Cemetery Entrance Columns

Materials:

• 4 - 8' lengths of 2x2 lumber
• 2 - 8' lengths of 2x4 lumber
• 1 - Box of 3" long wood screws
• 1 - Box of 1" long wood screws
• 1 - 4x8' sheet of 1/4" plywood
• 1 - 4x8' sheet of 1/2" Dow blue Styrofoam board
• Brick red latex paint
• Tan latex paint
• Black, white and gray spray-paint
• Adhesive
• Wood putty
• 120 grit sandpaper

Tools:

• Power drill with screwdriver bits
• Circular saw
• Small paint brushes
• Paint roller and paint tray
• Dremel tool with 1/4 inch router bit
• Drywall cutting kit for dremel tool.
• Carpenters square
• Caulk gun for adhesive
• Putty knife

The frame of the columns was constructed from 2x2 and 2x4 lumber. The 2x4 lumber was cut and assembled into frame-like shapes as shown below. Long wood screws held the lumber together.

 The 2x2 lumber was cut into 4-foot lengths. These were attached to the inside corners of the 2x4 frames with long wood screws. The resulting frame is shown below.

 All four sides of the column were covered with 1/4-inch plywood. Use the carpenter's square to ensure the column is straight, before attaching the plywood (I didn't do this, and one of my columns leans!). When cutting the plywood, be sure to leave some overlap on 2 of the sides, to cover the extra width added to the column on the other 2 sides. For example, my column frame was 11 1/2 inches wide, so adding 1/4-inch plywood to two opposite sides made it 12 inches wide. The plywood for the remaining sides will need to be cut to those dimensions. The plywood was attached with the 1-inch wood screws. The tops of the columns were covered with squares of plywood, attached with screws. I drove the screws tight enough to recess slightly, and covered them with wood putty.

I wanted the columns to look like brick, to match my house (They ended up NOT matching the house, but hey, you live and learn). I decided the best way to do this was to cover the columns in Dow Styrofoam, and cut out the mortar lines with my handy Dremel tool.

The Styrofoam was cut and glued to the to the plywood. Any gaps between the Styrofoam was filled with wood putty and sanded after dry.

To carve the mortar lines, I used my Dremel tool with a 1/4-inch router bit and a drywall-cutting attachment. This handy attachment keeps the tool perpendicular to the cutting surface, and has a depth adjustment. I drew the mortar lines on the foam with a marker, and cut them out with the Rremel tool. Each line was 1/2-inch wide, and so it required 2 passes with the 1/4-inch router bit. I must admit, this part was a royal pain in the butt! The realism was nice, but if I had to do it again, I'd buy some fake brick paneling, or paint the bricks onto the plywood, or even cut out brick-shaped foam pieces and glue them on.

Now comes the painting. First I painted the mortar lines with a small brush. I used latex paint, which won't melt the Styrofoam. I used 'sand' colored paint for the mortar (In a misguided attempt to match the exterior of the house.). I really needed to load the brush with paint to get it into the crevices of between the 'bricks'. This was a long, messy, boring job, and another reason to go the paint-on-plywood route the next time.

The bricks themselves were painted with a paint roller, using 'brick-red' latex paint. The columns were kept upright, to prevent any red paint from running into the mortar lines. The roller was lightly loaded with paint, and rolled over the bricks. I found that if I pressed down slightly on the upstroke, some extra red paint would move part of the way down into the mortar lines. This would give the 3d illusion of the red brick going into the mortar. I messed up a few times and had to retouch later with the 'sandy' paint.

To attach my cemetery fence to the columns, I made wood blocks from 2 short lengths (about 3 inches) of 2x2 lumber. I painted these wood blocks black. Then I cut out holes in the foam, in the shape of the wood blocks, and glued the wood directly to the plywood underneath. The wood blocks were almost flush with the bricks, looking like wrought iron straps bolted to the columns (I hoped). I could then attach the fence to these wood blocks with screws.

All it took was the addition of some gargoyles to the columns, and I was set! The finished columns are show below.