DIY Pallet Bed

Remember a few weeks ago where I said I wanted to make a pallet bed and showed you my inspiration? Well, if you don't remember check it out here. If you do remember keep reading because baby, it's finished, fabulous, and I'm so glad it's done! 

I don't know why I act like it took so long because honestly all together it didn't take up much time. It just made me busy every night, no one could park in the garage because of all my pallets, I sanded 5 pallets to find out I needed different ones, it took an hour to get paint at Walmart, and I bought the wrong clear coating so I only did one coat. But really it went great. :) 

Here are my original pallets. They had character and I was soo excited! And then my dad visited and wanted to help me do something and discovered that my pallets were different widths and couldn't be used together. After slight panic more pallets the size we wanted were found. The last day my dad was here he spent it cutting, drilling holes, nailing, and making a puzzle out of pallets for my pallet bed. 

That is what he came up with. There are some gaps, some pieces didn't completely touch but it is still awesome. The top layer you see in the pictures ended up being on the bottom since the bottom layer in the picture fit together a little better. Ya follow? No? It's okay I was really confused for awhile too. 

Then I sanded all the pallets. I had an electric sander which helped immensely and I did some hard to reach places by hand. 

Freshly sanded pallets, next to some pallet rejects. There were still some splintery areas but most of those are in the middle of the pallets and not anywhere my feet would be once in my room. I mainly focused on the edges being smooth. 

The bottom layer that ended up on top getting sanded. You can see that my pallets aren't perfect. If you end up doing this if you can be more patient than me and find some freakishly awesome pallets I highly  suggest waiting. But I don't like waiting and decided this MUST happen before winter so we found the next best thing and I still love it. 

The wood on the pallets was nice, fun, and different. BUT I have wood floors, tan walls, wood furniture, and therefore decided the plain wood wouldn't work for me. I decided to paint them black to have a neutral color against my marvelous duvet. I just used a flat black paint from Walmart and did 2-3 coats. I also only focused on the edges that I thought were going to show. I figure the only time all the pallets are going to show was when I moved the bed so it didn't matter. After the paint dried I put one coat of a clear coat cover to set it. Honestly, I don't know why I did the clear coat. I think my dad said to and was like ok, why not. It's recommended to do 2-3 coats but once again I was impatient so I did 1. If it bites me in the butt I'll let you know. 

 

I also bough some wood from Home Depot and had it cut to size to fit inside the openings of the pallets to make shelves. You can see that in the above picture along with my plain walls, black curtains, and horrid wax job on my wood floors.  

Here are the pallets set up waiting for my bed to get put on. Huge huge thank you to Anne and Colleen who came and helped me move around my room, listened to me talk about how I wanted it too look, and still helped even when I had totally thought things through. The original plan was to put the bed in the corner but it just did not work at all and they helped me find the perfect spot. You guys ROCK!

Here it is mostly put together! I painted the wrong sides so I have some unpainted spots showing. I might go and touch that up but it kinda adds a rustic look so maybe it will stay. I don't know for sure yet but I did know it wasn't happening that same night. I wanted my bed to be high so I still put my box spring on, I covered it with the gray fitted sheet to hide it's ugliness. 

All put together! I had the bright pillow from a different decorating plan so I threw it on just to add some color. I will be adding color to my bed soon! Promise! 

I added my books after everyone left. I love it! You can't add a ton but I think it's just so fun. 

 

Another view of the books. I only have 3 shelves in at the moment. I have extra wood, still in the trunk of my car actually, and will add more when I can get someone to help me cut them to the exact sizes needed. (Trust me, you don't want me using a saw alone.) 

And of course, no post will ever be completed without an Instagram photo. Don't you see the rusticness (I've decided this is a word)  of the unpainted parts? 

That, ladies and gentleman, is my pallet bed. I LOVE it. I'm so glad we my dad cut it do be the exact size. I love how unique it is and how it compliments my duvet. Now I just need to get my headboard started and made to have it totally finished. Too bad I changed my mind about the fabric I have! 

Linked up with I heart naptime, Finding Fabulous, Finger Prints on the Fridge, Remodelaholic.  

More room decorating ideas

I want to make a headboard and a bed frame for my bed. Okay, well not exactly a bed frame but I don't really know what to call it. It's a lot simpler than how a bed frame sounds. Or maybe it just sounds weird to me and you completely understand what I mean. Anyways, those are my main goals right now. The things I really really really want to get done soon! 

First the bed. I want to make a pallet bed. Like these....the pictures are from Pinterest of course. 

Photo from re-nest.com

Photo from homes.ninemsn.com.au 

Aren't they just awesome looking? I want to paint mine black though. And then use the open spaces to store all my books. I would also keep my box spring so my bed would be higher. I kinda have to otherwise my comforter would be all over the floor! It's a queen size on a full bed. 

Then I want a headboard. My bed is my main source of seating in my room. It's a bad thing I know but I would love a headboard to lean against. (I'm hoping to get a desk soon to craft, blog, and sit at for other things soon.) But I still want a headboard! I don't have a specific design in mind but I found some other blogs and tutorials to help me out. Check them out here and here and also here are just some inspiring pictures. 

Right now my plan is to do something with clean lines and with a colored fabric. (Pst the fabric I'm using is a fabric shower curtain I picked up at Marshalls for $7. Ya baby!) But I'm not going to go into all that yet since I haven't gotten the wood base at all. Getting pallets and the wood piece for my headboard is what is holding me up. My little Honda can't hold either of those things. My sister's SUV probably can't get any pallets plus I haven't found any free ones near enough to pick up yet. But I am determined! 

Just so you know pallet furniture is kinda iffy thing. You have to be careful about the pallets you use. A lot of pallets are either chemically or water treated and you don't want to be using any of those in your home or as a used piece of furniture. If you think pallet furniture is cool check out my pinterest or just google pallet furniture. There are some awesome ideas out there!