American Pie Life: Pallet Projects

Pallet Coffee Table DIY

We are in the process of making a DIY pallet table. I thought maybe we could take two or three pallets, screw them together, put some casters on and slap some paint on but oh, no! It's never that easy!

We ended up taking the pallets apart. We don't take the nails out of the pallets, we usually just try to find long one and cut them straight up through the pallet. As you can see, we get a pretty long piece of wood from this pallet. Once all the long boards have been removed, my husband will yank the nails out of the 2X4 and we use that part too sometimes.

My husband decided to build a frame from 2X4's instead of using the pallets. None of the pallets we have are complete or need many of the boards replaced. I also didn't want 1"-2" gaps on the top of the table. That would have been okay if we were going to get a piece of glass for the top of it but I don't want a glass top, I want a wood top.

Here my husband is putting the longer pieces on first.

We didn't have enough long pieces so we decided to piece in with shorter pieces then cut the middle section to fit.

It really is like putting a puzzle together. Once we got all the pieces cut and fit snug, we used a nail gun to nail the boards down.

This is the underside of the table. Our next step will be to build in pieces for the middle and bottom of the table so I needed to go ahead and paint the underside. I did a dry brush method. That's where you put very little paint on the brush and quickly slide it across your surface so it doesn't completely cover it. It gives a rustic look.

Here is the table top in it's raw form. I will also be dry brushing chalk paint on it once it's all finished.

25 Vintage DIY Coffee Table Ideas ... this is an awesome coffee table ...

This is what it will look like when we are done. I got the inspiration from Little House Of Four on her ideas for pallet projects. I will share the results as soon as we are finished. School is starting so it's been put on hold for a couple of weeks.

Hobby Lobby, "Love" Hack

I have been looking at pallet projects at Hobby Lobby. Not only were they expensive, they were also not the right size for my large wall and I had a stack of pallets outside my garage I had picked up from one of the parents at my school's business.

Here are the two pieces of art I used for inspiration at Hobby Lobby.

This piece wasn't on a pallet but could easily be painted on a pallet.

Here is my pallet art for my bedroom wall. I had to use two pallets. When you get a pallets, the boards aren't right next to each. They usually have a space one to two inches apart between the boards. I pried the boards up and placed them side by side and used some from another pallet. Since I did this, the boards were different colors so I dry brushed the background color with gray paint. I didn't have the color I wanted so I just used black and white acrylic paint and mixed the color I wanted. When you dry paint, you don't need a lot of paint. You put some paint on your paintbrush and wipe the excess off on a rag. What is left on the brush you paint on the pallet.

I didn't like just the one color of gray on the pallet so dry brushed some white over the gray here and there to blend it to add texture and dimension.

After the gray paint dried, I drew a heart on a large roll of butcher paper I had on hand. After I had the shape I wanted I cut the heart out and traced it on the pallet. (Sorry, I didn't get pictures of this process).

I painted the heart white. It took about three coats of white paint to cover the gray paint. I dry brushed the heart too. While this was drying I practiced the, "Love" letters on the butcher paper heart I had cut out. I took some time to get it just right. I looked at the Hobby Lobby example on my phone for a guide. Of course they aren't just alike but I liked how it turned out.

I traced the word onto the white heart. I used a very fine paint brush because the edges needed to be very straight and pallet wood is very rough. I used a larger paint brush to fill in the larger areas of the letters. I used Dutch Boy Dura Clean in Pomegranate from Menards. I plan on painting a dresser in my bedroom this color so it will match the dresser.

When it was finished, I put two picture frame hangers on the back. I have another project I want to hang next to it so I haven't hung it on the wall yet.

Let me know what you think. I always love feedback!