Pallet angel

I recently tried my hand at making a pallet angel.

The task seemed daunting but was actually not that complicated or difficult. I must admit that I had quite a bit of help from my wonderful husband.

I started by looking at a whole lot of outline / stencil type of angel pictures. I was looking for a basic design that i could tweak a bit to make it pallet appropriate.

Once I had general idea of what I wanted, I proceeded to draw my design onto the pallet. The most important part here was that I used a pencil. Getting the design onto the pallet wasn't a first time try. I changed it slightly and adjusted the sizes and proportions as I went. I wrote lightly to make all the erasing easier. When I was happy with the design it was easy to go over it to make it darker and easier to see when cutting it out.

I didn't dismantle the pallet first. Before pulling out my jigsaw I re-looked at the design and imagined cutting it. I then marked the pieces that would be discarded, and the pieces that would make up the different wings. I didn't want to start cutting and at the end sit there trying to reassemble everything like a puzzle.

At this point my wonderful husband stepped in and said that he would cut it out for me. I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and so leaped at the offer.

Aaa....



Once cut out, the main body needed to be dismantled from the rest of the pallet. With the back end of the hammer and a bit of careful wiggling hubby had it dismantled in no time.

I took all the pieces outside and proceeded to give them a good sanding. I made sure to keep the relevant pieces together; left wing, main body and right wing.

I reassembled the pieces on the floor and then turned them around so that the back of the angel was facing me. Because I had designed and cut the design straight from the pallet I spaced them appropriately.  The original pallet had slight gaps between the planks and so when I reassembled it I lined up the cutting edges so that they would be straight and have those same gaps. Looking at the wings I noticed the gaps were not all that necessary and decided to place those pieces next to each other, it also made it more secure that way. 

Then with my husbands help we measured and cut planks to attach to the back of the angel, to keep it all together and make it sturdy. We then glued and nailed the planks to the pallets. I had forgotten to take many pictures during this whole process but here we were busy with the gluing and nailing step.

When everything was attached , secured and dry I turned her over and took a moment to admire our handiwork. We then measured and cut planks to attach to the front as her arms. We then glued and nailed her arms in place. I'm not sure at what point this project became a she but there it is.

When her arms were attached and dry I started to varnish her. She is an outdoor project so I applied outdoor varnish according to the manufacturers instructions. With hindsight it would probably have been easier to varnish before attaching her all together.

When all the coats were painted and dried I asked hubby to help me attach the clamp. He carefully used a hammer and nail to punch two small holes in the clamp and then screwed it into a pallet piece.

I washed and cleaned up an empty coffee jar to use as the vase. The clamp was a little tight/stiff but with a bit of careful elbow grease I securely attached the make shift vase. 

Yay! All done and very impressed.

All she needs now is some flowers and to be displayed. 

Our pallet coffee table tutorial

Grab a decent looking pallet and attach furniture legs in your desired style and height.
I had a carpenter down the road make and attach the legs for me but I'm sure that you can buy them ready made in bigger towns and cities.

Sand down the rough edges and feathered bits.
I did the top and then flipped the table over and did the bottom. The only reason that I bothered with the bottom is because through the gaps of the top of the pallets I noticed that the splintered and feathered bottom looked ugly, especially after having smoothed out the top.

Apply some clear wood glue to some of the badly splintered bits and some wood filler in the cracks and gaps as you desire. For deep gaps fill it in stages.

When that is dry, sand the table down again with a fine grit sand paper. 

Apply stain according your preference. 

  

I chose the quick route and decided on a spray stain, in a light oak color.
Turn the table as needed when staining it. Ask someone to help you move it though (I almost broke one of the legs off trying to flip the table by myself). Apply as many coats as you need to and wait the recommended drying times. Basically just follow the stains manufacturing instructions.

When you are happy with the stain coloring and it is properly dry, apply a top coat of polyurethane. This is just to seal the table and help protect the wood.
I chose a clear gloss polyurethane spray. Again the spray seems so much easier and I liked the idea of a gloss as opposed to a satin look but this was just my own personal preference.

The only thing left to do is possibly add a glass top...


I am quite pleased with how the table turned out as a whole. I would love to add some pallet side tables but perhaps I would try a gel stain on those.

I should probably note however that the woodfiller was in a beech colour and so didn't stain exactly the same colour as the table. That said it is a pallet table and I liked the looked of the colors blending but if you want a more perfect look then try pick a filler in the colour of your stain or choose a darker coloured stain to cover it up.

Pallet heart art

I had these pallet pieces left over from another project. I had painted them in blackboard paint and then left them outside. After a few weeks I noticed that the paint was chipping off and that I quite liked the weathered look so I wanted to do something with them that would keep that character.

I had these hardware thingies lying around and thought that they would work well to attached my 3 pallet pieces together. I lay my pallets upside down (I had never painted the bottom) and proceeded to attached the thingies to the pallets. The screws pictured here were to long so I went in search of shorter ones in my tool box. Luckily I found some as I was eager to get the project underway and didn't want to go to the hardware store first.

Some of the edges were quite rough so I sanded them down. I used an 80 grit sandpaper as it was the first piece in my box of sandpaper that I grabbed. Yes I did it by hand.
I then thought that I want to give them more of a weathered look so instead of just gently wiping the sanding dust away I grabbed a hard bristled brush we have lying around in the kitchen and scrubbed them down. I wasn't gentle.
While that was then lying in the sun drying I did the prep work for the painting.

I received this heart decor as a gift and realized that the heart is the perfect size for my pallet coat rack. I traced it onto a clear piece of contact paper and the cut it out with a craft knife. If you're not that lucky to have something like this lying around then you can print something out, in mirror image. Then use a piece of carbon paper to trace the image onto the paper side of the contact paper. Then cut it out.






I placed the contact paper over the pallets. Be sure that the contact paper covers the pallet so as not to get spray paint on the edges where you don't want it. I then just taped down the sides where the contact
paper wasn't sticking to the wood all that well.
Then I went to town with the spray paint. I sprayed about 4 thin coats. Just enough to let the red color stick out but not so much as to cover the weathered 'background'.

Remove contact paper and viola.