UPCYCLED: From Pallets At Work to a Headboard At Home. (Original Work)

I wanted to share one of my recent projects with the Steemit world here. Quick backstory first: We bought our home in the beginning of 2013.  We were fortunate enough to get a newer home, so we didn't have to do any major construction or repairs. That being said, we've been finalizing the decor of each room one-by-one.  We were working on the guest bedroom and got it all set up; bed, nightstand, tv, shelving, etc.  Something was missing though.... a headboard.

^^^Look at all of that boring wall space.

       We looked around at local stores for a decent headboard, but nothing was really standing out to us.  That's when things got interesting.  Somewhere around this time, Kylene (my fiancé) saw some on Pinterest made out of pallets.  We both liked the looks of them and I really loved the idea of repurposing something and keeping it out of landfills.  She showed me this example and I told her I could make one:

^^^This was the original request from the misses.

     Now.... I could have made it like the photo here, but I decided to take some creative liberties with it, as you'll see later. The first step was to get some pallets.  Luckily, we had a pile of them at work and I dug through and picked out about 5 that I liked, looking for boards with the same width, but different degrees of weathering.

^^^Step 1.  This can be considered the headboards "before" photo.

        I took these beauties home and started to break them all down.  I found a reciprocating saw to be the best tool for the job.  I was originally trying to pry them apart, but so many of the boards were breaking and splitting around the nails.  I put a good bimetal blade on the saw and cut right through the nails and that left the nail heads on the pieces I wanted to use, which added to the look.  I laid them out on my workshop's floor and when I came up with an arrangement I liked, I joined them all together using mending plates on the back.  Then, I made a crude frame out of 2 x 4's with the vertical legs being the same distance apart as the mounting holes on the bed's frame.  I screwed the frame to the pallet boards through the back and I was able to stand it up. I then lightly, but thoroughly, sanded the face of the headboard with a palm sander and 180 grit paper being careful to not let evidence of the sanding show and keep the pallet wood's gritty look. Basically, I just didn't want anyone to get splinters from it.  I figure between the light sanding and the sealing later, it shouldn't be an issue.

^^^My first look at it!  Looks good to me.

       You may have noticed it doesn't look much like the example Ky showed me, but I felt like this had more character. I figured I'd try it this way and if I didn't like it at this stage, I'd cut the sides and top to be square using a circular saw.  No need here though, we liked the rough cut look.  Next step was the stain.  

^^^All stained up!

     I went with a dark stain, black walnut.  Both of us tend to always gravitate towards the darker stains when it comes to just about anything.  It was a good fit for this project as well.  The lighter, newer pallet boards still showed through and gave some good variation in color.  Next step was to seal it up with some polycrylic, two coats.

^^^Sealed up.... now what?

    This headboard could be called "finished" at this point.... BUT, I thought it could be even cooler.  Lights!  I decided to add lights.  I found some cool vintage-looking wall mount lights on Amazon.  I believe they were around $20 so I ordered them up.  In the meantime I ran to Lowes and grabbed two light switches, two receptacle boxes, connector clamps, several feet of 18/2 wire, and two unfinished wood switch covers.  I stained the switch covers with the same stain as the headboard, picked where I wanted to mount everything and drilled/cut out the holes for the lights and the switches.  When the lights came in, I mounted all of the hardware and wired it up.  

^^^Lights and switches mounted!

^^^Ready to take to the guest bedroom..

     After testing that everything worked, I dragged it on up to the guest bedroom!  I positioned the legs in front of the frames mounting holes, marked them with a pencil, pulled the bed away and drilled them out.  I replaced the bed and attached the two using 5/16" bolts, nuts, and washers.  The final touch was to add the lightbulbs and I found some awesome antique Edison bulbs that were LED.  Added the glass globe over the bulbs and the headboard was finished!

^^^ Cool vintage Edison bulls with a modern, energy efficient LED twist.

Once again, the finished product:

Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the project.  If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help.

***I also do a daily nature blog, makes sure you follow me to see it all!