DIY Pallet Wall {Part 2}

Okey Dokey. So we left off with a pile of wood. So now what? Paint the wall. I knew there would be a lot of imperfections in the wood, and there might be some gaps here and there. I just mixed up some paint I had on hand to be a dark enough tone so people wouldn’t notice the khaki color in the seams.

Alrighty! It’s time for installation. We chose to start from the top because we didn’t want it to look “forced” if the last strip didn’t fit right. I would recommend that.  Just sayin’.

I hope I can explain this part right. In order to stagger the seams from piece to piece, we made sure that we started each layer on the opposite end. I drew the arrows to show what direction we went in for each level. In other words, we hung the first strip on the right side of the wall, then we hung the second strip starting on the left side of the wall. It worked like a charm. 

Oddly enough, we used a level for the first few layers, but we didn’t use it for the rest of the wall. We would check it every once in a while (as if we were gonna rip the wall off and start over), but it leveled itself quite well. My point is—don’t panic about keeping it level. It should be ok.

The only obstacle really? The outlet. Truth be told, I chose not to let it be an obstacle. Because this part is barely visible, I spared my husband the stress and concern and just let him cut around it. This way, we didn’t have to get an outlet extender, new outlet plate, etc. He cut pieces around it and cut a small piece at the bottom to fit. If this were on a more exposed wall, I would have done things differently.

But…it’s in my son’s room, upstairs, on the opposite side of his bed. Who really cares? Perhaps you do. I would advise that you look away from this picture then. This might also be a good time to notice that we took the baseboard out for this wall. I didn’t like the idea of having this rustic wall paired up with a bright white baseboard. Weird. We just ripped it out and slid the last piece in. It took a little pushing and trimming, but it fit quite perfectly. Let it be known—that never happens for us.

I took a couple of close-ups so you could see the imperfections in it. Some planks stuck out from the others; some planks even had paint on them. I just let them be, ‘cause I liked it.

And a couple of final thoughts…

I’ve had some questions about precautions I took with this wood. I vacuumed it, brushed it, sanded it, and left it in my garage for several days. Other than that, nothing. I have not sealed it, but I’m not opposed to that. I’m still reading on it to see if it’s needed.

Basically, I’m not a pallet expert, and I can’t tell you what to do. However, Donna did write a pretty interesting post on some things to look for and precautions to take. Perhaps she’ll offer the advice you’re looking for. Good luck!

Tagged as: diy, pallet wall, tutorial