Halloween DIY Ideas: Make Your Own Coffee Table 

With trick or treat time almost upon us, what better way to get into the Halloween spirit than by unlocking your creativity and wowing your neighbours with your devilish flair? 

We’ve teamed up with Tibby Singh, winner of the UK’s Carpenter of the Year Award, to show you how to create a coffee, or rather coffin table, with killer storage that hits all the right Halloween notes. 

A successful project starts with great planning, so before you start sanding, gluing and staining, make sure that you have all required materials at your fingertips:  

You’re ready ....

Breathing life back into dead wood

In line with the nature of Halloween, we’re bringing dead wood back to life and adding to our upcycling repertoire. 

So your first step is to simply find some unused pallet wood.  Don’t worry about them being perfect, the more character the better.  

Use a hammer, nail puller, or crow bar to strip the pallets of nails, and then sand.  

Dissecting & sticking the wood

For the base and lid, chop up 12mm and 6mm plywood. Then cut a further 6 strips of plywood for the sides.  

Use Gorilla’s Grab Adhesive to stick the pallet wood sides and lid to the plywood. Make sure that you leave gaps though, so we can create a spooky glow effect later. 

Taking shape

When the glue has dried, cut the sides and lid of the pallet wood to the correct length/ shape. We recommend using  Gorilla Wood Glue to affix the sides together. If you want to add further strength, then use nails at the joints too. 

Coffee or Coffin table

It may be coffee for the other 51 weeks in the year, but it’s coffin table for Halloween. 

It’s at this point that you can unleash your devilish creativity. Use a blow lamp to create a burn effect on the wood. Patch up any gaps in the wood with Gorilla Clear Tape, so our dark gunge won’t pass through the holes. Now, use Gorilla Clear Silicone and mix with the glow-in-the-dark pigment using a scraper; then simply pour into the intentional holes we left earlier. 

Final nail in the coffin

Once everything is dry, paint the inside of the coffin black and treat the outside with a stain. 

Then screw two strap hinges onto the lid so that you can open and close with ease, as well as drill out a hole for a handle. Finally,  glue a few scraps of pallet wood timbers together for the feet using Gorilla Grab Adhesive. 

‘Trick or Treat’

Et voila -- you’re ready to have some fun. If it’s big enough, you can even hide inside on the night and really get into the spirit of making people jump!

Once Halloween is over, use the table for storage or as a coffee table all year round.