“Pallet Walls” Offer Unique Look

“Pallet Walls” Offer Unique Look AG WORLD Pallet slats can be things of beauty says Bob O’Neil Stanwood Mich who recently used slats off old pallets to refinish some of the walls in his home including the kitchen and his son’s bedroom The slats are placed at a 45 degree angle and fastened with finishing screws onto the drywall “I’m an art teacher at a local middle school and noticed a lot of leftover pallets piled up outside When we decided to remodel our house I found a use for them ” says O’Neil “We live in a resort-type area with a lot of cabins so the rustic look fits right in You can still see the original nail holes in the slats “Placing the slats at an angle creates an exciting look and changing the angle back the other way on adjacent walls helps too I plan to extend pallet walls out to our living room in order to tie everything together in our house ” The slats are attached with finishing screws to the drywall and can be quickly popped off which will make them easy to remove in the future if necessary says O’Neil “The small heads on the finishing screws look a lot like nail holes in the wood ” The slats are weathered to different shades of grey depending on the pallet’s age and the kind of wood they’re made from “The pallets I used were made from oak cherry maple and pine and based on what I smelled when cutting or sanding the slats there may have been some applewood in there too ” says O’Neil “However I prefer slats made from hardwood trees because they look nicer and should hold up better over time “It was often a challenge to remove the slats without splitting them ” says O’Neil “I found that a double prybar worked best to prevent splits Once the slats were removed I ran them through a table saw to make sure they were all the same width I sanded them down with 80 grit sandpaper to remove any splinters ” Installing the slats was a relatively easy job “I started at a bottom corner of the wall and used a big plastic framing square to set the first slat at a true 45 degree angle to the floor Then I added slats on both sides and screwed them on using the wall studs wherever I could ” says O’Neil Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Bob O’Neil 9560 Golf Port Dr Stanwood Mich 49346 ph 231 580-5434; roneil@chsd us

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