The first project that I completed was an attempt to ease the awkwardness of running inside a closet by mounting a tv in front of the treadmill. I unfortunately didn’t document that one…but here’s what it looked like;

While running and staring at the tv, I began to think of a way to dress it up a little more to make it look less unfinished. I’m not sure if this closet will always be designated as a treadmill closet…so I wanted to make something that could easily be removed and restored to a standard shelf with clothes hanger. I decided to make a simple facing to cover up some of the blank space.

I started by cutting a 1×3″ that would make the top and bottom horizontals. I then measured and placed the inside verticals that would sit up right against the tv. Once I had this frame, I added in filler pieces. I decided to go with a diagonal design to fit in with some of the other chevron patterns throughout the office. I used a finish nailer and nailed from the inside out so that there would be less nail holes. I needed to notch out where it would fit over the existing closet supports. I also drilled a hole for the IR remote sensor. I nailed in two support verticals into the closet support, slid the face over everything and then nailed it into place. To finish it off, I added a simple top plate and bottom plate.

There’s a couple of other organizational types of projects that I would like to incorporate into the closet and when all is said I done….I’ll slap a fresh coat of paint over everything. For now, this gives me something a little more pleasant to stare at while running.

I then took it all apart for staining/sealing. I followed the same stain/sealing process that I’ve been using lately. In essence; pre-stain wood conditioner, two coats of stain (Early American on this one), one coat of sanding sealer, sanding with 220 grit, 4-6 coats of General Arm-R-Seal (I use semi-gloss), sand with 220 grit before final coat, one last final coat of Arm-R-Seal.

Here’s how it turned out;

It was quite the project and I need to start off by thanking all of the folks that helped us knock this entire project out in ONE day! Thank you!

I started by collecting pallets. Craigslist has a bunch of listings in their free section and it’s a matter of constantly checking. I found a good amount of untreated pallets that we’re in “newish” condition, so I mixed up several different shades of stain to give the wood some different tones. I also left them all outside for about a month to add to the “weathered” look. About a week before the construction of the wall, I moved all the pallets inside so that they would dry out.

The wall was prepped with 1/2″ OSB plywood screwed into the studs of the wall. This is to protect the drywall from having a million nail holes in it as well as give the pallets something solid to be nailed into.

Here’s the room before;

The day of construction, I invited a ton of friends over to help and divided out a bunch of the tasks. The overall flow of the process was;

• Deconstruct the pallets. Either using a reciprocating saw to cut the nails or just using a circular saw to cut in between
• Remove any nail heads
• Rip the pallets down to either a 3″ width or 5″ width. *very important. This made installing the planks onto the wall extremely easy because then you either had a 3″ row or a 5″ row and I knew they were all a consistent width
• Square up the edges with the miter saw
• Sand down both sides. We did this to remove dirt/debris as well as smooth out the wood.

Once all the wood was prepped and ready to install we started to attach it to the wall. I used 1″ finishing nails and started at the top corner. I simply followed the ceiling line and nailed it into place. I would switch from going right to left and then left to right and staggered my cuts/widths/colors as best as I could.

My plan for above the window was to rip down the entire row to the width needed so that it would be a nice straight line. We actually lucked out and it was exactly 5″. But I did use this rule of thumb throughout the project and needed to rip down the rows for the bottom of the window, the row above the outlets, and the final row above the baseboard. One little detail that I did around the window was I took my router to all the edges that would butt up to the window…and rounded off the edges. Also, around the window, I would start at the window and work my way out to the walls.Towards the bottom part of the window, I needed to custom notch out the end pieces. I opted to extend the outlets out from the wall and so I made sure to end those rows correctly.

My original plan was to go as far down to the carpet as I could and then install some new baseboard coming out….but….I just stopped right where the baseboard ends. I figured once the changing table, crib, and ottoman are against the wall that it’ll hardly be noticeable…..and if I want to change it later, I can still add the baseboard.

Because we had so many people helping with disassembling of pallets, sanding, and installing….the wall only took ONE day! As a fun momento, I had our friends sign the wall and write little messages to Tucker.

Once the wall was finished, I brushed on 3 coats of water-based polyurethane in satin. This definitely darkened the wood but gives us some peace of mind that it is fully sealed and that Tucker is protected. When you run your hand across the wood it now feels great.

So here’s the wall….some of the iphone’s panorama pictures look a little funny but hopefully it gives you a good sense of the room. The pallet wall totally changes the entire “feel” of his little man cave. Keep checking back and we’ll be posting some more details as the room continues to take shape.

If you’ve been around our blog for a while, you know that I look for ways to utilize every piece of scrap. So I decided to whip together a little patio table out of all the leftover pieces. Since this is going to be a random patio table built out of pallets, I didn’t take it too seriously. In fact, I used a framing nailer for 80% of the build, a finish nailer for 19%, and then used a few pocket screws.

Alrightie….the design came from something I saw on pinterest, here, as well as on Shanty-2-Chic, here. Since I was just using a framing nailer, the process was a little different…so if you’re looking at building this the correct way be sure to check out Shanty-2-Chic or Ana-White.

