My boyfriend, Chris and I built cemetery columns a couple years ago along with this archway for my haunted cemetery entrance. You can check out my cemetery column blog here: DIY Authentic Cemetery Columns For Your Halloween Graveyard. I also built some creepy cemetery fence to match that was a lot of fun. Watch for that in a future tutorial!
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Supplies
- 3/4″ 10’ PVC pipe (3)
- PVC pipe cutter
- Scrap wood blocks
- Power drill
- Screws
- Heat gun
- Tee shaped PVC fittings (2)
- 45-degree PVC fittings (4)
- Permanent marker
- Wooden letters
- Gorilla super glue
- Black spray paint
- Sand
- Black acrylic paint
- Brown acrylic paint
- Red acrylic paint
- Orange acrylic paint
- Paint brushes
- Antique maple gel stain
- Satin urethane spray sealant
Shaping the Archway
To begin, we bent the PVC pipe into the shape of an arc and held it against my privacy fence. Similarly, we could have done this on a piece of plywood. Next, Chris screwed scrap wood blocks along the inside and outside of the arch to secure it in place. He started with the bottom outside of the arch on each side then continued adding blocks along the arch in the same manner. If you don’t have wood blocks, long nails would work just as well.
Next, we placed the pipe that would be the bottom of the archway below this, spacing the two pipes about 6 ½” apart. Chris placed wood blocks inside and outside the arch to hold it in place in the same fashion as the first pipe.
We used a heat gun to heat the pipes, once the pipes were secure, hence giving it flexibility. We kept the pipes secured to the wood while it cooled overnight so they would maintain their shape.
I trimmed the bottom pipe to the length I needed (9’4″) using my PVC pipe cutter once the pipes were cooled. If you don’t have a pipe cutter, you can order it on Amazon by clicking on this link. The top archway pipe was kept the original 10’ in length.
Outside Edges of Arch
To form the outsides of the arch I used a 9” piece of ¾” PVC pipe and attached a 45-degree PVC elbow fitting to the top of it. Next, I attached a tee PVC fitting to the bottom before sliding a 2” piece of ¾” PVC into the right angle of the tee. Once this was connected, I placed another 45-degree fitting to the 2″ pipe, as shown below. I did this process identically on the opposite side of the arch.
Archway Structure
Next, I slid the top piece of the archway pipe onto the top 45-degree elbow and the bottom piece of pipe onto the bottom 45-degree elbow. I repeated this process on the opposite side of the archway.
Once I knew everything fit together well, I used some gorilla super glue on the inside of the fittings to ensure each piece stayed in place.
Adding the Lettering
Once the structure was complete, I measured each of the archway pipes and marked the center of each with a permanent marker.
Using wooden letters I found at Hobby Lobby, I placed an “E” to the left of the center mark and the “T” to the right. I placed the remaining letters on top of the pipe spacing them out evenly at approximately 4”. Of course, I forgot to purchase an “R” so back to Hobby Lobby….
I then used permanent marker to mark on the pipe where the letters should be placed, I did this in case they moved out of place while being screwed in.
Following this, I drilled the letters to the pipe with screws until all the letters were attached. Yes, I used a power drill! (I’m sure Chris was proud of me).
Painting the Archway
At last, I placed each end of the arch where the tees were located over short pieces of rebar I stuck in the ground. In doing this, it allowed the arch to stand so I could get all sides while painting it. Now the fun part! I then painted the entire arch black using cheap spray paint. I invested in a Grip Spray Accessory that can be attached to the spray paint can. It made life so much easier for this process and I’ve used it on MANY projects! You can find this on Amazon using the link above.
I then allowed the paint to dry. Meanwhile I mixed some black acrylic paint with sand resulting in adding some extra texture to the arch. Once all the black spray paint had dried, I used an old paint brush to dab this on in various areas of the archway.
Distressing
Next, I dry brushed the brown, red, and orange acrylic paint on in various areas, especially the areas with sand. Finally, I used the antique maple stain over the dry brushed areas once they had dried. This consequently gave the arch a rusted distressed look which is exactly what we’re going for!
Last but not least, I sprayed urethane sealant over the entire arch to ensure it was waterproof.
Putting it All Together
At long last, we attached the archway to the top of the cemetery columns. If you followed my cemetery column tutorial you had a few inches of PVC pipe sticking up from the top for this purpose. We slid the tee fittings onto this pipe to attach to the columns. Obviously, if the pipe sticking up is too long, you can shorten it with the PVC pipe cutter.
In conclusion, if you liked this tutorial be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave me a comment below! Of course, I would love to hear from you also and see how your cemetery archway turned out! Additionally, you can also check out my other tutorials on my Blog page!
- 2017 Haunted Kansas Road Trip
- Stull Cemetery – History and Legend of the Gateway to Hell
- How to Prepare a Cauldron for “Bobbing for Boos”
- Easy Method For Rusting Metal To Look Old
- How To Transform Plastic Cauldrons to Look Authentic