Halloween Cemetery Fence

After being the shame of our street last year in terms of Halloween decorations, we vowed to accomplish three things this year: 
1. Start early!  
2. Be thrifty but awesome! 
3. Out-do the decorations bought from big box stores!

We had some great materials in our garage from other projects, and a weekend to devote, so we built some PVC-based cemetery fences!

Step 1: Materials Needed

**We based the materials we needed from the amount of PVC we had on hand (ten 9-foot pieces) and the best way to cut them and arrange in our yard.  You should add or subtract materials if your design is different than ours**
 

MATERIALS NEEDED : Amounts we used in parentheses
1/2 Inch PVC pipe (ten 9-foot sections)
1"x2"x8' wood (5 pieces)
1.5" deck screws (40)
Black spray paint (3 cans- we used a Hammered Black textured one)
Drop cloth for painting on
1' rebar sections (we got two per fence section)
Masking tape



TOOLS NEEDED:
Saw for cutting PVC and wood
Drill
7/8 Hole-drill bit
Screw bit
Hammer
Pencil/Marker
Safety goggles
Spray Paint trigger handle

TIME NEEDED: About a weekend

PEOPLE NEEDED : We are two adults, but this project could be done by one, or an adult with children helpers.  As always, please supervise your kids and teach them the safest way to DIY!  

ADDITIONAL: Needed for adding plastic finials, see step 9
Finials
Gloves
Heat Gun
Wrench

Comments

[Capohanf]

A friend and I built about 40 feet of this type of fence for Halloween and added one more item, to join the 4 foot sections, we made short (just long enough to connect the last and first PVC upright) wood rail to slip over the main rails. These added stability to the fence.

[l8nite]

nice work, now go to the dollar store and get some plastic pitchforks, cut off the tines and super glue to the posts (another local Home HAUNTER showed me that trick).. thank you for sharing

[friedpope]

Thanks! We are going to get something to put on the top of the posts for sure, I'm just not sure what yet. I have heard the suggestion that small plastic toys like whistles can sometimes be the right shape if you keep an eye out.

My guess is that we will probably buy plastic fence finials from a store online like this one. However, this will basically double the cost of our project, so I still haven't decided if it's "thrifty" enough. But they sure look awesome!

[friedpope]

I did go ahead and order the pre-made plastic ones yesterday. They cost about $25 with shipping, so that was very much not thrifty, or diy, but I really wanted the finished look. I am tossing around the idea of using the fences for our Christmas display, but making them more Victorian looking with garlands than spooky-- I think these finials will give me the most flexibility.

When they come in and we put them on (might require a bit of heat-gun magic), I'll post more pictures. Thanks for all your great ideas!!

[l8nite]

there's nothing wrong with combining DIY and store bought materials. Using the fences for dual purposes is a great idea, hopefully you'll post pics of both incarnations when decorated

[Valster]

I was thinking of using clay to shape some arrowhead finials but the pitchfork is a great idea, faster and probably cheaper, too.

[starshipminivan]

I used polymer clay to make mine. I think I got about 8-10 from a $2 block. They've lasted about 7 years now.

[l8nite]

You could form the shapes out of aluminum foil then cover in several layers of tissue and craft acrylic paint. That would be super cheap. Browse my "ibles" for more info on the technique

[Valster]

I love your "ravens"!

If you heat their necks with a heat gun, you may be able to bend the heads down so they'll look more like vultures.

Great Instructable! It looks great, easy to make, reasonably cheap and easy to store.

[friedpope]

Ha! We actually got the skeletal flamingos last year, as a kind of tongue-in cheek laugh at our HOA (tacky lawn ornaments are strictly forbidden). The only time we could get away with it was Halloween :) Not sure yet how they will figure in to the final display this year.

Total cost for us (remember we started with the PVC and tools on hand) was about $25 dollars