Confession: I was not the first person in our house to join Pinterest. That prize goes to my lovely wife. And I can’t keep up with the thousands of things she’s pinned, but I was quite surprised to find that she has a board dedicated to projects she wants me to complete.
At first I found this type of commuication curious. Instead of asking me, “Hey, can you do this?”, she created a board almost secritively and when it was discovered, I felt both flattered and un-included at the same time. My reaction was more of an “I’ll show her!” reaction and I picked the biggest badest project I could find…the pallet wall!
With this project complete and my to-do list growing…I’ve got to get this post up and get back to work!
Inspiration
Cape 27 is the source of the pin that started it all. They have a great tutorial and tips for completing a pallet wall. Most of the steps I took were based on their post. I modified as needed, as you’ll read in the details below.
Tools & Supplies Used
- Gloves
- Goggles
- Reciprocating saw
- Circular saw
- Hammer
- Flat bar
- Stain
- Rags
- Plastic
- Rubber gloves
- Air compressor
- Finish nailer
- Finish nails
- Chalk line
- Level
- Speed square
- T bevel (needed for vaulted ceiling)
- Stud finder
- Step ladder
Let it be known, we had to pick the biggest wall in our house and also one with a vaulted ceiling. Our wall dimensions are: 186″ wide x 116.5″ high at the peak. The sides are a height of 96″.
1. Gather Pallets
My employer has a print shop and gets pallets of paper all the time. They stack them up and usually the delivery guy takes them back with him. I just had to request that they save some for me. We wanted a really rustic look, so I wasn’t that picky and really wanted a wide variety of board widths, thicknesses, and wear. Because our minivan is so sweet, I put the back seat down and was able to get seven or eight pallets in the back. I made three trips for a total of 22 pallets.
2. Break Down Pallets
Tearing apart the pallets was time-consuming and kind of difficult as a one-man task. I could have used an extra set of hands. I stood the pallets up on end and used a reciprocating saw to cut the nails off that were connecting the planks to the three main pallet boards.
Tip 1: Buy a long blade made for metal. I was cheap and used a few short blades that my dad let me borrow. I broke a few in the process (sorry, Dad). They are kind of expensive (like $20 I think?) but it would have saved a lot of time. The short blades don’t work very well on the wider boards when you get to the middle of the pallet. The blade doesn’t quite reach the nails and then I ended up fighting with them quite a bit. A long blade would have solved that problem.
Tip 2: If the ends are too mangled to use, simply use a speed square to draw a straight line and then saw off the unusable section.
Stain
We contemplated a few different stain options. Kelsey has had an interior design epiphany. She loves white. Her rule when it comes to deciding what color of home decor to buy is “just get the white.” She’s found that over time she wishes she would have bought certain items in white. So, we thought about white, but she really liked the look of the Minwax Special Walnut. (Expect a follow-up post in about a year or so where we white wash the pallet wall. 
)
3. Sort & Plan
As I was tearing apart the pallets, I stacked them up in like-width piles. This was to create even-width rows once we were ready to hang the boards on the wall. I had the luxury of an unfinished basement with lots of room to work. The challenge we had that Cape 27 did not is that our bedroom wall has a vaulted ceiling. I measured the wall in our bedroom and used painter’s tape to make a template on our basement floor. Then I laid out pallets in like widths and tried to randomize the thicker widths with the skinnier ones. Once I knew we had enough, I was able to carry up a few rows at a time and hang them as I went.
4. Wall Prep
Our wall was already painted chocolate brown. This turned out to be in our favor. Because some of our pallet boards were warped, cracked, or had knot holes missing, the dark wall semi-hid those defects. Unless you are gathering immaculate pallets or using a white stain/paint, you might think about priming your wall a similar color to your boards.
I used a stud finder to mark where I should eventually finish nail the boards to the wall and then used a chalk line (with Kelsey’s help to snap a line) for nailing. We also snapped a level horizontal line between the top corners, to mark where the peak starts.
5. Hang Boards
We started near the top of the wall, before it starts its peak. This was a suggestion from Cape 27 and their thinking was that when you get to the bottom, if the width of the boards didn’t work out exactly and you had to cut them horizontally, it would be better to have those half-pieces at the bottom of the wall than at the top. We had to trim some slivers for the bottom, and in hindsight, we should have just started at the bottom of our wall since we have a peak. Because we started in the middle of the wall, we had to cut boards at both the top and the bottom.
Regardless, we started level and remained pretty level as we worked our way down the wall. And when we were done with that, we started the peak and worked up to the top. And because our boards were warped, we ended up having to notch out certain boards to remain somewhat level. The angles…oh, the angles. I put my ol’ siding skills to the test and bought a T bevel. However, the angle was too steep and it left me with a lot of trial and error.
There was one cut piece that took me at least six tries, back and forth from the garage, up and down off the ladder, all while Kelsey was laying on the bed, giggling at me. Too frustrated to laugh at myself, we argued about the situation into the wee hours of the morning…Kelsey helped by taking scrap slivers and filling in the gaps. This is in no way perfect, but we like the look of imperfection.
6. Enjoy the Finished Product
It feels like we are sleeping in a log cabin! We absolutely love it! We’re working on planning out the rest of our master bedroom makeover and the pallet wall is just the center focal point we needed to start with. Up next is a new vanity station for Kelsey, and a dream closet makeover. We already have a trip to IKEA planned for the end of March.
Who’s putting a pallet wall on their DIY list?
Looks amazing! Talk about a testament to your patience level, Eric!
