Pallet Wood Bookshelf
I made a shelf!
Before I divulge into the details, I would just like to make sure that everyone knows that I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING. I AM NOT AN EXPERT. TRUST ME. IT SUCKED. BUT IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT.
Now that that’s out of the way, one of the pictures here is my finished shelf. And this is how I did it.
I started off by breaking down a pallet I had gotten for free. This was no easy task. Did you know that pallet nails are all twisty and ridiculous? I didn’t! And I sure paid for it. After hours of sweating and dying and a lot of unlady-like language, I had the thing dismantled. Some of the boards split during the process, some of the heads broke off of the nails and wouldn’t come out. I could have easily just used a saw and bypassed this step, but I wanted the rustic edge to add to the look. I guess it was worth it.
I looked through all the plank pieces and found some that would work best for me. Then I cut them in half. Why? Obviously to torture myself. But it really ended up working out in the end, look wise. The thicker middle pieces, I cut the end pieces off right where they start to curve. I used them as the 3 middle support pieces. I then spent the next agonizing hours sanding the sharp edges and smoothing down anything too rough that might cause splinters. I didn’t want to sand too much and have it lose that nice look. I also had a 4-year-old helper who ensures that no job is ever done too much.
Taking the four planks, I laid them down and arranged them how I wanted. Then I put the three blocks into position, trying to get them as far back and as even with the back edge as I could. Which I didn’t really do that great of a job of, if I’m being honest. Before I screwed them down, I applied wood glue between the two layers, and then I predrilled holes. Because this pallet wood? Pine. I think. I don’t know. It’s hard as hell. I didn’t predrill some holes. And deeply regretted it. So many broken screws….
At this point, I had to stop. I didn’t plan ahead and didn’t have any sort of hardware to do the actual mounting. Like brackets. And mauls. And a stud finder. I would also like to point out that I probably should have had a stud finder before I even started this project. Why? So I could measure the studs on my wall and figure out just how long I needed my shelf to be. Especially since I was making it for my books. Heavy books. Go me. We ended up making it work, so I’m glad to say I got super lucky.
At the hardware store, I found some really great brackets with a neat squarish design. The only problem was that they were a brushed nickel color. Not really what I was going for, but really easily fixed with a couple coats of spray paint. I let the little girl in me get all sorts of excited when I found the black glitter spray paint. So that’s what we went with. Since I could only find two of the brackets with the same design, I opted for a simple “L” shaped bracket and I painted that too.
Once I got all three brackets on the shelf, I had my husband do the mounting while I “supervised.” When you look at it head on, it certainly doesn’t look straight. Put a level on it, and BAM, bubble in the middle. Ish.
It’s certainly full of flaws, it’s definitely imperfect in appearance, but I made this. And it serves the exact purpose, and looks exactly as I was hoping. But I am never doing that again.
