Wood Pallet Bookshelf - a mini tutorial

When I saw this project on Pinterest, I knew I just *had* to make it for Will's room. Luckily, my hubby was able to get his hands on a wood pallet for me. When he brought it home, our conversation went something like this:

"Here's the wood pallet you wanted for that bookshelf."
"Oh, thanks! But...it's so....new."
"Yeah, I got the best one I could find."
"I was kind of hoping for something older and more weathered. Now I'm going to have to beat it with a hammer."
"What? But I thought....I just.....never mind."

I'm pretty sure he's done trying to understand me when it comes to my crafting and DIY projects.

So I loaded my new pallet in my car and headed to my Dad's garage to borrow his tools. Or...just, ummmm, just watch him use his tools.

But in all honesty, this is a pretty basic woodworking project and if you have a saw and a drill, you can totally do it sans husband.

Some wood pallets are slightly different, but they generally look like a variation of this:





One pallet should make four shelves. Make your cuts as shown in the picture below. Except, you know...straighter.



Next, you'll need to measure the inside of the bottoms of your newly made shelves so that you can cut 2x4's to size and screw them in place. Otherwise, all your books will fall out the bottom of your nifty new shelf.

To finish them off, I took a little electric sander and tried to get the edges and corners as smooth as possible. Because I wasn't happy with the new wood, I took a hammer and some nails and scraped to give the wood some more character. Then, I took my can of stain and used a brush to run over the surface of the shelves one time. After each brushstroke I immediately used a rag to rub in the stain.

Then I had to wait a week for the smell to wear off before I could bring them in the house. I couldn't wait to get these things on the wall!





I am SO pleased with how they turned out. They hold a lot more books than I excepted - each shelf holds at least 20-25 books of various sizes - and it's so easy for kids to access and put away their own books.


I have one shelf left that I didn't use in Will's room and I think I'm going to paint it white and use it as a craft supply/coloring book/school book center in our little craft corner. The possibilities are endless! Honestly, I wouldn't mind having a set of these in my living room!



I have pictures of all the DIY projects I did for Will's room, hopefully I'll get that posted this week. I love how it all came together, it's definitely a room he can grow into and hopefully he'll stay interested in horses and cowboys. :)

Molly