I started by cutting and laying out my pieces for the table legs. I nailed my first horizontal piece into the two vertical pieces clamped together. I then nailed my 2nd horizontal piece into the first. I then added little 3″x3″ pieces that would serve as the feet but, I later took those off, added some beefy pallet pieces (4×4″s) and then put the feet back on to give the table some height. I then nailed the first top horizontal piece to the vertical pieces and proceeded to nail the second piece to the first. I added the 45 degreee pieces on each side and then also nailed the two vertical pieces to one another and removed the clamps. Repeat.

Once the legs were built, I attached a bottom stretcher using pocket screws, attached a top stretcher, and then cut and attached the diagonals.

Looks great right? Unfortunately, my measurements were way off and it was a very short table. I was thinking about making it into a kids table but decided to raise it up some. As mentioned earlier, I removed the feet and attached a big beefy 4×4″ pallet scrap to the bottom horizontals. I then added some scrap 2×4″ to the top horizontal pieces. I also added some 2×4″ framing to prepare for the tabletop. I decided to finish off the tabletop with pallet planks. I simply laid out my design and used my finish nailer to nail them all into place. Once completed, I took my circular saw and cut all the ends for a nice straight cut. I decided to wrap the tabletop edges with some thin scrap pieces to give it a little more finished look. Here’s how it all turned out.

So…..that’s one way to re-use and recycle some pallets….whatcha think?

I utilized some plans from Ana-White and customized based on the measurements that I needed as well as the scraps that I had available.

We debated on stain or paint….and we thought it would be good to drop some fun colors from the bedspread onto the bedside tables. I used some sample paint colors that we had sitting around and it was supposed to turn out a vibrant yellow. It looked great down in the garage and as soon as we brought them upstairs against the bright green that’s on the walls….the color got washed out. We may need to repaint them….but for now, it’ll serve it’s function.

For painting….I was excited to try out spraying again with my HVLP. I got some great coverage but it turned out a little gritty…..so my latest secret for creating a nice/smooth finish has been to apply several coats of paint, then buff it down with 220 grit just a little bit, then apply a coat or two of Polycrylic (whatever finish you want….I like semi-gloss), buff that down with 22o grit, and then apply one last coat of Polycrylic. I haven’t tried spraying it with Polycrylic, but I think that could work out great too.

Here’s a little gallery of the bedside tables.

For whatever reason, these pictures didn’t turn out well….but there’s some major construction going on in Tucker’s room today….so you’ll definitely need to check back for the full nursery reveal soon

I followed the principles of the simple photo ledge plans that are all over the internet. I think I found some at Ana-White, Young House Love, and Shanty2Chic, and combined them all together to create mine.

I used a 1×4″ for the back, a 1×3″ for the bottom, and a 1×2″ for the front lip. I used wood glue and screws to attach the 1×4″ to the 1×3″. I then used wood glue and my finish nailer to attach the 1×2″ to the 1×3″. This seriously took about 10 minutes to do all 4. And the supplies were real cheap.

I sanded them down and applied two coats of trim paint.

Once they were built, I used a stud finder on the wall to figure out where all my stud options were and then strategically placed and marked where I wanted the ledges to land so that they could be screwed into the studs. I then marked and drilled holes for all 4 picture ledges at the same locations. On the front side, I drilled some countersinking holes for the screws that would be used to attach to the studs. I used 2.5″ screws to attach to the wall.

Super fast project, really cheap, and it holds a ton of Tucker’s books, stuffed animals, and more. We don’t think it looks too bad either. The pictures are no good…..but once again, you’ll have to come back and see the whole thing!

It was a fast and simple build. All I had to do was disassemble the bench (it was pretty flimsy and just needed a couple hits of the hammer), rip down the pieces of wood to the width and lengths that I wanted, and then use some pocket holes to join the wood together. For some extra reinforcement, I nailed in some small scrap pieces onto the back. Once built, I sanded it down with 220 grit to remove any dirt/grime/peeling paint on both sides.

We wanted to paint something special onto the sign, so we decided to paint “Palmer Point,” onto it which has been a long standing summer spot for Ellie’s family. Come to find out, there are actually a lot of family ties to the “Tucker,” name that all reside around Palmer Point. Win-win! I’m not the artist in our family and didn’t want to attempt to freehand this….so I created a little mock-up on PowerPoint, hooked up an LCD projector, and with the board blocked off with painter’s tape, I stenciled the outline. Once outlined, I used a utility knife to cut away the painter’s tape. One coat of paint was all it took. I then sanded the painted part down with 220 grit (sanding block for this one) to smooth it out as well as give it an aged look.

I drilled some holes and screwed the sign into some studs and here it is finished.

 I still have some leftover wood from the bench. Any other ideas of what I can use it for?

My measurements are slightly smaller due to fit of the room and also I wanted to use scrap wood flooring and had a limited supply. I began the project by gluing up the table top and was hoping to cut the circle out of that. Come to find out, a 13″ square shelf requires a larger circle tabletop than 18″….so I needed to abandon my plan for the tabletop. I was able to use the scrap flooring to make the bottom shelves, scrap 2×4″ (ripped down to 3″) as the table legs, and then I bought a project panel from Lowe’s that I cut to 21″ circles.

After it was all constructed, I sprayed it with primer then two coats of “Rainwater,” from Martha Stewart. I decided to seal it off with two coats of polycrylic and then did a very light distressing to it. Here’s some close-ups of the finished product. You like?