It can be very painful to lose a beloved pet. While some people like the idea of burying their pet in a part of the yard and marking its place with a tree or another form or marker, some pet owners want to cremate their pet and store their remains in a wooden urn, to keep the memories and their pet closer to them. Below are the steps on how to make a wooden pet urn.
A few decisions. The size of the pet urn is dependent on how big your pet is. It can be a small five-inch by five-inch wooden box or it can be as large as a two-foot square box. Decide what type of wood you will use for the pet urn. You can use any scrap pieces of wood or buy a piece of hardwood lumber.
Here are the steps for making the urn:
- Measure the size of the urn you are going to make on the piece of lumber you have chosen. Cut four parts for the sides of the urn. Cut two square pieces that will fit the top and bottom of the urn. You can buy the smallest piece of drawer knob that you can find or use a toy marble and attach it on top of one of the end squares.
- Assemble the pieces together. Add wood glue on the long pieces of wood and place the edges flush against each other. Do two sides first. You can use finishing nails to attach the sides. Do the rest to complete all sides.
- Dab some wood glue along the edge of the flat side of an end square and place it over one end of the urn, making sure that it sits perfectly in place.
- Seal the inside and outside of the urn with wood filler. This will ensure that the urn will be airtight. Place the remains of your pet inside the box and place the top cover, the one with the handle. Add wood glue to the underside of the cover and place it on top of the urn. Add wood filler to seal the joints and allow the whole thing to dry before you apply the finishing touches.
- You can paint the wooden urn after the glue and wood filler has dried or apply wood stain and polyurethane finish.
- A novel idea will be to cut a pattern of your pet, out of thin wood and paint it accordingly. You can either attach the wooden urn to the back of the pet cutout or you can cut a space in the middle of the cutout and slip the wooden urn in between, making the wooden urn as part of the body of the pet cutout. Extending the design of the pet cutout to go over the side of the wooden urn will make it look like one whole piece. Seal the gaps with wood filler before you paint it over.
- If you do not want to use a wood pet cutout you can use photos of your pet and decoupage your pet urn with these. You can use several to go around the urn or you can use one large photo and place it in the middle. Use super glue to attach the photo or photos to the urn and allow them to dry. Laminate the photos to the urn with several coats of clear spray lacquer. Mask the other areas that should not be laminated by covering these areas with plastic and masking tape. You can add a printout of your pet’s name and do the same treatment to it. If your pet is a dog you can attach the dog tag to the urn by drilling holes on both ends and screwing the tag in place.
Display your finished wooden pet urn where you want it to be. You can place it on the mantel over your fireplace or on shelf where you and your family members can see it and be reminded of the happy times you had with your pet.