And what a productive one it was! The shelves I've been waiting to build since we bought the house are finally up, and all that's left to do is attach my front trim piece (which will very likely happen today or tomorrow). What this means is that the 5 or 6 boxes sitting around full of books & decor can finally be unpacked. I spent a good part of an hour yesterday going through all the boxes to get rid of things I really don't want/use anymore. I whittled it down to a few stacks of books, leaving me room to build my collection. I mean, we have lived here for almost 6 months now, so seeing the last chunk of boxes disappearing is severely overdue. We wanted to have this project completely finished and shelves stacked & styled by the end of the week, when we host our first big gathering in our new place.
The biggest and most thrilling of our weekend projects was the transformation that took place in the studio Saturday afternoon. Remember this post? Well, here's how I ran with it.
We wound up being short by about 9 or 10 boards. So far we have only deconstructed 5 pallets, and some of those pieces weren't usable. So I'll have to hit up my sweet friend Jamie for her last pallet. (She's conveniently having things delivered to her house for outdoor construction via pallets. Matt is obviously thrilled about this perfect timing.) However, the majority of the job is done and up and it looks just fabulous. It was a little tricky getting around the fixtures on the ceiling, but I seriously couldn't love it more! Do you know what else this means? My studio is this close to being completely finished.
In case you're curious about how we went from pallets to this, I'll walk you through the steps.
- First, we ripped the pallets apart. Instead of pryng them apart with a crowbar, we used a saw-zall to saw the top boards apart from the side and middle supports. This not only took us about 2.5 minutes to complete, but it also allowed us to leave the majority of the nail heads in the board for added character.
- Then, after determining the length we needed for our project, we marked and cut each board to the desired length with a small miter saw.
- After this, I busted out the electric sander and sanded down all the rough, splintery wood to beautiful smooth pieces with a ton of personality and character.
- What's next was staining, and I had a nice variety of stain colors that I worked with, from dark walnut to golden pecan to a "natural" stain, which was basically clear, but brought out the richness and details in each of the boards I applied it to.
- Putting them onto the wall was very easy. We originally wanted to use a nail gun, but because of logistics decided to use drywall screws, and in some instances, stud screws for extra security (think: boards on the ceiling coming crashing down). I pre-drilled pilot holes and sank the screws in before we began applying them to the wall, so they were all ready to go. We lined up and leveled out our boundaries, found the studs just in case, and got started. It only took about 3 boards for me to realize not only had we done things right, but that this was going to look just as amazing as I had planned. Some of the boards are crooked and uneven and some even warped, so they aren't perfect, but I think that's what I like :) There was no rhyme or reason to how we spaced out the different stains, it was very random, and I'm glad we did it that way. The best part about this project? The person who rolled his eyes every time I talked about it and threatened (jokingly) to throw it all out on the curb was the person who jumped right in and offered to help put them up.
AGH!!! It's AWESOME!!!! WAY TO GO BURKLEYS!!!
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