{"id":828,"date":"2015-10-15T13:31:34","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T13:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/?p=828"},"modified":"2015-10-19T11:54:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T11:54:05","slug":"making-a-foam-board-coffin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/making-a-foam-board-coffin\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a foam board coffin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-5.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-5.jpg\" alt=\"Making a foam board coffin\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>One of my main decorations for my <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/voodoo-bayou-halloween-party\/\">Voodoo Bayou<\/a> party was this fake wooden coffin; I wanted to have it standing in the corner of the living room so people could pose for pictures in it. The main material in the coffin is foam board &mdash; 17 sheets total. I designed the coffin in Photoshop based on how large each sheet of foam board is: 20&#8243;x30&#8243;. Here&#8217;s my basic design:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/coffin-plan.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/coffin-plan.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Note: I wanted the coffin to be two sheets of foam board thick, so I actually had to cut out <i>two<\/i> of each of the pieces pictured in the diagram. You&#8217;ll see the diagram above calls for 8 1\/2 sheets of foam board, so double that and you get 17. <\/p>\n<p>Another note: These measurements aren&#8217;t 100% precise, if you really do the math! I rounded everything to the nearest half inch. I&#8217;m specifically talking about those pesky diagonal lines. The thing is, you&#8217;re never going to really be able to cut these pieces 100% accurately even with a ruler and an X-acto knife. These rough measurements are more than accurate enough for throwing this project together. Working with foam board is definitely an inexact science!<\/p>\n <div class=\"ad-300x250 ad-float-right\">\r\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- MMS 300x250 -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5009313124668288\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3616150394\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Remember, the coffin will be standing up. So, &#8220;A&#8221; is the coffin back, &#8220;B&#8221; and &#8220;C&#8221; are the walls that go on either side of where the person&#8217;s head would be, &#8220;D&#8221; and &#8220;E&#8221; are the long walls at the bottom, and &#8220;F&#8221; is the wall that goes above the head. (B, C, and F are identical pieces.)<\/p>\n<p>My coffin doesn&#8217;t have a lid, because I&#8217;m lazy, and it doesn&#8217;t have a bottom panel (at the feet), because it&#8217;s meant to be standing up, and it wouldn&#8217;t work well to have people standing on part of the foam board; it would get destroyed very quickly. So the bottom panel of the coffin is just open. With these six main panels of the coffin, and two layers for each panel, that&#8217;s twelve pieces total that had to be cut out.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-1.jpg\" alt=\"How to make a foam board coffin\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I first taped the pieces of foam board together using Scotch heavy duty packing tape &mdash; four sheets for the back, three sheets each for the long panels, etc. I only put tape on one side of the foam board, because I didn&#8217;t want the tape to be visible on the finished coffin; the shininess of the tape would ruin the fake wooden look. Since each panel of the coffin will ultimately be two layers of foam board glued together, I could keep the taped parts on the inside, so no one will see them. <\/p>\n<p>I carefully drew all the panel shapes with a ruler and pencil, then cut out the shapes with an X-acto knife. Once I cut out all the shapes, I drew long black lines on them with a wide Sharpie marker, to make each panel look like several long wooden boards. I plotted these out with a ruler and pencil. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-2.jpg\" alt=\"How to make a foam board coffin\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After adding the black lines, I brought the foam board pieces outside to stain with wood stain. I wanted the coffin to look like it was made of cheap, light-colored boards, like a pine box coffin an old Western. I bought a can of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.minwax.com\/wood-products\/stains\/minwax-wood-finish\" target=\"_blank\">Minwax wood stain<\/a>, a light color called Golden Oak. I protected my work area with two cheap plastic shower curtains from the dollar store. <\/p>\n<p>I tried to use a <b>wood grainer tool<\/b> to create a cool wood texture effect, but it didn&#8217;t work on this project. I&#8217;ve had good success with this technique on <i>painted<\/i> foam board (see my <a href=\"#https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/how-to-make-fake-wood-grain-texture\/\">Voodoo Bayou fake wooden signs<\/a>), but this time I was applying the wood stain directly to the white paper surface of the foam board, and the stain immediately spread out and soaked in, so it wasn&#8217;t possible to create any kind of lined pattern. No big deal, and the solid color of the stain looked great on its own.