Pallet Coffee Table DIY

After seeing all the pallet projects over the years I decided it was about darn time that I hopped on the bandwagon. The project most appealing to me was a coffee table.  I found ONE pallet, but needed 2 the same for what I had in mind.   I had faith I would find another one.  I checked Home Depot every week till another one showed up.  Seeing these were odd size pallets and I could only fit one in my car at a time, it worked out.  

NOTE:  DO NOT I repeat NOT buy pallets.  These were free and all you need to do is head to any hardware/building supplies store and they will actually serenade you and throw rose petals at your feet for taking some of these off their hands.  NEVER Dine & Dash though.  ALWAYS talk to store first before absconding with the goods.

I started in by sanding...and sanding some more. When I was done sanding...yep...I kept going.  Now if you have ever done pallet projects you will know that if you are going to bring them into your living space and touch them and actually USE the pieces, they will need a TON of prep to get to the "touchable" point.  I wanted to be able to run my hand across it without splinters so I just kept sanding til that happened.  BUY LOTS of sandpaper in varying grits.  Start big, and work your way down to the finer stuff. 

I then decided I was going to give some visible texture to my top pallet.  So, I grabbed my son's torch and gave a light burn to the boards.  After burning, I sanded down.  It really made the grain pop and I loved the effect.  I found some spare pallet boards down the street at our local building supplies store out back (just ask them first if they have any for free) to fill in the gaps of the top pallet.  My hubby & son ripped them down for me, so you will need a table saw for this. The gaps were varying widths and I was happy they decided to do this for me while I continued, oh wait for it....sanding!!!

I did several test swatches for stain color and finally settled on Minwax Classic Grey.  Now on it's own, I was not a fan, BUT....after applying and letting it dry...I sanded it down REALLY well and I ended up with a fantastic aged greyed wood look and it was perfect!! Surprisingly, I only needed this tiny can of stain for the 2 pallets.  I used a rag to apply and kind of rubbed it over, not really wanting to deeply soak the wood.  This gave me a TON of mileage with this teensy can and I finished BOTH pallets with not a drop to spare.  If you are more liberal in your appplication, you may need to go up in the can size.  I was hell bent on getting the job done with the small can.  

HOW FREAKING AWESOME IS THIS?? It is coming together and now you can see the vision, right? :-)

After the stain dried overnight, I sanded that sucker like a mofo til it was really worn looking and a ton of the grain was popping through.  It looked amazing and now the fun begins...applying the Poly and making all that killer grain & color come to life.  The finish coat of any project is really the frosting of wood working! I used Minwax Polycrylic in Satin finish.

I applied the first coat, which really as always, soaks in and sucks up a lot.  I let it dry over night, gave a light sanding with fine grit sandpaper, and then wiped down with a damp cloth and went in with coat number two.  The pallets really were looking beautiful at this point and I was happy to be getting close to finish.

I decided to do one last coat on only the top surface of the table.  So I gave the final light sand, wiped down again and applied the last coat of Poly.  The sheen was most excellent and the look I was going for. 

NOTE:  I used 1/2 of this can of Poly to complete the table.  YAY...leftovers for more projects! 

I used 4 screws on each side to join the 2 pallets together.  I basically just lined up the pallets (NO, they are NOT a perfect match, but the rustic imperfection is what makes this piece the best) and then screwed in from the bottom pallet up through to the top.  BAM...ready for the wheels.  

Now comes the jewelry.  LE SIGH!!!  I chose industrial style wheels from Princess Auto but are just like THESE in case you don't have a local Princess Auto near you. These wheels are metal but there are also plastic options if that is not your jam. I used bolts which were about 3/4" and predrilled the holes first to prevent the boards from splitting.  I did another console piece last year with these wheels and they are BOMBASS! I screwed the 2 pallets together first, then the flipped the table over and screwed on the wheels.

DISCLAIMER:  I did NOT measure the pallets, nor did I bring them inside first to see if they fit my living room.  I TOTALLY eyeballed it and knew it would work.  I would recommend measuring though to be sure...haha.  #dontbeaWendy

I could not be more thrilled with how it turned out.  It is the texture my living room needed and it was an update which was super budget friendly.  It requires elbow grease but hey, you can consider that sanding a nice little workout.  #WINNING 

It was well worth the effort!

Have you ever done pallet furniture??  I'd love to see it.  Share a link to your blog post below with me.

Stay weird,

Wendy