Scary Ticket Booth Build

User-Contributed Project

User-Contributed Project

This project guide is not managed by MAKE staff.

Create a creepy looking, rickety ticket booth for Halloween (or other events) using old shipping pallets which can be stored flat when not in use.

  • Author: keith corcoran
  • Time required: 4-8 Hours
  • Difficulty: Moderate
  • Add Note x

At the last minute this Halloween we decided to decorate in a creepy carnival theme with the goal of not spending too much money on decorations to save more for candy.

One of the many ideas we had was to build a creepy ticket booth to welcome visitors to our house for Trick or Treat.

This 'back of a napkin' idea evolved into a recycling mission as we scoured the industrial park for old, weather-beaten pallets and dug through flea market bins for door hinges.

Everything about this project was very freestyle and design-as-you-build but I'll do my best to nail down specifics so you can recreate this ticket booth for yourself.

There are a LOT of steps here because I like to be as thorough as possible. I'll keep it as concise as I can.

Also important to note, some pictures will differ slightly from my instructions. This is by no means a 'to-the-inch' guide. If I made 5 of these I guarantee they'd be a little different every time. Feel free to wing it a little.

Sections
Tools
  • 3/4" boring bit This tool is optional if you want to insert bars into wood. I will describe an alternate method of construction as well.
  • Air compressor You will need this if you plan on using a pneumatic nail gun.
  • Electric or Hand Saw This saw will be used for straight cuts of wood up to 2"x4" thickness. A jigsaw is optional if you are going to shape the sign.
  • Hack saw You will need this optional tool if you plan on using metal tubing for the bars.
  • Paintbrush (3-5) These can be the cheapest paintbrushes you can find. Preferably in sizes ranging from 1/2" - 3" wide.
Tools (continued)
  • Pneumatic nailer Optional tool but VERY handy.
  • Prybar or Crowbar This tool will be used to disassemble your shipping pallets if you choose to use the pallets for wood.
  • Rag (2) You will need some old rags to wipe off the paint to get that old weathered look.
  • Screw gun Screw Gun or drill with a Phillips (x head) bit.Buy it
  • Tape measure Use this to measure things... or just eyeball it like I did.Buy it
Relevant parts
  • Screws (100), coarse drywall - various sizes 1.5"-3" length You can do this with nails or screws though I recommend nails and a pneumatic nailer.
  • Nails finish nails approx 1.5-2 inches in length for your pneumatic nailer
  • Shipping Pallet (6) Get plenty of shipping pallets. You'll be using mostly the top planks so the older looking (but not cracked) the better. You could also use old 'dogear' wood fence that's been outside.
  • Door Hinges (12) Any old door hinges will do. Check Goodwill, building salvage stores and old men's yard sales.
  • Paint Depending on your color scheme or design, you'll want to have some latex or acrylic paint. Spray paint won't work well on this project unless you want to spray it into a cup and brush it on. Your call.
  • Christmas lights Pick up a strand of Christmas lights. Preferably the old style kind (C7 or C9). You only need enough to light your sign if you decide to make one.
  • 1/2" PVC pipe, 10' length (2) Use PVC for the window bars. OPTIONAL: Use metal electrical conduit instead of PVC.
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Add Note Edit Step 1 — GRAB SOME WOOD  ¶ 

    • OLD SHIPPING PALLETS

      • If you choose to use old shipping pallets like I did for your ticket booth you can do a quick search on Craigslist in your area to find a company giving them away or just drive around your local industrial area and ask nicely.

    • DOGEAR WOOD FENCE SECTIONS

      • Also sometimes available on Craigslist is old fencing. You might be able to also hit up a local fence company as they usually haul away old fencing from jobs. The benefits of using this material is that it's usually well weathered, long enough to do a full back door, and much easier to dismantle than pallets.

    • PLYWOOD

      • I mean, sure, if you WANT to.. but it just won't have that cobbled-together carnival look unless you can find some old weathered stuff.

