Wooden pallet bed

Hi there! I'm pretty excited to show you this goody today:

Shire's new wooden pallet bed! 

I saw a picture of a wooden pallet bed in a Spring issue of Flea Market Style magazine back in April; I tagged it as one of those things that I thought looked amazing and super fun, but not sure if 1) my husband and handyman, Matt, would be as enthusiastic, and 2) how difficult it would be.

Silly me for doubting on both accounts! Matt loved the picture I showed him and, though there is a serious lack of pallet bed tutorials online, we both thought it couldn't be too hard to figure out. And I'm happy to report, it's not! I thought I would discuss the details of putting this bed together for anyone else out there who is interested in trying, but not sure where to start.

Here's what we started with: A scrap pallet from Home Depot that they gave us for free, (find a kind looking person with the good ol' orange apron and ask), 2 2x4s, 2 1x3s, and 4 medium sized caster wheels with locks, (not pictured).

Then we built this:

The 'X' frame with the 1x3s was first. Matt used the shaved off ends of the 1x3s as needed as support 'blocks' so the pieces would all lay flush. See here:

Top view:

Then it was my turn to sand and stain. I used 120grit sandpaper in my electric vibrator sander and went to town on the ends and edges, rounding them out so there would be no scratched ankles or splinters. Then I stained using Sherwin-Williams Golden Oak:

Love the difference the stain makes!

Then Matt added the casters to the outer corners of the 2 x 4s

And our little girl's bed was done!

*These pictures were taken before I added the bed skirt you see in the first picture.* I am all about this bed. It was a work of love from beginning to end for our little Shire. It's so sweet to see how special it's made her feel.

Please see our 'Spaces' page for updated pics of Shire's room!

Thank you for stopping by!

Chelsea

This post was originally featured under Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt.

DIY Project Tutorials

A match made in...the garage!

Fresh out of the garage today is a mismatched pair of dressers refinished in the same look to create a pair. It doesn't happen often, but every now and then I get a request to take various unlike pieces and make them look like a cohesive set or pair. It's always an exciting challenge to make these lone pieces look like they were made for each other!

For this particular job my client had two large dressers she wanted refinished the same way, bonded together by one mega fun print; chevron. What do you get with two strikingly different, (and large), dressers matched to one another by some large zig-zags?

Check it out!

Dresser 1

Dresser 2

Made for each other!

The low-down:

-Pieces painted in Country Grey by Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

-I painted Old White by ASCP over the surfaces where I wanted the pattern stenciled 

-After the Old White dried I used a large stencil, (ordered from Modello Design), to dab on Paris Grey by ASCP using a sponge brush.

The process looked like this:

-After the stencil dried I distressed the pattern with a medium grit sanding sponge.

Tomorrow will be a first peek of some progress with our basement - the key word being progress. Just a couple things to finish up before I would stamp the room DONE, (including a tutorial on changing out ceiling light fixtures). Getting so close, though, and it's looking a zillion times better!

~Chelsea

This post was originally featured under Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt.