I’ve had this project completed for a few months now and am excited to finally be sharing it on the blog! When I first saw it on Pinterest, I knew it was a project I could get into, and I had the perfect wall for it. I am so thrilled with the results. When we first moved into our new house three and a half years ago, I felt the need to add “stuff” to the walls. Just generic stuff that didn’t mean a ton to me (think World Market wall art – but not as cool). I was sick of it after a year. Since then I’ve slowly begun the transformation to finding specific things I really LOVE and that displays more of our personality. This pallet shelf is perfect.

The first step was finding a pallet. They’re free at lots of places or on Craig’s List. Or if you have amazing friends who will drop it right off at your front door. Those are the best kind.    On most pallets you would need to remove one side of the boards in order to get to the “shelf” part. Amazingly, this pallet came as-is and already had one side removed. All we did here was stain and hang. Ready:

1. Stain: 

2. Hang: 

Ok so there’s no actual “hanging” photos. It was a two person job and Mike and I both had our hands full. But all we did was find the studs and screw the pallet directly into the wall. Where there were no studs we used heavy duty anchors. They are my new favorite thing to use around the house.

I love displaying little gifts or personal touches here. Our holiday card from last year is held by a little photo holder my brothers’ girlfriend made.

It’s no secret that in our house, Mike is the cook. He’s pretty much my hero – he comes home from work every day and just starts whipping up dinner. So a year or so ago I started keeping my eyes peeled when I was at antique shops for “man” cookbooks. And I’ve run across a couple of really funny ones. Like this one published in 1944, and sold then for $2.00. I have no idea what a “Stuffed, Boned Squab” is, but if you have this book you can certainly make it.  

Or this newer one from 1985. The recipes are much less intricate than in the one above, including “Fancy Hotdogs”, “Scrambled Eggs” and “Cheese Grits”. The authors, three young studs pictured on the inside, clearly didn’t believe bachelors of the day could cook. However they did claim that “Your girl friend will be thrilled you can cook a meal for her”. I’m not quite sure I’d be super impressed with Fancy Hotdogs, even in 1985. 

My goal was to incorporate lots of different layers, textures and sizes. This is my favorite image of my grandmother with Sophia.

Since we’re having a baby in July, I opted to leave a lot of space for new additional images. Currently I have framed, matted and metal prints displayed here. I will be incorporating standouts and possibly canvas with the new images coming in the next few months. I love that the images are so easy to interchange and swap out!

And I simply hung some twine from the bottom with mini clothes pins to display Sophia’s artwork. Although she’s constantly taking it down and bringing it to me to look at again.

The shelf is displayed in between our dining area and the kitchen, which is all open. I love walking by it all the time. It makes me so happy!