Oh my gosh, how gorgeous! Looks like a labor of love, but well worth it! Can you share how much you spent on this? I’d love to know!
The cost really depends on what tools you have on hand. If you have all the tools, the only costs are the stain, rags/brushes for stain, and finish nails. Which comes to about $20. This was also the biggest wall in our house and we used 1 gallon of stain.
Okay, now I want one…that is gorgeous!!!!
That loks beautiful! Great work!
LOVE this! Thanks for posting!
Looks fantastic Eric! Want to come to Chicago and do mine??
That depends on how much you’ll pay me.
Love the post! I do have a few questions for you, Eric. Once you got the pallets, how long did the project take? When did you find time to work on the project, and was it pretty easy to pick up where you last left off? (Some home improvement projects are harder to do in stages). Finally, once you thought you were ready to start installing, did you do that all at once or did you also do it in stages?
Thanks!
I probably spent 8 hours tearing down the pallets over a month or so. Mostly on the weekends when Rooney was napping. It was pretty easy to pick up where I left off because our basement is unfinished and we are never down there. If I had to do this in our garage, I probably would have pressed harder to get it down sooner.
Once we had the boards stained and were ready to install, it took me six nights of working from about 7 to 9:30 or 10 after Rooney was in bed. I also didn’t have much help from Kels.
Wow, that looks awesome! Love the finished product!
Wow… This looks INCREDIBLE. Great job!
Holy freaking amazing buckets!! That looks so great! Nice work!
best compliment! Thanks.
Eric! It looks AMAZING!!!
That looks awesome!
I gathered the pallets to do this last year then I read this post: http://raechelmyers.com/2012/06/wood-wall-tutorial/
I decided to try her method instead. But since we already have the pallets, I hate to not use them now. Do you think the effort of taking the pallets apart is worth the money saved?
Also, our plan is to do it in B’s ‘bigger boy’ room and I’ve read all sorts of articles about the chemicals in the pallets so I’m afraid to put it in his room. I couldn’t find the markings on the ones we have that let you know it’s safe. Did you find them on yours and if you did, where are they? I assume they’d be easy to see but maybe I’m missing something.
Wow! That’s obviously a little more finished look, but for the hassle and if you are worried about the chemicals then that’s the way to go… I don’t think too much about the chemicals… I’m terrible, I know. And we’re laying our heads down next to this wall.
Just a thought, stain is a pretty strong smelling chemical and takes awhile to go away too. The pallets I got from work just had paper on them, but maybe that doesn’t matter?
Great job! It looks awesome!
That looks awesome! I’ve seen a few close ups on you guy’s instagram account but the full picture looks fantastic! It’s such a wow factor and looks very very expensive and classy!
It looks amazing! Great job!
Eric, you had me laughing out loud with your white-washing/follow-up post comment. Sounds like something that might happen in our marriage!
It looks great! I can’t wait to see what else you have planned!
Love it! I’ve been anticipating this post and it looks beautiful! The vaulted ceiling makes it especially grand.
A white or cream upholstered headboard would look so good in there… Balance the rustic/masculine with soft/feminine.
Kelsey, I am so with you on white decor… I’m always happy when I choose white.
White tufted headboard is on the list!!! Still hunting for the perfect one.
love your wall. nicely done.
pve
Very cool! Love the rustic look!
That wall would look SO good in white
I love it! Thank you for all your hard work!!!
*slow clap*
This looks amazing. I’m so impressed! Bravo!
Wow–that is a BIG pallet wall! Very ambitious of you, and you did a great job–love it!
Very awesome. My uncle has been wanting to do this to his office wall, and my other uncle wants to do it in the bathroom. Men & their pallet walls
Just kidding, I love them too!
Oh wow! This looks amazing.
Sarah
Very very cool. Well done!
I FLIPPING LOVE THIS!! I want to do this so bad to a wall in our home..but i have a hard time talking my husband into it. I am going to show him this post…and also show him that you drive a sweet minivan like him too lol
This turned out amazing. I have the same wall in my living room and it is still BLANK! and I have been thinking about doing this and all my “facebook friends” said not to. Ummmm…I am thinking I must now! But yes, I may be white washing it
I would love to see a white wash version!
Did you leave the original “cut off” nails in the boards? Did you then just nail where studs were or into the drywall as well? What if the end of the board did not fall on a stud line? LOVE IT
We did leave the nails in the boards and then used finish nails to attach the pallet boards to the walls, nailing them to the studs. We usually got two or three studs with each board and they are on there pretty good. I put two nails in each stud.
Hey guys, I ABSOLUTELY love this project. It looks amazing. My question is, do you still love it and how have you decorated the pallet wall? Any pictures, mirrors, art? If it’s not too much to ask, I would like to see a picture of what it looks like with decorations on it. I love the walnut finish on wood, I tend to lean towards the darker finishes whereas my husband gravitates towards lighter finishes like honey oak. Again, great job.
Hi Erin, thanks for your comment. We do still love the wall! We are currently looking at headboards and then our new hanging lights will be installed at the same time. We are also planning to create a wreath out of white antlers to hang on the pallet wall. We will certainly post an update once it is fully decorated.
Did you stain every board? The finish product looks amazing, but how do you get such a variety of wood colors with the finished product?
I did stain every board. Each pallet was so different and worn in different ways and all together different wood in some cases. We applied the same stain to all of them, but each board absorbed it differently. It created an awesome look!
Looks fantastic. Were you concerned at all about the chemicals and toxins from the wood pallets? I’ve researched about that and come across a lot of info that says the pallets are very dangerous.
I read a little bit into that, but don’t think about it too much