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Add Note Edit Step 2 — DISMANTLE YOUR PALLETS  ¶ 

    • Pallets are not meant to fall apart, which means they're not easy to take apart either. Just keep telling yourself it's FREE MATERIALS!

    • Using a combination of your hammer, crowbar/prybar and brute force disassemble your pallets.

    • Try not to break the wood slats as you pry them from the 2x4 frame that holds them together unless the completely destroyed look is what you're going for.

    • BE CAREFUL! There are splinters and rusty nails just waiting for a chance to poke you and end your evil carpentry session. Wear some gloves.

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Add Note Edit Step 3 — A LITTLE PRE-PLANNING - Dimensions  ¶ 

  • DETERMINE BOOTH FOOTPRINT

    • You can either measure the available space you have for your ticket booth or simply line up a few pallet boards until you get the width you like.

    • For purposes of these instructions we will use 30 inches as the width of each side.

  • DETERMINE BOOTH HEIGHT

    • Based on the headroom you need inside the ticket booth if you're going to have a real person or a prop inside, you will now need to decide how tall you want to make the ticket booth.

    • Keep in mind that if you will be adding a sign on top of the booth you will be adding anywhere from 10"-12" to the overall height of the booth.

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Add Note Edit Step 4 — A LITTLE PRE-PLANNING - Fastening Methods  ¶ 

  • NAILS

    • I used a pneumatic nailer which I recommend. You will need a few various lengths of nails or staples as well as some nail-cutting pliers to snip any nails that happen to poke through the other side.

    • Feel free to use a good old hammer and nails if you feel like tourturing yourself. Hey, it's Halloween... go nuts.

  • SCREWS

    • Using drywall screws and a screw gun will definitely require you to pre-drill almost all your screw holes. While screws will likely make for stronger construction, the pallet wood has a tendency to split when you drive a screw through it without pre-drilling.

  • LIQUID NAILS

    • Liquid Nails can't really be used by itself unless you have a bunch of clamps and nothing but time on your hands, but depending on how sturdy you want this structure, feel free to run a bead on every piece you nail or screw together.

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Add Note Edit Step 5 — PREPARE WOOD FOR LOWER SIDES - Part I  ¶ 

  • CUT SIDE BOARDS

    • Lay out your wood planks, face up, on the floor next to each other until you have made a wall of planks 30 inches wide as shown in Image 1.

    • Mark and cut each of these planks 42 inches long (or as high as the SHORTEST plank you are using for the bottom portion of the sides.)

    • REPEAT x 3 - Set these planks aside and do this 3 more times to determine the total number of planks you will need for your 4 sides.

      • NOTE: If you have long enough planks you can make the back of the ticket booth as long as the total height of the booth. So you'll only have to make 3 short sides.

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Add Note Edit Step 6 — PREPARE WOOD FOR LOWER SIDES - Part II  ¶ 

  • CUT HORIZONTAL BORDERS

    • Cut 8 planks 30 inches long. These will be used to hold the planks together that make each side of the lower portion of the booth. We will call these the 'horizontal borders'.

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Add Note Edit Step 7 — PREPARE WOOD FOR LOWER SIDES - Part III  ¶ 

  • CUT VERTICAL BORDERS

    • Depending on the width of your horizontal border planks you will need to subtract the width of 2 horizontal border planks from the height of the side planks. (e.g., 42 - (3.5-3.5) = 35)

    • Cut 8 planks to this length for your vertical borders.

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Add Note Edit Step 8 — ASSEMBLE LOWER SIDES  ¶ 

  • Lay out your wall planks, face up and side by side with the top and bottom edges lined up.

  • Double check your side measures 30 inches wide.

  • Place a horizontal border plank along the top and bottom of your wall planks as shown and place 4 nails aligned with each plank below the border as shown in Image 2.

  • Place your vertical border planks on each side of your wall section to complete the raised edge border.

  • Repeat x 3

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