I built my own coffin to use as a bookshelf until I die

People are dying for this DIY project.

Across the country people are building their own coffins — and then displaying them as decoration in their homes until their deaths.

Leona Oceania, 52, of Portland, Maine has a set of beautiful pine bookshelves displaying her favorite books and a few knickknacks in her living room.

She told the Wall Street Journal that guests “tend to check it out” but few guess that the shelves will one day be removed to make room for Oceania as she’s laid to rest and buried in her homemade coffin née bookshelf.

“[Death] has always intrigued me. I don’t think in a weird way,” she explained.

Oceania works as an administrator at a municipal public works department and doubles as a death doula, as well as a home funeral guide, hospice volunteer and public speaker on the art of dying well, according to the Journal.

Chuck Lakin, a retired college librarian who lives in Waterville, Maine, helped Oceania to build her coffin/bookshelf as part of his coffin-making course. He also makes customized coffins to order.

Lakin’s website, Lastthings.net, is a place “for those who want to be more in control of what happens to their own body after death, or would like to explore ways to care for a loved one’s body after death.”

He works to help people understand lower-cost alternatives to coffins and services available at funeral homes — including building your own.

Those interested in creating their own final resting place can attend one of Lakin’s courses or download plans from his website, choosing from a “quck,” “toe pincher,” “green,” “wedged,” “plywood” or “bookcase” coffin. He told The Post that building a coffin costs about $300 for the lumber and about $500 for his expertise.

A typical family usually spends about $2,000 to $3,000 on a coffin, Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, which tries to protect grieving families from excessive costs, told the Journal.

Woodworker Lakin was inspired to help others navigate alternative funeral proceedings after his father’s felt impersonal. He’s been making an average of three to five coffins a year since 2000 but made 10 last year.

Lakin told The Post that it is an “honor” to help people through what can be a difficult time.

To attract people to his courses, Lakin can be found at the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity, Maine nearly every September where he displays one of his homemade coffins.

“There are always people who want to have their picture taken in the coffin,” he told the Journal. “Thinner people have squeezed two of them in there.”

Lakin even ventured out of Maine to Massachusetts to host a coffin-building workshop at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Greenfield.

The morbid but fun project took about two to three hours of work and laughter, according to one attendee.

‘I want to be taken from my bed to the box and then directly to the burial site we have in our pasture.’

“We just had so much fun,” Joan Pillsbury, a retired nurse, told the Journal. At one point, Pillsbury climbed into her own coffin and laid down to get the best angle for her power drill.

“We were laughing,” she remembered. The amateur carpenters were so mesmerized by their work that they forgot to touch any of the snacks and refreshments provided.

After crawling out of her completed coffin, Pillsbury loaded it up into the back of her Subaru station wagon and later set it up in her home’s exercise room.

“I think, that’s one thing my kids won’t have to do,” she said of easing the burden of her burial plans.

Donald Joralemon, 69, a professor emeritus of anthropology at Smith College, also brought home a handmade coffin from Lakin’s event. He added a coat of shellac to it and put it on wooden blocks in his basement.

He’s at ease with the thought of his death and has laid out clear and simple instructions to his family members in preparation for his passing.

“I want to be taken from my bed to the box and then directly to the burial site we have in our pasture,” he said.

For those unable to make it to New England to get Lakin’s help, Casket Builder Supply sells a range of products including casket shells and kits ranging from $849 to $2,199.

Now that is something to take to your grave.