A little while ago I made a new shelf for my dining room. Then when I saw this linked up at one of my Tuesday link parties I was like genius! That would be perfect for my new shelf! I have seen other pallet art and love the look. So I had to do some investigating to find out where I can get a hold of a very old pallet. My neighbors know where to get just about anything in this town, so I asked them and they directed me to a cement plant. I called them and they said they had some out by their dumpster I could just have. So I asked my husband to swing by there on his way home from work. And he did, he loaded this old dirty pallet in to his car, in his suit and dress shoes. It was very nice of him 🙂

So I had this great, old looking pallet that I assumed I would just pry off the slats and then nail them together… but it wasn’t that easy. I went back to my neighbor, (it’s a good thing my neighbor is retired so that when I am doing projects and need extra tools, I can just ask him if Danny is at work). The nails were so old and the wood was so hard, that I couldn’t just pry them off. My neighbor suggested this tool… not the hammer, I know what that is! The other thing, it’s like a miniature crowbar, that you slide under the nail head and then use the hammer to pound the nail up. These nails were so old that the nail head just popped off. After getting the nail heads off, my husband just hammered the slats of wood from the other side and they came off. So it took a little work.

Once I had the slats, I just cut four boards different lengths and then two shorter ones that would go across to hold the boards together. And I thought I would just hammer a few nails in there and be done in like 3 minutes…. but again, with the really hard wood, all my nails kept bending. I went through a lot of nails, but finally was able to nail the boards together.

Then I just used stencils and painted “Love At Home,” something that is a great reminder for us to have in our living room. After the paint dried, I sanded it down a little to give it a worn in look.

Overall it was pretty easy, just working with the old wood was more work than I expected. But now that I know, I am better prepared for other pallet projects. This is one of a few projects I have been working on for my dining room. I will have a complete room reveal soon.