Christmas Designs

Barn Fragments

Robin Lear from Calvary Church in Dover, Delaware brings us this modern, yet rustic manger scene. (originally posted January 2016)

They used this for their 2015 Christmas Production, Christmas is the Best Time of the Year. Robin was inspired by the manger from Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Show in New York City.

With the recent design trend and interest in reclaimed lumber, Robin was able to use the wood from an old broken down fence that was behind one of the buildings on their facility. Their stage is 20’x40′, so they designed it with those proportions in mind.

The entire structure was built on two 4x6x8 steel cages with wheels, bolted together, making the base 16ft long, 4ft tall, and the platform 6ft deep. The upright ‘posts’ were 1×8’s bolted together to look like posts. The roof was created using new lumber. All of the new lumber was roughed up to make it look ‘old’. They washed the new lumber with a watery mix of brown and black paint to make it look like the old fence lumber that they used to make the base.

Robin usually starts with a concept sketch, then makes a model to scale, and then begins execution.

They bolted 1×6’s to the inside of the steel frame to give them something to attach the reclaimed wood piece to. The star was created by using 2″ foam insulation from Lowes. Robin drew the pattern out on the foam and used a band saw to make the cuts. They cut and glued several layers to give it depth and dimension. Afterwards Robin covered it in foam coat from Rosebrand to help protect it, painted it white, sprayed it with foam adhesive, and covered it in large format glitter.

The biggest expense was the steel cages and wheels, which was approximately $1000 for both of them and the new lumber they used for the ‘posts’.

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Hexahere Hanging Salvage

3 responses to “Barn Fragments”

  1. Wayne Miller says:

    Very nice!

  2. matthew ivey says:

    Hey! How did y’all do the stars in the background? Thanks in advance!

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