<\/p>\n<p>Since I couldn&#8217;t use the wood grainer tool, I had to create a wood texture some other way. I ended up using black tempera paint and a very rough paintbrush (actually an old paintbrush ruined by dried paint!), and did a drybrushing technique all over the fake wood panels. You&#8217;ve got to use the smallest amount of paint possible for this; load up the brush with paint and then brush most of the paint away on another surface &mdash; in my case, the plastic shower liner I was using to protect my work area. When there&#8217;s almost no paint left on the brush at all, you can attempt the drybrushing. Less is more! You can always add more later. In the end, I was pretty happy with the wood effect I achieved. <\/p>\n<p>In the pic above you can see two panels of the coffin; one with just the Sharpie lines and wood stain, and the other with Sharpie, wood stain, and black drybrushing with tempera paint.<\/p>\n<h2>Weighting and waiting<\/h2>\n<p>An important note about working with foam board! Foam board warps very easily, especially when you&#8217;re doing anything involving liquid like paint or glue. If I&#8217;d stained\/glued all these pieces, let them dry, and immediately assembled the coffin, the whole thing would be very warped, and the parts might not even fit together very well. It&#8217;s very important to flatten out the finished foam board pieces for a day or two before assembling everything. So after your paint\/stain and glue are dry, lay the pieces on a flat surface and weigh them down with a ton of books and other stuff; I use books, paint cans, computers, etc! <\/p>\n<p>In a day or two the pieces will be flat enough to assemble. Here are all my pieces, pre-assembly. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-3.jpg\" alt=\"How to make a foam board coffin\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At this stage I started gluing the panels together. I used a ton of Elmer&#8217;s wood glue and held the panels in place with heavy boxes and other stuff. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-4.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-4.jpg\" alt=\"Making a foam board coffin\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I let the glue dry outside for a full 24 hours before attempting to pick the coffin up and bring it inside. You&#8217;ll know the glue is dry when it turns almost transparent. The coffin is fairly sturdy and very well balanced; it stands up just fine without any other support. I&#8217;d originally considered adding some kind of foam board base around the bottom edge, but this turned out to be totally unnecessary. I also thought the connections with the wood glue might not be strong enough and might require a thin strip of paper mach\u00e9 all along the seams, but this turned out to be unnecessary. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-5.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/foam-board-coffin-tutorial-5.jpg\" alt=\"Making a foam board coffin\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Since this prop is so lightweight and my party guests will definitely be interacting with it, I have to expect it to get damaged or even destroyed during the party, and I&#8217;m fine with that. It was pretty easy to make. If I had it all to do over again, I&#8217;d use light brown acrylic paint instead of the wood stain; acrylic paint would be easier to work with, dry much faster, and not have any odor so I could&#8217;ve done this whole project in the apartment. With the amount of wood stain I used this coffin had a very strong chemical odor and I had to leave it out on our terrace for several days; not ideal since it&#8217;s (for some reason) always very windy on our terrace and there are all kinds of leaves and dust and stuff blowing around and sticking to my projects! <\/p>\n<p>Another way to go would be to use spray paint and then use wood stain with the wood grainer tool, like I did with my <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/how-to-make-fake-wood-grain-texture\/\">fake wooden signs<\/a>. That would create a much cooler and more realistic wood grain effect but overall would be much more expensive and time consuming, given the size of this coffin. We&#8217;re talking at least three or four cans of spray paint to cover all these surfaces, then the time consuming process of applying the wood stain and implementing the wood grainer. <\/p>\n<p>My finished coffin is actually a bit oversized; I designed my specs based on the size of the foam board sheets I was using (30&#8243;x20&#8243;) rather than actually researching real coffin dimensions. The finished coffin definitely feels a bit larger than life, but one nice benefit of that is that two people can cram into it together for pictures. <\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/best-deal-on-foam-board-deals-dollar-tree\/\">See my post about buying cheap foam board in bulk.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my main decorations for my Voodoo Bayou party was this fake wooden coffin; I wanted to have it standing in the corner of the living room so people could pose for pictures in it. The main material in the coffin is foam board &mdash; 17 sheets total. I designed the coffin in Photoshop [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[42,23,20,139,19,14,142,85,9,140],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-coffin","tag-decoration","tag-diy","tag-fake-wood","tag-foam-board","tag-halloween","tag-halloween-decoration","tag-prop","tag-tutorial","tag-wood-grain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5872,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions\/5872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}