Easy Pallet Wood Projects

Pallet wood projects are all the craze!  Why wouldn’t they be?  Rustic is HOT!  Farmhouse is HOT!  And pallet wood is usually free!  Perfect!  I have several dealers at my store The Blue Building who build with pallet wood and old barn wood.  Some of their projects are very intricate but many are very simple!

I had a customer looking for a long skinny box to use on her mantle to hold old soda bottles.  The box needed to be very narrow because her mantle is not very deep.  After looking for several days with no luck, I decided to make one!

I had one pallet sitting outside of the store.  It had weathered nicely so I decided to use it as my wood source.

The slats on the pallet were only 3 inches wide.  This would be the perfect depth for a skinny mantle box.  The long length of the pallet was 40 inches…perfect for a longer box.

CAUTION:  When working with any type of pallets PLEASE be aware of all of the sharp and rusty nails that you may come in contact with.  WEAR GLOVES to protect your skin and safety glasses to protect your precious eyes from splintered wood and rusty nails.  Y’all these tiny little preventive measures  are worth it!

I removed all of the nails with a claw hammer for safety reasons and grabbed my Ryobi cordless air nailer.  I selected the best looking boards for the sides of the box and decided to use the ugliest (in this case it had some paint on it) for the bottom of the box as it would not be visible.  You can cut the boards to any length desired.  For this project, 40 inches was perfect.

I lined up the boards and nailed them together.  I used 3 nails at each end and scattered another 5-6 along the length.  They seemed to be sturdily attached so I did the same on the other side.

I measured the space at each end of my soon to be box and took another slat and cut it down to fit.  I nailed those in place.  And voila!  C’est Finis!

I didn’t really have specific design measurements in mind.  The width and length of the wood slats seemed workable so I just went with it as is.  A shorter box could easily be created by cutting these slats to whatever length you desire.

It’s nice and skinny so it will fit on a skinny mantle or maybe even on a window sill!

I will be making more of these skinny boxes.  What a quick and simple project!

If you enjoyed this quick project, check out some others I have recently completed using 2x4s:  Serving tray and wooden ladder. 

This post is part of round up of pallet wood projects inspired by my sweet friend.Gina Luker of The Shabby Creek Cottage.  If you aren’t familiar with Gina and her blog, get over there now!  You are welcome in advance!  And check out the other pallet wood projects assembled just for this round up!  They  are linked below.  I know you will be amazed by the talent in this group.  I’d love to see your projects made of pallet wood!