DIY Rustic Pallet Shelves

When we first moved into our house, the wall behind the sectional in our family gathering room remained bare for months on end. It's an awkwardly long wall that should really be divided into sections when it comes to decor purposes however without two or even three noticeably distinct "sections" at the moment, it's been quite the difficult space to decorate. Not only does the sectional take up space along this wall but a spare changing table as well as my parsons desk also lie along this wall, neither of which is a permanent fixture in this room. 

About year ago I hung a few black shelves smack dab in the middle of the wall and staged them with pictures of our family and a few other tchotkes. I loved that set up for a whole month or two before I started begging the husband to take them down and patch the holes in the wall so that I could start with a fresh space. 

And then I was back at square one. For months and months that wall sat bare until I stumbled across these pallet shelves on Pinterest. I loved the rustic, weathered look to them and the way the design really fit in with the vibe of our kitchen which also happens to be attached to our family gathering room. 

Source: thefancy.com via Krista on Pinterest

I quickly bookmarked the pin on my phone and sent a screenshot of the picture to my husband. Although I could probably power-tool it up with the best of them, I knew this one was better left to the "professional" in our marriage. Immediately he responded with how "cool" he thought they were and that's when I knew I had him roped in to Project Pallet Shelves. 

Thankfully the TV that my husband gifted himself for Christmas arrived shortly after oh, you guessed it, a pallet! We were all set to start hitting up local hardware stores to see if they had any to spare and lo and behold one was delivered right to our doorstep. It was fate. 

One pallet yielded three of the shelves we made and not a single piece of pallet wood was left. For the bottom of two of the shelves, my husband ripped down two strips of half-inch plywood to fit the bottoms whereas with one shelf he was able to fit in the last of the pallet itself. 

For this project you will need a circular saw and 16-gauge finishing nail gun. With the particular pallet that we used, we were able to make two of the shelves from each end of the pallet. The middle was then deconstructed and reconstructed to match the two ends. I did not take step-by-step pictures because a) my husband built them and b) someone had to watch our kids. 

You can find a better tutorial for the actual construction here. Once the shelves were finished, I stained them with MinWax English Chestnut stain by simply pouring a little of the stain onto a rag and then just rubbing it into the wood along the grain. Because I was going for a bit more "rustic" look, I chose a chestnut-hue although I was very close to choosing a weathered grey stain but didn't like how it looked when I tried a little test spot on the back of the shelves! 

Needless to say I am obsessed with the final product and I think I've finally found a more permanent fixture for that awkward wall! 

I cannot believe this is already week THREE of the Dog Days {of Winter} Are Over Project Challenge! I've had such fun challenging myself each week with something new to work on, I'll be so sad when it's over! This week we challenged you to pick one project from your Pinterest pin board and "MAKE IT!" I cannot wait to see what you've all come up with- I'm so inspired by your creativity and craftiness each week! In fact, I may have several projects on the back burner inspired by some of the incredible projects that have been linked up. 

Be sure to check back here tomorrow to link up your projects! Remember, you only need to link up with one blog to have your project seen on all NINE of the hosts! So grab your coffee and your Honey-Do list and head back here tomorrow morning to see what everyone has been up to! 

additionally linking this post up here with The Better Mom 
and here with Uncommon Designs.