Kitchen Pallet Shelf

What inspired me?

Well, a few weeks ago my step father brought home a couple pallets from work so that I could create a few projects in the limited time I have. If you have read any other projects of mine such as the Can lamp or Mason jar Wall lamp then you will have read that I love this type of project.

I was scrolling through Pinterest late at night and saw a bunch of pallet shelves and thought to myself I must try this! After a few hours of coming up with a nice, rustic looking design, I began to manufacture a unique, rustic but simple Kitchen pallet Shelf.

What will you need?

- 4mm drill bit

- 7mm drill bit

- Wooden pallet

- Wire meshing or structure of wire

- A jig saw or panel saw

- A flat file and sand paper

- A claw hammer

This isn't a difficult project what so ever, and you can interchange the parts. For example if you don't have any wire, you can just use some screws and the pallet.

Step 1 - Marking out the pallet

Place the pallet such that it is flat onto an even surface such as a floor or work top. In the bottom right hand corner, mark out 250mm up, and 500mm across, this should be the distance between the two beans. And the height should be just under three planks high.

Cut this out using the jig saw or the panel saw. The panel saw is very good as you can cut larger surface areas without moving your saw blade, but the jig saw is very fast and accurate.

When you have just the pallet chunk you just cut out I front of you, sit it down so the untouched side is sitting on the floor while to cut side is facing up. You now need to make it more chamfered do there is a backboard. Turn the piece so that its facing you and then mark out 30mm up from the second plank on both sides. You now need to draw a straight like from the point you just marked up to the opposite side right at the top. This will create a basic chamfer resulting in more shelf like appearance.

Step 2 - Cutting the pallet

When your jig saw is fully charged, Insert a wood working blade and place it onto the edge of the mark. Slowly squeeze the trigger and cut away the lime. Make sure you are cutting straight. Be careful as the denser the wood, the more friction is caused. This will dramatically increase the heat and will eventually burn the wood. But remember you can always even out the surface using a file or sand paper.

Step 3 - Cutting the Wire base

The wire base I used was up cycled from an only babies cot. Feel free to make your own, use wood instead or just use simple wire. First of all, I placed the assembled shelf onto the wire, and used a sharpie to mark out the shelf and where the wire will sit. I then used a pair of snips to take the wire off the frame.

I used my jig saw with a metal working blade to cut the metal sure then used a small bastard file to file any burs left on the wire.

Step 4 - Drilling the holes

I lined up the first pair of wires to the centre of the inside beam (look at the pictures if not sure). The width of the internal beam was 80mm. Whole the wire had a width of 50mm. This meant I just needed to measure 15mm of both ends and use the 3mm drill bit to make a hole so the wire would slide into place.

If you wanted to use wood. Just measure the internal dimensions of the pallet shelf and mark it out onto the pallet plank. Use the jig saw or panel saw to cut the piece out then using the drill, drill 8 holes around the base of the shelf, half the depth of the plank up. Use screws to then fasten the bottom into place.

I added two holes in the top part so I was able to fire two screws into the wood. This enabled me to hang it from a wall or door.

Step 5 - Finishing the wood

Finishing the wood just involves using sand paper, and files to get rid of any burs around the cut lengths along with the general surface of the wood.

If you choose, you can add a number of finishes to your product. For example you can add oils, paints, varnish or veneers. I didn't add anything as I love the overall look of the wood.

Step 6 - Finished!!!

Great! You have finished. I hope you liked this instructable as much as you liked my others. Nearly at 20,000 views so thank you to all my subscribers. Please keep liking my projects. Thank you so much for reading. If you have any questions be sure to email or comment below. I hope you tackle this project well and remember to have fun.