DIY Pallet Wood Shelf

Today I want to show you how we made a pallet wood shelf. I like it because it serves more than one purpose. We use it as a shelf in an entertainment center and also as a prop for taking pictures on for my Etsy shop. One other reason I like it, is it's almost free! The only supplies you need for this project are screws and stain or paint. You could even leave it the natural color.

You start out with pallet wood  and decide on how wide and long you want it. Mine had to fit inside an entertainment center. Here is the top of the shelf.

We cut two more pieces of wood and drilled holes so the boards don't crack.

Next we screwed all the boards together.

The screws went through to the other side because they were a bit too long, but I simply ground them off  later.

Now for the part that holds the shelf up, I guess you would call them feet? We used a stronger piece of wood for this, the middle piece of the pallet and cut it to size.

Here it is after it's put together. Now you can see that the piece as a whole is not very stable so you can add a thinner board to support the other side.

Do the same as before, one screw for each board. 

Here is the back side of it, ready to be attached to the top shelf.

Before we put it together we used a grinder to take off all the nails that poked out. We also used the grinder to smooth out the rough wood. We found that it's faster than sanding.Our grinder has a really dull blade so maybe try it out on a scrap piece first, if not you could always use a sander.

We also grind down the edges to create a more rustic look.

This is what it looks like after all the parts are put together.

After the sanding part, I stained the whole shelf with Minwax Dark Walnut stain, (which you can purchase at Walmart) and went back and wiped it off.

Make sure you spread the stain evenly through out, and get all the crevices.

 

This is the bench after we stained it completely

This is the the backdrop for The Tattered Hanky on Etsy.

 

Here is where the shelf is usually featured, in our living room. You can see the living room as a whole here. The entertainment center used to be filled with a massive speaker system(that didn't really even work) and a bunch of disorganized books and cassettes(yes, cassettes). So there she is! All those plants were purchased at Lowe's on clearance. My mom can't resist. There are more plants spread throughout the house, too. My little brother said the house looked like a jungle the first time he saw it. Let me know what you think!