Building with pallets

Pallets are all the rage right now and I’ve seen some pretty cool things made out of them.

These are some of my favorites…

Lori Danielle’s toddler bed.  Is this not AWESOME?!!  Hudson might need one of these when he gets bigger.

 

Ashley Ann's pallet reading bed.  She made this for her little girl’s room and it is totally adorable.  I love it!  I want one in my house, I just don’t know where I would put it.

 

And check out this table made from old pallets over at Funky Junk Interiors!  So creative and original!

 

She also made this t.v. stand from an old pallet.  A-MAZING!!

 

These ladies totally inspire me and make me want to build something with a pallet!

The other day, Tim scored a pallet for me from his work, but since I have no experience in the building department, I wasn’t quite ready to tackle major furniture projects yet.  My mind started brainstorming things I could make with it. 

 

Now, you may already know this, but crates are also very trendy right now in home decor.  The problem is that they can be quite expensive when you try to get vintage ones.

Check out these photos from decor8.

Don’t you just love crates now?!!  I do!  And after seeing those photos, I decided I needed some crates in my house pronto.  And Ana White had plans on her site for building them.  I thought this would be the perfect starter project for me.  So during naptime, I dragged Tim down to the garage to help me build a crate using wood from our pallet. 

First, we had to get the boards off the pallet.  Not a lot of fun and some boards split.  But my attitude with this project was, the more character, the better.

Next came measuring and cutting the boards.  I can measure, but I’ve never cut anything with a circular saw in my life.  (Well, maybe I did in Shop class when I was in high school, but that was literally a lifetime ago, and I don’t remember a thing about it.)  I was a tad scared to use the saw (mostly for fear of losing a finger), but I wanted to learn because I have big dreams of building things and I can’t always convince Tim that we need to build something, so it is pertinent that I can do this myself.  So I made myself get brave and Tim showed me the ropes, or um…  the saw.  And look at me go!  And I still have all of my fingers, thank you!

After cutting the wood, we started piecing it together.  We temporarily taped the pieces that had split, then used a staple gun to hold them together.  We probably should have used some wood glue too, but we were in a hurry (naptime had come to an end) and we just wanted to get our crate finished.

 

Tim did all the hammering while I held and entertained kiddos. 

 

And here is our crate!  The best part – it was free! 

 

After finishing, I decided it needed a little more character.  So I used some stencils and a Sharpie to write our anniversary on it.  I sanded it afterwards to give it an older feel.

 

And since I need something to keep my roaring fire going, I filled it with pinecones.

 

Yes, I know it’s no bed or table, but I’m pretty proud of my first little building project. 

 

Now, I just need to get some more pallets!