Pallet Wall

Pallets, pallets, pallets! It seems you can’t turn around without seeing someone making something out of pallets. I decided early on in our home renovations that I definitely wanted a pallet wall somewhere in the house. The perfect place appeared when we divided up our giant family room into two bedrooms and a hallway to the backdoor. Putting up a pallet wall is so easy it only takes a few days to complete!

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First you need to measure your wall in square footage so you know how many boards you need. Then its time to get out there and grab some pallets! Most of the time you will find them near apartments or building that are having renovations done, or you can send out an ISO on social media.

Perhaps the most difficult part of the process is taking apart the pallets. A reciprocating saw is your best friend in this endeavor. If you don’t have one, you can always just pry the slats off the frame of the pallet with a hammer or crowbar. However, that takes much longer and will zap all your energy up. Once you have taken apart the pallets, you will be left with a pile of boards. Most likely 1/2″-1″ deep by 3″-4″ wide. All pallets are different so its important that you have enough pallets of roughly the same size for your wall.

Then do did a light sanding on all the boards and stain or paint them if you want to. I wanted to keep most of the rustic natural look of the pallet wood, so they ended up still being pretty rough to the touch. I used Minwax wood stain in Mahogany, Honey, Classic Gray and Natural.

At this point you can choose to seal the wood to protect it from moisture. This wall is an entryway coming in from a covered porch so I didn’t see the need to seal it. If your wall is in the kitchen or bathroom, it definitely needs to be sealed with a clear protective coat on the front and back.

Before you start putting the boards up, you need to paint the wall a flat black. Do not skip this step! Its extremely important to have a dark background because the boards will not be flush with each other and there will be gaps. Having a black background keeps the cracks in shadow and less likely to stand out.

I used my good old Ryobi nail gun and put a generous amount of Liquid Nails on the back of each piece right before sticking it to the wall. These boards are quite light and the finishing nails hold them on good enough to let the glue dry. I still tried to put as many nails into studs as I could, but it’s okay if they just go in the drywall.

As with most things, I kind of was just winging it when it came to putting up the boards. I tried to randomize the colors and laid out a few at a time on the floor so I would know which ones would be touching. I started at the top left with full length boards, then I cut the last board on that top row to fit. Then I continued the next row down with a random short cut board and the added full length boards until there wasn’t enough room for a full length. Then I cut another one to fit the last spot on that row. I continued down to the floor. I had to rip the last row lengthwise because there wasn’t enough space to fit a full size board from top to bottom. Then I did the same thing to the other wall.

I put this pallet wall up about 3 years ago and it looks the same as the day I did it. None of them have become loose or fallen and the colors look just as fresh as the first day.

It may seem like a difficult project, but once you get a groove going and you see how easy it really is, you’ll wonder why you waited so long to do it! Good luck!