"Wood"n't you like a sign?

When you have scraps from your left over pallets, what do you do with them? Well... you stick them together, paint them and hang it up in your house, of course!

Start first by sanding down all of your pieces. You can do it after you put them together, but it makes it more difficult to get the splinters out of the crevices. If you want to cut the boards to the same length, that is your option, or it can look just as good with different lengths. Stagger them a little bit, and they still look great!

Use two smaller pieces to cross the boards on the back and screw the planks into them. 

HLT(Handy Little Tip): You will need to measure the depth of your boards to make sure you have the correct screws. I have found that 1 1/4" screws work for most pallet boards, unless your have REALLY thick planks.

Paint your boards with a base primer. If you want your sign to go outside: then make sure to use exterior paint. Indoor signs can use either. Or if you want the knots and coloring to show through, then skip the primer step.

I painted this one with a dark red acrylic craft paint for the back ground color. Once it was dry, I started dry-brushing on a Mediterranean Blue.
To Dry Brush: Use a wide bristled paint brush (or chip brush). Dip just the tips barely into your paint and then blot the majority of that paint onto a paper towel (or washable towel for a recyclable alternative). Then brush on in the same direction as the grain of wood. Slowly at first then you can layer on until you are happy with the result.

Next, you can add your lettering.
Print off your words in the size that you want to fit your sign. You may need to play around with font size and type to get it just right. Lay them out and check to see if they fit.

Then flip them over and trace your lettering with a charcoal pencil. Once you have them all traced, flipped each one over and use a pencil to color over the outline of the letters. This transfers the charcoal onto the board for a nice outline.

Then paint in.
I hand drew in a heart instead of the "O" and filled it in with a layer of Modge Podge, Glitter, and another layer of Modge Podge on top to seal it in.

Top coat the sign using clear top coat spray paint.

Install your picture hangers on the back. Use a level to place your hangers. That way even if your boards are wonky or half there - your sign can still be level on the wall.

HLT: Use needle nose pliers to hold those tiny little nails while hammering to avoid smashed fingers.

Coffee on your Pallete... Table

Need a coffee table that says "I love to be outdoors!"? Well, here is my version.

Say Hello to my recovered pallets! I rescued these bad boys from my warehouse dumpster. They are super heavy because of what they were made to carry, so they are perfect for furniture!

Note that there are many different sizes, shapes and weights of pallets, so you should decide what you are looking for if your are pairing some up. Since this project was going to be outdoors, I wanted something that the Oklahoma winds wouldn't take off with.

So the first step was to remove the boards that I didn't want. I wanted a flush top, so I had to remove some boards in order to relocate them next to each other, otherwise I would have been cutting tiny boards to fit. And..... Nope. So I stole some from the other pallet to add to this one.

Using a hammer and crowbar I jimmied the boards off one by one. This can take some finesse.

Because Pallets are made, usually of scrap lumber, they are easy to break. So you end up with splintered pieces (see pic). Therefore it is always a good idea to have a spare.








One of the most irritating part of the whole process, is removing the nails/ screws. See Pallets are put together with the intention of staying together and use these nasty little half-nail/half-screw combos: called Shank Steel nail/screws, that has a small piece of steel or copper wire that juts out from the side. Once they are screwed in it is meant to be permanent.

They are usually placed in the center and side supports. You will splinter many a board trying to pry these out. Your best bet is to try to work around them, or if you have heavy tools for this job: have at it. The other boards are mainly attached with standard nails.

Picture with all boards re-aligned. With, of course, a photo bomb by my pup Henry. I used 1 1/4th wood screws to attach the boards. Different lengths will need to be used to prevent the screws from poking through.

To add height, I placed the facelifted pallet on top of the other mauled one and attached with 2 1/2 inch outdoor wood screws. Decking screws are really good, as well. I screwed through the middle of the top pallets through the supports on the bottom one. I did this about 20 times to ensure that it was NOT going to come apart.

Next, I wanted my pallet to be functional and moveable. When it weighs about 80lbs, you really need to have it on casters. I found these casters at Harbor Freight for relatively cheap. I went with locking casters so that it could be stationary when needed.
 You need to first place your casters and doodle where your holes need to be. These will need to be drilled before installing to prevent splitting. TRUST ME. You do not want to get this far and have the bottom of your pallet fall apart. I used 1 3/4 inch Lag bolts. You will need a good drill and some arm muscle mixed with your body weight to get these installed.

