Readers:
I am beyond excited to have our first guest contributor this week. THIS IS A MUST READ! Nancy is a creative, amazing mom who lives in Rexburg, ID. Our husbands were friends in High School (and still are really good friends) If we weren't moving to Texas, we'd probably be moving to Rexburg to be near them. :) She recently took an ordinary shipping pallet and made it into a beautiful shoe and coat rack for her cute family. I immediately asked her to share her experience with us so that we all could be inspired to do something similar to our own spaces. Enjoy!
I am a penny pincher when it comes to decorating and I also love making things that are one of a kind or more personalized for my needs. So Pinterest is like my favorite thing because I can see an idea and then make it my own. My most recent project was a shoe rack/bench for next to my front door. I have four munchkins and then plus my husband and I, so the front door area was often littered with shoes and it was really starting to drive me crazy. On to Pinterest I went to get some inspiration for my problem. I found some ideas I liked and then set to work to see what I had on hand and how I could make it all work for as little as possible.
Pallets. Can I just say how versatile pallets are? You can find so many creations with using pallets. The best thing about pallets is that they are free. I can’t say no to free wood. So for this project I used 2 pallets, a few scrap 2x4s (about 5 feet worth), a scrap 2x8(about 5 feet worth), and a scrap of ¼ inch plywood (18X 30inches) Sometimes you can find some scrap wood people are giving away at construction sites or woodworking places and even some places have discounted 2x4s that have flaws. The first thing I did was decide on how long and wide I wanted the bench and then tore apart the pallets. I have found that the easiest way to do this is by cutting the nails with a sawzall with a metal cutting blade. My pallets were some old ones I found in my field but if I had gotten them from somewhere else I would have made sure they are all the same style, it makes it easier due to varying wood thicknesses and spacing. The planks on mine were pretty far apart compared to some so I added in planks so I didn’t have wide gaping holes. Then I cut the bracing boards to the size I wanted and added in the extra planks. I did this twice and on the bottom of one I added in some extra planks to make a bottom. I used some 2x4s cut to size for a couple of the bracing board because I broke some of the boards from the pallet. I secured each plank with screws.
Since adult shoes are bigger than kid shoes I made a section at the very bottom for ‘big people’ shoes. I got a 2x8 and cut 3 pieces the width that I needed to match the pallet pieces. I attached them to the rest and then cut the plywood to fit the bottom and screwed it to the 2x8s. Once it was all put together it was time for paint. My husband is constantly bringing home ‘mistints’ from Ace Hardware when he sees a color that he thinks I might use for some project. So the paint for my project only cost $1. I painted the whole thing and once it was dry I took my hand-sander and sanded away on all the rough spots to make it look worn and antique. The whole project took a few hours longer than expected but it took me a while to figure out how I wanted it and what material I had to work with but I love how it turned out. It’s not perfect, this is the first thing I’ve built entirely by myself (without the husband coming to my rescue), but I think it has some character.So now it's your turn. Get those power tools out and start building!
Here is the beautiful result!
I want to thank Nancy for being the pioneer contributor. She's amazing and I'm lucky to call her a friend!
If any of you want to do a guest contributor post as well, email me at mocklidesigns@gmail.com.
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