DIY Rustic Pallet Frames

As you may or may not know, I am knee deep in a garage, mudroom and kitchen addition.  Each week we've had a few deliveries, which all resulted in pallets full of material being delivered to the house.  Pallets that cost $15.00 a piece.  I used 2 of them to make a workbench/bar and was determined to use another pallet for another project, frames.

I started out by using the circular saw to cut the pallet apart.   I planned on stacking four boards horizontally, so I cut enough pieces to make two frames.  I didn't worry so much about making them even, I just wanted to get the pallet apart.  I later used a chop saw to cut them all to the same length.  I also cut a scrap piece of lauan to use as the support for the back of my frame.

I used regular wood glue to glue the pallet boards to the lauan.   Once I got all my boards lined up I grabbed a bag of fertilizer (it was the closest and heaviest thing outside) and set it on top to dry over night.

 Then I applied a coat of my favorite Minwax Jacobean stain and one coat of poly.

I ended up reinforcing the back with a few nails just in case the wood didn't hold well enough.

Now, was the fun part.  I recently used sheet metal to make West Elm Inspired bin pulls for a HomeGoods table makeover and knew I wanted to use it again for the frames.   I free handed a shape and cut out 8 pieces to use on the corners of each frame.  

Once I had all the holes drilled for the nails I spray painted the sheet metal with ORB spray paint.

Instead of using glass, I picked up two 8x10 pieces of plexiglass from Home Depot.  Then attached each picture to the frames using nails.

Not bad for using pallet wood and $7.00 worth of plexiglass.  I'm thinking of doing one more pallet project for Paige's room, so stay tuned...