Monday, September 23, 2013

The Infamous Pallet Wall

There was a time living in our house that I really just wanted to put the icing on the cake so to speak and only change our soft furnishings. I knew this house was great, but I was thinking of my dream home and possibly a move in our future. I didn't want to do anything "permanent" that a new buyer might not like. Comparing to the Joneses much??

Well, I decided that living that way did not make me happy at all. Yes, there may be a dream home in our future and there may not be. At any rate, I felt the need to make this house our home and learn to love it. So, the major projects began.

My first space to really tackle has been our entryway. There is a saying that the Kitchen is the Heart of the Home, but the entryway is really the most important space -after the outside curb appeal of course.

When people enter your home, you want them to feel welcome. To me, feeling welcome means cozy and comfortable. Take your shoes off and stay a while kind of comfortable. The entryway needs to appeal to the senses - sight and smell for example.

So- the project began. It did take a while. But, my husband and I had both found our inspiration and we were ready to tackle this. He with his safety glasses, saw and nail gun and me with my foam brushes and eye for perfect balance. His inspiration can be found here {Hubby's Inspiration}. Incidentally, I had fallen in love with the same space and idea when I was pinning inspiration for our little man's nursery on Pinterest. We didn't realize we were using the same blog post as a guide until later when the wall was almost complete!! Great minds think alike I say!!

The Beginning- Pallets

They can be our friends or our enemies. Because they are FREE, they are our friends. Because they were HEAT treated instead of treated with pesticides, they are our friends. Because they show natural age, they are our friends.

Why are they our enemies you ask? Well, let me tell you. They are heat treated which causes warping in some cases. They are all different widths which means putting them on the wall is like laying a wood floor - it takes time and thought. They also don't always line up the way you think they should.

But, the friendly aspects of the pallets wins big time. This was our first major project inside the house and it was nearly FREE. The pallets were free and my husband already had the sander and saw. We borrowed a nail gun and air compressor from a nice friend. Thanks Gerry!!
Those two items are on our to buy list now. We did need to purchase stain and screws. We stained our pallet boards because they were newer boards and still had the new wood tone. The stain we used was from Home Depot when they were having a money back reward sale. I bought a gallon so we now have stain for our next project. The color is Coffee and even though this stain was an used indoors, I purchased one that could be used outdoors. It is also an All In One with a sealer built in. Why buy another stain later? Save money where ever and whenever you can.

So, drum roll please. Here is part of our new entryway. I am so pleased. The hard work and late nights paid off.

I was so happy to see our photos back up on the wall and the dark Coffee stain made them pop! The silver framed photos are photos of "letters" in nature taken by our friend Tobi. They spell out our last name. The canvases are all of our little guy at different ages. The colored frames were a splurge for me from Hobby Lobby (of course, they were still 50% off). You can still find them here {Frames}
BEFORE
OSB Board for Stability 
Almost done
Finally!!!

I am in LOVE with this wall and every time I enter the house, I smile. This wall is just the beginning!! I plan to add a space for hooks underneath the photos as well as a bench for sitting and taking off shoes. There may even be more in the future to spruce up this entryway and make it what I envision. Stay tuned!!






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