengths, twenty-four inches each. We made our cuts using a circular
saw, but you could use a table saw or even have the lumber
department where you buy the boards cut them for you for a
small additional charge.
Using
three
6x1-1/4" Fine Thread Drywall Screws
on each side, we attached four of the boards
together to form a square. We
pre-drilled screw holes with a drill bit smaller than the
screws as we assembled the pieces of wood to make screwing them
in easier and to lessen the chance of splitting the wood.
To make a
square from evenly cut boards, do not place two of
the boards inside the other two as this will actually give you a
slight rectangle. Click
here for an example.
Next, we added decorative
molding around the top and bottom of each pedestal to add some style and
extra stability. We chose a wide style of molding, mainly
because of its size, but you can use any type you want. We used a miter-chop saw to make the
45º angled cuts and
attached the molding to the top and bottom of the base using
1-3/4" finishing nails. We used a "Nail Set" to hammer in the last
half-inch of each nail to avoid bashing the wood with the
hammer. Once the
molding has been attached, repeat the
process to make a second Halloween pedestal.
Next,
we applied wood putty over the screw-heads, nail holes,
seams and any gaps,
then smoothed the putty out with a putty knife to conceal them.
After a little sanding, we hand painted the pedestals with two
coats of semi-gloss black acrylic paint, allowing sufficient
drying time between each coat.
Once the paint has had time to dry, the stands are
ready to display your Halloween coffin or other Halloween
decoration on.
Notes - While we painted our coffin stands black, you
can paint them any color you want or you could use Krylon "Make
It Stone" textured spray paint to give the stands the appearance that
they are made from stone.
We did not cover the top or
bottom opening of our stands because they would not show
when the coffin is setting on top of them, but you could
easily insert pieces of wood cut to the inside measurements
of the openings and nail them in place.
If you are worried about
scratching the bottom surface of the coffin, you can glue
black felt on to the top of the stand.
Click here for other
Coffin Stand ideas
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