In my last post about my gallery wall I explained how simply doing that small project created a domino effect in projects around the house. This post is about one of those dominos, the pallet wall fireplace!

Before I begin, I’ll warn you- the pictures are really terrible because I was SO EXCITED TO FINALLY DO THIS that I was too preoccupied watching the process than documenting it.

First off, you are going to need to get yourself some pallets. This was a lot easier than I anticipated, actually. I was prepared to start calling local stores and begging them for their old worn out pallets. But like always, Pete saved the day. Turns out he knew a guy who could get them (and he wonders why I think he can do anything and everything I bring to him?)

Now, the fun part. You will see I had nothing to do with any of the next steps because power tools were involved and nobody ever trusts me with them. Honestly. I’m a grown ass (almost) 31 year old woman and I can’t find ONE PERSON who would trust me to use a saw!

Helpful Hint: Slide the reciprocating saw blade between the two boards, turn on the saw, and it will cut those old nails like butter in about 5 seconds. We dismantled all 3 double pallets in about 30 minutes.

Decorative Tip: Still keep the old rusted nails in the board!

This part looked easy enough, just more time consuming. You just want to get that fuzzy feeling off of the boards. (Pete says to use 200 grit sandpaper…whatever that means…) I probably would have been trusted to help out with this part but honestly, it looked messy and I really just enjoyed watching…

The next step I actually did participate in and immediately wished I didn’t. There were a lot of boards, my knees hurt, and you need to make sure you stain the top of the board and all of those annooooooying edges. I was just so excited to see what the stain looked like on each board that I felt like the edges were taking too long…because they were.

The stain we used was Rustoleum Weathered Gray, it was like $8 at Home Depot. The really cool thing about pallet boards is you can stain each one exactly the same but they all look so different at the end. Though, if you wanted a more uniform wall I guess that’s not a good thing…

Again. I didn’t help with this process because of power tools. I totally recommend getting a nailer. I swear our walls are made of cement or something that is equally as evil. If we didn’t have a nailer I have no doubt we would still be trying to hammer in our first row of wood. (The nailer we own is the Ryobi Cordless Brad Nailer)

Most of the tutorials I read said you should start from the top and work down because if you have to piece in pieces of wood it’s better to be at the bottom to be easily covered. HOWEVER, none of the tutorials I read were for fireplaces. So, since this wasn’t an inside wall, meaning you will see the edges of the wood, we framed the sides with wood so we would see the finished sides of the wood and not the ends. Then we decided the most important viewpoint for us was right at the mantle and wanted our best and most unique pieces there, so we began there and worked to the ceiling. Then we did the sides of the fireplace. Turns out, by pure luck, that the last row of wood we did was the exact width of the pallet boards we had left. That doesn’t happen to us. Ever.

What was more of our brand of luck was that we had 3 pallets of wood used and needed an entire 4th pallet FOR ONE ROW OF WOOD. Literally like 3 boards short. Had to wait another whole week just to finish the last row. So IF you have all of your materials (and the correct amount) This is absolutely 100% a weekend project- my fav!

Finished pictures below 🙂

[In the first image you will see that we wrapped the wood around the corner, I absolutely loved that Pete did this. It gives it a more finished look. Again, I only could find pictures of inside walls, when we were done it still felt like something was off…once Pete added that it was exactly what was missing.