How to Design a Unique Casket

At a funeral one of the most meaningful ways to say goodbye is with personal touches that celebrate the person's life and personality, such as a custom casket. Most casket makers offer a range of choices about different features to make a standard casket more unique. This article will show you how to take advantage of these choices to design a casket that expresses the style and personality of the deceased.

Instructions

1. Choose the material. Metal choices include durable bronze and copper or stainless and carbon steel in a variety of grades, finishes and styles. Common wood caskets are made from oak, walnut, pine, redwood and poplar. Consider a cloth-covered casket, made of fiberboard or pressed soft woods, as an economical choice or to express one's ecological principles.

2. Select the finishing for a metal casket. Traditional colors include platinum white, silver, metallic rose, burnished gold and shiny onyx. Browse the different metals and styles for handles.

3. Decide whether to adorn the custom casket with engravings or symbols. Consider adding a figurine into the casket corner which can be removed before burial and kept as a family keepsake. Common figurine themes include patriotism, nature, sports, religion and family. Ask about custom engravings on the surface or sides of a wooden casket. You may add the deceased's name or any religious symbols, poems, blessings or family emblems.

4. Add a commemorative inner panel or throw a blanket to hang over the side of the casket. Both will be visible during the visitation and funeral service and may boast an icon of the deceased's association, club, military branch or other symbol reminiscent of a favorite hobby or pastime, like a locomotive or musical notes.

5. Ask about installing a memory shelf or drawer to the custom casket where you may store keepsakes, personal mementos and goodbye messages. Display the items during the funeral service and decide whether to take them home as reminders or leave them in the casket.

Resources

• Browse a directory of casket makers at the National Casket Retailers Association.
• Shop for a casket with the unique memory shelf from Batesville Casket Company.