PALLET SHELF.....Finally!

For some reason I have always admired pallet stuff.  I love the rustic barn wood look of old pallets.  Take a peek at the pallet shelf I made.

I had a terrible time deciding what to make out of my pallet.  I scoured the Internet and had a whole folder of ideas.  But, I was just stuck on what to do for my own project and quite frankly, I was intimidated by the whole thing.  I commented on my friend Kelly's ( live.laugh.rowe)  pallet project.  (She has made some great pallet projects and you can see them here and here.) I told her I had a pallet, but just couldn't make myself pick a project and get going on it.  She is so sweet and she knew just what I needed......a deadline!  She sent me an email and challenged me to face my fears and make a project by September first.  I agreed to do it and to make sure I kept my promise, I said it out loud in a blog here. 
(Don't laugh....sometimes that really helps me just do something!)
Thank you so much Kelly, I really needed some motivation!  Apparently, Jessica at The Thriftiness Miss was having the same problem because here is the comment she left on my post...
"Wow I have the same problem... I have a perfectly good pallet just begging to be made into something great.. Good luck with the project planning :)" 
Well, I figured one good turn deserves another, so I responded back with the same deadline challenge that Kelly gave me!  Guess what?  Jessica rose to the challenge!  I love that girl!  More about her project at the bottom of this page.
On to my project....
I had this pallet I had been saving.

It's a good looking pallet in really good shape, but I had decided I wanted something more rustic looking.  We use a lot of pallets for our pumpkins here at the farm and we have some stacked down in the field.  Sam and I went down and picked out one that was a little rougher.

I got out a few tools and went to work.  OH MY GOSH...taking a pallet apart is serious work and it's really hard not to crack or break the boards as you are doing it!  You have to go slow, prying each nail up a little at a time and even that is no guaranty.  Two and a half hours later, I had all of the boards off of the base and when I lined them all up, they looked pretty good.

I finally settled on a rustic looking shelf with a big backing piece because I thought it would make a great backdrop for my project photos.  (Practical, eh?)  So.....it's off to my father-in-law's shop to use some major tools.
We figured out how we wanted the boards laid out and saved one for the actual shelf and one for the back.  Then, flipped them over so that we could attach a couple of pieces to the back of the shelf to hold it all together.

To make the two pieces for the back, I took one pallet board and using this bad boy....

split it in two pieces right down the middle.  This was my first chance to use a power saw table and it was fun!  But, the fun just keeps coming because now these two pieces needed trimmed down.  Enter the chop saw....

I'll be saving these little end pieces to hold up the shelf that's going on the bottom of this project.
Now, my friend Sunny at Life In Rehab has some wonderful kids who help her all the time.  She calls them her "minions" and I've always been jealous of her for having such wonderful help, but.....
I had two of my own "minions" for this project and they both have engineering degrees.  (Not that engineering degrees were needed on this project.)  My sweet husband Sam and his awesome brother Craig just couldn't let me have all the fun, so they jumped in and put the two back pieces on.

Then, they attached the shelf to the bottom of the back board.

Aren't they awesome!  Eat your heart out Sunny!  (Just kidding...these two are not usually at my disposal and I felt very lucky to have them that day!)

Here are my very own minions with the finished shelf!

Thank you Craig and Sam!  Thank you also to my wonderful father-in-law, Charles for letting us use his shop and tools!
I have already used my pallet shelf backboard this week on one of  my project photos.  Did you notice it in my Fall Wreath photo?

There is a nail on the backboard for hanging any picture or wreath projects I make.

It makes my Autumn Vase that I posted yesterday look even more awesome sitting on that shelf.

 And of course....I can use a combination of the two to showcase a vignette of several projects.

I know I'm going to get a lot of use out of my pallet project and you'll be seeing it more often in the future!  As for that other pallet...oh....I have a plan for it too, but it can wait a little while.
Now....my good friend Jessica at The Thriftiness Miss has met her project deadline challenge today too, so let's go over and check it out!  She's an awesome blogger who was kind enough to join me in this adventure!

Jessica

 The Thriftiness Miss

click HERE to see her pallet project debut

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