Thanks so much Megan for allowing me to share one of our DIY projects! My husband and I have taken up a recent love of "wooden pallet" furniture and thought it would be fun to try our very own. I am due with our fourth child in about 6 weeks, and we needed a big boy bed for our 2 year old son, Owen, so that we could use his crib for the new baby. So, that is what inspired us to make his bed! We wanted it to be something really special for him, so we decided to design it with inspirational words of wisdom for him to grow with! We came up with a few of our own phrases, and threw in some great, John Wooden phrases that his Dad gave to him when he graduated Elementary school. John Wooden kept this piece of paper in his wallet until the day he died! So, they must be pretty good "words of wisdom", right?!!
Now, to make your very own Inspirational Pallet Headboard, here is what you need:
First, we decided on the measurements for the headboard. We wanted it to fit a full size bed so we went with 50 inches tall X 60 inches wide. I recommend measuring your wall, you may have to come up with your own measurements to fit your space. We added 3 inches on each side to fit a full size mattress. (Disregard the fact that there is a twin size bed in the picture, we are waiting for his full size mattress to get here).
Then you will need to buy:
3 inexpensive, 12 foot, 1"x2" peices of wood for the frame
about 20 "fill-it" strips, they are thin, 8 ft. long pieces of wood and measure 1/2"x2" (we found these at Home Depot)
6 screws for the frame
several small pannel nails to hammer the "fill-it strips" onto the frame
stain (I used a pint of Miniwax Special Walnut)
Flat white paint for the words
hammer
saw (we used a circular saw, but it would probably be best to cut the wood with a table saw)
I let my handy-dandy husband create the pallet for me, but of course he had little helpers too! They like to hammer in the nails. :) Brad cut the wood to size and created a square frame for the headboard and drilled screws into each corner to hold it together. Then, he drilled a piece of wood down the center for stability and to give the headboard that "pallet" look.
After that, he and the kids hammered away at the "fill-it strips", using the end of a sponge brush to stick between each piece of wood as a spacer so we could keep things even. Here is a photo of Brad, Lily, and Owen, looking very proud of all their hard work!! :)
I got the job of the stainer and "free-hand" artist! I figured out after many tries with different brushes, that a regular paint brush is best for the job. The roller made the stain go on too thin and it would've taken forever! The sponge brush didn't give the stain the right consistency either, so though it took much longer, I used a paint brush to achieve my results and used a sponge brush in between the cracks to get those hard to reach insides of the wood.
Once that all dried, I free-handed the phrases onto each slat of wood. Initially, I was going to use stamp letters and paint them white, to stamp the letters on nice and neat, but I couldn't find any that were large enough. So, bravely, I decided to free-hand it!!
Here is Owen's new big boy bed and a headboard that hopefully he will appreciate one day when he grows up to understand it! ;)
Have a blessed day!!
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