How to Make A Creepy Halloween Skull Chair

Halloween  is here and what better way to celebrate than by creating a creepy skull chair out of pallets.

Pallets are so easy to get hold of (these were simply propped up against a skip) and great to work with.

One thing to consider is that all pallets are different depending on what they are being used for, so you may need to adapt the design of your chair depending on the pallets you can get hold of, but really that’s half the fun.

You will need:

Two Pallets

Drill

Saw

Jigsaw

Wood Glue

Screwdriver

Screws

Hammer

Sandpaper

Step One

First we need to make the legs.  Now the pallets we are using contain no wood that is strong or wide enough to support a person’s weight, so we have to construct the legs and reinforce with extra wood. For this we are going to utilise the small block separators that are contained within the pallet. 

 

Take a pallet apart pulling the nails out with your hammer until you are left with two blocks on a strip of wood.  You will need four of these measuring approximately 80cm high/ 9 cm wide

Next cut any spare wood to the same length (80cms wide) as your long strips then nail these to the blocks as well.  This will give you four chair legs, each covered on two sides.

Step two

We are now going to make the seat. Take your second pallet, and as you want quite a wide seat, cut just after the middle block spacers.

Dimensions are:

60cm length x 46 cm wide

Obviously a seat can’t have holes in, or your bum will fall through, so fill in the spaces with the remaining spare pieces of wood and nail them in.

Step Three

Now to attach the legs. Mine are 80cm in height so I have chosen to position them 40cm from the bottom of the seat.  You then drill some guide holes and then screw the legs in place.

 Now you should have something that resembles a chair, or at least something with four legs.

Step Four

Next are the arm rests.  Now I was quite lucky and had a pallet with two fairly thick pieces of wood down each side, so I’m going to use them. Remove them from the pallet and fix them to each side of the chair.  This time I’ve used a bit of wood glue and then screwed them into place. 

 Once again drilling guide holes first. I didn’t cut them to size, as I want a little hanging over the back for the chair back to sit on.

 Make sure the overhang of the arms is the same on both sides (here it is about 3cm)

Step Five

Take one of the spare wooden slats, cut it to size and screw it to the chair leg and back of the arm rest.  This is what the chair back will rest against.

Step Six

Next is the back rest.  Luckily I had a pallet with no slats missing, but if this is not the case, then you may have to fill in the gaps with spare slats.  You can of course leave this as a simple chair back or if you fancy do as I have done and cut out  a design with a jigsaw. Hearts, butterflies or in my case a skull motif (a bit of rock n roll for my garden furniture) it’s a great way to turn something quite basic looking into something slightly more sophisticated.

Draw out your design.  Find the middle of your pallet and work out from there.  Once the design is drawn, cut it out with a jigsaw. 

Once cut out, screw the back in place.  Drill some guide holes, then screw it in.

One last thing

If you have any spare slats, cut them to fit and nail them to the seat, to cover the gaps. 

Once the chair construction is completed give it a good sandpaper before you varnish or paint it. The wood on pallets is VERY splintery, so it needs to be sanded.  If you have a sander it would be faster, but sandpaper will do.

Throw some wood on the chimera, grab a hot chocolate and  enjoy sitting in your one of  a kind chair made from wood off cuts destined for a landfill.

Disclaimer

Please undertake craft projects responsibly and at your own risk. Thisproject reflects my own experience and is not intended to replace expert opinion. If in doubt always consult a professional.
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All photos by Nick Beedles www.nickyrockets.com

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All content (text, photos and other) are the property of Betty Pamper (aka Perelandra Beedles) unless otherwise stated. Please refrain from copying any material without recognition of the author and a link to the source on this blog