Pallet Entry Bench with Shoe Storage

After tripping over shoes in our tiny entry for the umpteenth time, I decided to make use of the pallet stash leftover from my headboard. After looking around for inspiration on Pinterest and the web, nothing seemed to meet my needs. So, I figured out the dimensions that I wanted the bench to be and got to work designing my own.

The bottom compartment needed to be the right size to accomodate the fabric bins I'd spotted at Target, and for the height to be right for big and little people to sit on while putting on their shoes. The other consideration was to make sure that it didn't interfere with the door opening. The middle shelf is useful for handbags and the dog leash. Somehow, I calculated the height of the bottom shelf about 1/4 inch too low for the bins to slide comfortably, but some little rectangular felt furniture pads (also from Target) sorted it right out, and now I can slide the bench out to sweep without scratching the tile.

The entire thing is made from pallet wood, with the exception of the scrap 2x2's used to support the middle shelf. I used deck screws for the assmbly.  After sanding, the leftover paint from the coffee table came in handy. Since everything was leftovers, the entire cost of the bench was only the cost of the bins and feet - under $20! Our entry stays nice and tidy now.

Pallet Headboard

This headboard for my storage bed was made from a pallet and some stud scraps that I scavenged from a trash pile on a construction site. The wood was perfectly fine, but had a number of nails that had been badly driven. It took more time to prise them out than it did to build the thing. Deconstructing the pallets took hours. Some of those nails are really stubborn. For the worst ones, I just cut them off flush with the support beams using my Dremel tool.

I didn't use a pattern for the headboard, but probably should have. I let the lengths of available wood dictate the dimensions. I knew how wide my bed was, and estimated how high it would need to be when I got a mattress. The height of my studs worked out pretty well for the uprights. The horizontal parts of the frame are the supports from my pallet. I just laid the whole thing out on the ground and made my cuts. The bottom of the headboard is hidden behind the bed, so I didn't bother tidying up the lengths of the pallet boards- I just used them as they were.

When I laid it all out, it seemed like a good idea, but the assembly fell apart when I stood it up. F@ck.

So, I had to reconfigure the construction of the whole thing. I eventually settled on making a frame using pocket holes, then attaching the pallet boards to the back using wood glue and finish nails. My pocket holes were constructed using one of the little $20 Kreg mini pocket jigs. The top shelf was attached to the frame with wood glue and some decking screws. I filled all the holes with wood filler before sanding and painting.

Like the mattress before it, there was some swearing as I hauled it up the stairs by myself. My kuckles were a little bloodied, but the walls remained intact. As for attaching it to the bed, I considered putting it on brackets attached to the back of the bed to make it higher. In the end, I decided not to mess with it, and just wedged the sucker in behind the bed and rammed the bed against the wall. It's sturdy and doesn't budge, no matter what happens. Win!

Since I scored the lamps (that miraculously match my throw and shams) at Goodwill for $8 apiece, I'm all good in the lighting department. However, the shelf on the headboard would make a nice place to mount some reading lamps.

Probably the prettiest pallet I've ever seen.

Awaiting paint.

One coat of paint to go.

Get Thee to Bed

Look at all that glorious storage that I'm not using yet. But I can, and that's what's important.

This is the story of a long-awaited good night's sleep. For the first nearly three months of living in Florida, my daughter and I were kindly put up by some friends while we accumulated enough capital to get a car, some basic necessities, and find a place to rent. We snuggled up together in a double bed each night. As lovely as that was, sleeping with a 6-year-old is very similar to cuddling a bag of writhing snakes with elbows that often talks at 2am.

Midget wants to help. Note patient Home Depot guy ripping my boards.

After we moved into our own space, I spent the next 2 months on a single mattress on the floor, dreaming of a proper bed. I eventually built this lovely queen storage bed and pallet headboard, but slept with the single (twin) mattress on top. I finally saved up enough money for an Ikea run to get a queen mattress for the bed, and now it's perfect. I smile each time I walk into my room, and look forward to curling up with a book in bed each night. I'm now considering making some felt bins for underneath to add a little pop of color. Building drawers is another option.

The bed is based on the Queen Storage Bed over at Ana White's site. The bed is an awesome concept, and is essentially made of three seperate benches with supports in the middle.

Even though the plans make it quite inexpensive, I opted to use OSB for the backs and bottoms of the cubbies to save extra cash. I spent an evening redrawing all of the plans to get the most cuts out of the sheets. I went with plywood for the tops and visible ends of the benches so it looked better. Even including paint and screws, I think this baby came in at just over $200. Eat that, West Elm.

It's not as cute with the single mattress on it, but look at all those cubbies!

The bed was simple to make. It would have been simpler if my arms were 4 feet longer or if I'd had another pair of hands to help me hold stuff in place, but I got there in the end. There was a very patient guy at Home Depot that thought I was a little crazy when I showed him my cut plans for the sheets, but he spent about 45 minutes cutting them for me. 

After I put the benches and supports together, I primed and painted it. I opted for white for a bit of a clean sanctuary vibe.Then I enlisted the help of a big strong friend to get the pieces up the stairs. Man, those suckers are heavy. I should have asked him to stay while I screwed the support frame to the middle, but I opted to do it by myself. Cue much swearing. Months later, there was more colorful language as I dragged the mattress up the stairs by myself and got it stuck going around the landing. There was a lot of celebration when I finally got it on the bed. Midget and I did a little dance and high-fived each other for being tough, resourceful  chicks who can move things that weigh almost as much as they do. After that, I was so ready to crawl onto the new mattress but had to wait until I'd showered and got out the fresh sheets. It was so worth it.

All this talk about my bed has made me want to go spend some quality time with it. I'll talk about the pallet headboard in a future post.

Pallet outdoor bench

I have a lovely lanai, but until recently it was devoid of anything except scrap wood, pallets and bikes. It seemed like such a waste of an outdoor spot.

I was inspired by some of the pallet benches that I had seen while browsing, and decided to attempt one from Cherry Blossom Kind of Life. I say "attempt" because it didn't quite fit together the way I had hoped. Here's the after:

The lesson that I learned the hard way from this project was that one should put together the supports first. I assembled the frames for the seat and back, then tried to attach the arms. Since I was doing this by myself and the stinking thing is almost as long as I am, it didn't work very well. If you look closely, you can see where I cheated on the front right leg (left side of the picture) and added a little block of wood to help support the seat frame.

My pallets were rather uncooperative when it came to disassembling them, and a lot of the boards had bits that were cracked and had to be sacrificed with the saw. I wanted the back to be high so that tall people could lean back comfortably. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough boards that were long enough, so I decided to alternate them with short ones. The result is functional, and pretty comfortable, but it's not a very elegant solution. Rustic or craptastic? You decide.