Thursday, July 25, 2013

Build Some Little Pallet Drawers

Little Pallet Drawers
These little drawers are my answer to needing baskets for storage on a wall shelf I made for the bathroom.  They were inspired by Ana White's pallet storage boxes plan. 




I built two of them from a couple of pallet boards and some 1x6 pine scraps,
and I'm thinking I'll be making a few more. I'm really happy with how they turned out!
 I was picturing something rustic in contrast to the bright white of the storage shelf.

 I like the grey look of the pallet wood, but I was curious to see what
was underneath the weathering and blue paint.


You can see the beautiful wood grain starting to show.
Pretty nice!  This is hardwood, possibly oak. 

 To get through the rough stuff fast, I used my Ryobi electric belt sander.  Awesome tool! 
I did some sanding before taking the pallet apart, and some after. If you do this after
taking a pallet apart you will probably have to clamp the board to your work bench
in order to sand it.


50 grit sandpaper specially made for stripping paint made the job go fast, then some 120 to
make it a little smoother for staining.  I left a tiny bit of the blue paint behind.

Before sanding


After sanding




And done! 


You can see where there's still a little blue left,
just enough to make the finish interesting.


The sides and bottom are pine 1x 6's, as in Ana's plans, and the front and
back are pallet boards.  It's put together using finish nails and wood glue.  I stained it with Early American by Minwax, and used Varathane Diamond Finish in satin for the topcoat.  I applied both with a rag.

The handles I swiped from our holiday trailer cupboards. They were done in a
shiny brass finish, so I lightly sanded that off and spray painted them
with high-gloss enamel in black. That stuff
stays tacky forever.  And it looked awful. So I sanded it off too.
(This project seems to be involving a lot of sanding!)

The only other black paint I had on hand was a can of chalkboard spray paint, so I just went ahead and tried it.  I think it looks pretty good, and the matte finish goes with the antique look of the drawers.

 Who would've thought all that beauty was in a pallet?
I love that they look antique! What do you think?

Have a great day, and
Happy Building,

Val





4 comments:

  1. Drawers look great, what a great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like these a lot and you've just given me an answer for hiding some not-so-pretty stuff on shelves!
    Did you know those bright blue pallets are ones that a business pays a deposit on and get sit back as they rotate deliveries of goods?
    I didn't, either. Now I try to collect not-blue pallets.
    But the blue does make for a nice statement, doesn't it? :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Christine!

    I'm so glad you like these drawers! That is good information to have regarding the blue pallets. I will definitely keep that in mind when I am out scavenging. Thank you, and have a great day!

    Val

    ReplyDelete

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