Next step is to make it safe. Well, to do that you are going to need to sand the heck out of it. There are many, many spots on a pallet that have been splintered or are missing and you need to get all of those smooth before someone runs their hand across it and gets a painful surprise.

For the tops and sides I used my mouse with 60 grit sand paper. This gets most of everything. But For the spots that had chunks missing and also between the boards were the edges are rough(and the sander can't get to) I used my Dremmel with a course sanding bit to carve out those smooth edges.
Be prepared to spend some time on this step. I was super picky about not having any splinters, so it took me a long time.

I filled in the screw holes and some spots with wood filler and let it dry. Then I sanded those down. No splinters here, no sir, no ma'am.

Then wipe down your pallet to remove all saw dust (and there will be LOTS). Let dry.

Painting! YAY! Get an exterior paint to make sure it weathers well. I used Glidden Home and Exterior paint. In a medium grey (the name escapes me at this second). I bought a quart and almost ran out.

HLT: Pallet wood will soak up your paint so be sure to get enough of your color to do the whole thing and have extra (for your next project, of course. *wink*).

I painted the underside and all so it really used up the paint.
The rough wood will also do a number on your brushes, so I suggest a chip brush that can stand up to it.







Remember to clean your brushes well. And Reduce, Reuse and Recycle while you are at it. :)

Two coats of paint later......

Now for the Prettiness:
Played around with some fonts and sizes using Word after scouring www.Pinterest.com for a quote that I wanted to use. This was for my Sis-in-Law who LOVES Mickey Mouse so I figured Walt Disney would be appropriate. And Walt Disney had a lot of great things to say. Printed them out onto regular printer paper.

This fabulous person had a great tutorial about transferring images with a charcoal pencil on Pinterest. Here is the tutorial: http://homespunhappenings-tammy.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-made-sign.html she is a Blogger too!

Using a charcoal Pencil, color over the back side of your image. Then flip over and trace your image outline using a pencil or pen lid. Push down hard enough to transfer charcoal but not bust through your paper. You can see a bit of the outline in the photo below.

Once you have all of it transferred, then it is ready to paint! I used external paint on everything to maximize the life of the table.
But just for good measure, I used an exterior clear coat (really three) over the dry surface.

Finished Product! Not only is it a coffee table but since you worked all of those splinters out -it can also double as a bench.

Hope this helps with your pallet creations!

Pallets A'Plenty

So, welcome back. I say this mostly to myself, reminding me that I need to get stuff done so that I will be able to actually post some of my projects. So Ta-da! Here is one that I have completed. It is not a step-by-step since I finished this a couple of weeks ago and only have a few pics to show.

My blackberry bush had been getting bigger, and the poor tomato cage (my husband's grandfather had made, which was 10 times stronger than the ones you find at Lowe's or Home Depot) started to look like a mangled web of twisted metal. So I hauled home two pallets from the warehouse at work. Originally I thought that I could use one pallet standing straight up and then just figure out how to make it stay in the ground, but that idea produced little solutions. So I leaned them up against each other to look like an A frame.

I had a few pieces of deck lumber laying in the shed so I cut them to fit and screwed one small piece to the top of each pallet. Then, do the opposite side. Next, cut a longer piece for the bottoms and repeat. I used deck screws since they are made to be outside and weather resistant.

This step is tricky, because you are holding up two pallets with your legs and a drill in one hand, and the screw/piece of wood in the other. Hint: in case you are saying to yourself "there is an easier way to do that" - It's probably true. However, my logic is not that of a rocket scientist and is more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey whimey.

Once you feel that your pallet trellis is sturdy enough, then comes the paint! Whoo Hoo! I chose Krylon spray paint in a TARDIS Blue (This of course isn't the real name, but my view) As if you can't tell, I am a Doctor Who fan. Mine took two cans of spray paint, but yours could take more -depending the size of pallets. I also layered on a clear coat of spray paint to help it last longer.

Once dry, I had a neighbor help carry this bad boy out to my blackberry bush and carefully lift it over. The hard part was interweaving the established branches of the bush around the pallets without breaking them. This can be avoided, simply by creating the pallet trellis before your plant has gotten out of hand.

Now I have a functional piece of art and I saved a couple of pallets! Its your turn! Lets see what you can do!