Stage Designs

Midsummer Night’s Porch

Jason Lee from Renaissance Church in Providence, RI brings us this great wall backdrop created out of simple pallets.

They constructed a 2×4 wall frame and anchored it to the concrete wall of the building. Then they secured the pallet boards to the frame with nail guns. The cross in the center was marked out beforehand with yarn, and they attached the pallet boards around the yarn so the negative space left would be in the form of a cross.

You can check out a time lapse here.

Budget: ~$300
– free pallets from around town
– $175 for 2x4s and hardware
– $75 for nail gun rental
– $50 food for volunteers

They built the entire wall, frame and all, in one day. The pallets were collected beforehand, and took about 5 hours to break down with 10 workers. They used around 40-50 pallets.

Patterns in the Yarn Reflection

32 responses to “Midsummer Night’s Porch”

  1. ryan hunzie says:

    This looks great! what an awesome use of pallets!

  2. Susan Jensen says:

    How long did it take to put the wall up?

  3. Ryan Murphy says:

    Awesome design. I’m getting an error whenever I try an follow the time lapse link. Do you have another copy of the link?

  4. Tyler Sanchez says:

    When you put the pieces of pallet together, was there any pattern that you used, or did you just start putting it together and just put it together as you went along. Also is there some places that you had to stack nail pieces on pieces to cover up holes or is it just one level of pallet pieces.

    thanks

    • Jason says:

      There wasn’t any particular pattern we were following, we just picked up random boards and nailed them on wherever they fit. The wall is has multiple layers. with some parts being level and some overlapping.

  5. Amy Dunn says:

    Sweet wall!! If you used 50 pallets, what are the dimensions of your wall? Thanks so much!!

  6. Justin says:

    What size are the projector screens on both sides of the wall?

  7. Ronda says:

    Jason
    You are a truly amazing artist!!!!!!!!! So many of your ideas inspier me and my wonderful team to support the message at our church in a more ecreative and impactful way. We have recently been challanged to now support the message not seasonally but by subject. This causes us to spend a lot more time and budget to get the job done. However we chose to spend that 1,000.00 on lighting,how do you met this challange? Can you give me more spacific ideas using lighting to help make our old stuff look great? I love what you do and want to use as many ideas I can. I am a High School Science Teacher ( Horticulture science) So I know brainstorming in a group can result in awsome things. I just need help keeping goning on such a small ( “o”) budget for this year!

    Ronda Kurka

    • Jason says:

      Thank you Ronda!

      1,000 can go a long way with lighting, or a very short way depending on how you go about it. We’ve gotten great results using cheap clip lamps from Home Depot and using all sorts of different wattage bulbs in different colors. Colors and light temperature definitely contribute a huge part to setting the mood. You probably want to stay away from fluorescent lighting (amidst the energy saving benefits and longer bulb life) and stick with incandescent bulbs. Also with lighting you want to be very aware if your power source, so that you are not overloading the circuit. I can go into more details in an email if you wish to contact me further!

  8. Dave says:

    Awesome set, guys! Loved the time lapse!

    Just curious, did you do anything to treat the pallet wood before using it for the wall? We’re looking at doing a pallet-based design but are unsure if we need to go though the trouble of washing, sanding, staining, or painting the wood!

    Thanks for the post!

    • Jason says:

      Thanks Dave!

      We did not treat the wood in anyway. I was going for the raw, weathered look, which all of the pallets we found already had. I was counting on the pallets being all sorts of different colors, and that some would be new and clean and others would be old and dirty. You definitely want to avoid retrieving pallets from grocery stores or dining establishments because they will use pallets to transport produce, and with that comes along all sorts of bacteria and other nasty items that you don’t want to deal with!

  9. Eric says:

    we’re working on a similar backdrop at our new church building that we’re renovating! Thanks for the inspiration… it’s coming along, take a look:
    http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/294897_331832093603405_1721405472_n.jpg

    • Tyler says:

      Did you build the wall the same way that is described at the top of this page? It look a little different, did you use a wooden frame? I really like the look you have and I am wanting to do the same thing in my youth room that i am building. I dont want this as a stage design but as a wall in our lobby. thanks for you help!

  10. Eric says:

    We built it very similarly. We framed the wall with sideways 2×4’s and used a finish nailer. Took 6 of us about 6 hours.

  11. Angela says:

    We are thinking about doing something similar, I was wondering about how this affected the sound? Do you know?

    • Jason says:

      At the scale we built it, the wall acts as a sound dampener. The broken up surface helped to tame the natural reflections from sound bouncing off the flat back wall. Our drummers can now play louder without completely overwhelming the band :)

  12. Eric says:

    Ours in making an excellent sound baffle, eliminating reflections pretty nicely. Here is an updated pic of ours… we’re still working on it and hope to move into our new facility Late March!
    https://twitter.com/ewagenmaker/status/306572945545900034/photo/1

  13. Cheryl says:

    What did you find the best/easiest way to take the slats off the pallets?

  14. Road to Life church says:

    Hey!
    We are doing this design for our entire youth room! It’s very innovative and elegant! I was wondering how many pallets it took to cover that size wall?

  15. Lindsey says:

    Jason, our church is relaunching on Easter and we want to do this for our sanctuary! Did you light the cross from behind? Or did you just place a reflective material behind the gap and light it from the front? If from behind, what lights did you use?

  16. Cathy says:

    Is there any need to treat the wood for fire protection?

  17. Clifford Fahl says:

    Very cool design!
    Our worship pastor asked about looking into trying this in our main room.
    We currently have a concrete back wall covered with a heavy drape.
    I am wondering if anyone would have an idea what the acoustical difference would be between the two. I would hate to move from one to the other and then have sound issues. I appreciate any comments given.
    Cliff

  18. sam says:

    This looks awesome. What about dusting and cleanup? Does it accumulate crap over time? Any other concerns after a few months of use?

  19. Nelson says:

    Hey Jason, just wondering what kind of lights did you use to light up the wall? Thanks

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