Palletless Pallet Wall how to~

I usually like to share thrifty decorating solutions.

This was one occasion when we decided we'd rather spend

a little money and save a lot of time and effort.

The product I used for my wood plank wall

is v groove wood planks by

EverTrue,

sold in packs of 6 eight foot long planks.

The package says it will cover 14 sq feet.

Our wall is 11 feet wide by 8 feet tall

or 88 square feet, so we bought seven packs.

I also bought three small cans of wood stain,

a light shade, a dark shade and gray.

The light shade was golden oak.

Don't buy this unless you're going for the color of mustard. Blech!

That other can is one I already had.

I usually buy Minwax stain, but I decided to give the Rustoleum a try.

I liked it. Especially the gray.

I stained all of the boards, brushing the stain on, letting it sit a couple of minutes,

then wiped off the excess.

Some I just used the gray stain, some the dark. For some I dry brushed the dark over the gray

and others I stained dark then brushed the gray over.

I was just going for old looking and

wanted quite a bit of variation in colors.

I brought them into the room and laid them out,

according to color.

The foreman was present, to make sure the job was done right,

as usual.

Mitch did the first few rows, before he had to go to work and I finished it up.

He started by finding the studs to determine where we would nail,

but these guys are so light, you don't really have to hit a stud.

There was no formula to our cuts,

we just knew we wanted it to look random, no pattern.

When we got to the outlets, Mitch notched out around them.

He used a coping saw, but said a utility knife would probably work.

We attached them to the wall with an air powered stapler. (from Harbor Freight)

Again, being supervised every step of the way.

The boards are tongue and grove so they lock together.

I was able to put up several rows before actually securing

them to the wall,

That allowed me to be sure I was happy with the layout.

We started at the floor and luckily it worked out

that I was able to finish with a full sized board at the ceiling.

The only place we had to cut the width of the boards was just above and below the window.

Mitch made those cuts and used a box cutter. 

The back of the planks have channels or grooves you can follow for cutting.

You can see in the photo below, the piece above the window

is pretty thin and it broke before I got it installed.

I taped it together and kept installing,

Once it was all up we removed the tape

and patched it with wood putty.

It blended right in.

This is one time I'm so happy Mitch didn't want to go along

with my plan. Shhh, don't tell him I said that.

Remember, the room is unfinished.  Excuse the unpainted window trim.

Don't mind the saw on the floor and the ladder in the corner.

Or the bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling.

We can't seem to find the light fixtures we

purchased at IKEA.

It's a bit of a mess around here.

Finishing up this wall has given me

an extra little push to forge ahead.

It's nice to see my vision coming to life.

 

Sharing is fun! Check out these parties~

 

Comments

[Linda @ it all started with paint]

That was an awesome tutorial! I love the idea of a pallet wall but have been intimidate because I don't have the big power tools ... but this? This I could do! Hmmm ... now I just need to pick a wall!

[Linda @ it all started with paint]

Oh, and I'm pinning this!

[Roberta]

If hubby agrees I think we'll put this on our living rm wall/s, we're bldg our retirement home, have huge windows and want to achieve a rustic feeling. Thanks a heap!

[Autum]

 I hope your hubby agrees, Roberta.  Id love to see pictures!

xo Autum

[Liz]

I'm pretty sure I couldn't L.O.V.E. this any more. It is so rustic and chic. I'm totally swooning. I would love for you to link up to Find Your Craft Friday. Our readers would love it!

http://thequickjourney.blogspot.com/2012/01/find-your-craft-friday-5.html

[Diane McBee]

I just love your wall! We are remodeling a bathroom and actually got old fence boards ( wood fences being replaced) and put them on the wall. The look is slightly more rustic but FREE and it adds so much to the bathroom. I am going to wallpaper around the sink area with old maps from National Geographic! Totally recycled space!
Diane

[Autum]

Hi Diane.
We replaced our wood fence with vinyl and I saved some of the slats, the ones that werent too rotten. I made a sign for my kitchen so far, but hope to find some great uses for more of them. I didnt have enough to do a whole wall. I bet yours looks amazing and I love the map idea. Id love to see pictures!

xo Autum

[Autum]

Thank you Liz!
I linked up, thanks for the invite.
Have a wonderful weekend!
xo Autum

[cindy the cottage chick]

Totally fabulous! I pinned it for future reference. I'd love to do this in one of my boys room's...especially the one under the eaves that looks like your room with the slanting ceiling. Totally cool.

'Course I'm so wiped from the wedding that I prolly won't attack any real home projects for months at this point, but hey, pinterest makes me feel productive :)

[Elizabeth]

This is amazing! I love that you found a better solution instead of giving up on the palette look (or yelling at your husband). This is spectacular and I'm sure lot of people will copy your method.

[kristin]

It's just gorgeous!
Thanks for linking!
XO

[Michelle]

That came out great. I wish pinterst had been around before I finished my remodeling ! : ( Now I see so many cool ideas and I just don't have the energy to re-do stuff.

[brandi]

Autumn this is absolutely amazing! Such a brilliant idea! I love the random placement of the boards!

[Chris]

Hi Autum, great job you guys did. Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris
http://chelencarter-retiredandlovingit.blogspot.com/

[Whitney]

What a beautiful wall! Stopping by from It All Started With Paint - it's just fantastic!

[Alecia @ ChickenScratchNY]

This is amazing! It's like having one wall of a log cabin inside your home. I'm mentally trying this on every wall of my house as I type.

[Autum]

Thank you Alecia! It does give what could have been a boring room a lot of interest. Id love to see photos if you do it in your house.

xo Autum

[susan]

oh wow, your wall looks beautiful!

[Eldarose]

I love this project so much. I am pinning it.

[Autum]

Thank you Eldarose! I love Pinterest.

xo Autum

[Michelle]

I have a question about the outlets. I did some wainscoting over the existing walls and I found that this left me with recessed outlets. I was able to find some little plastic squares (at HD in the electrical section made for this issue) to place behind the top and bottom screws that hold the outlet into the box and this helped me bring the outlet forward but they still don't seem sturdy when you unplug and plug into them. They seem loose. Did you run into this issue when you did this wall? Did you have a solution to make the outlet more secure to the wall?

[Kristin @ The Hunted Interior]

This is AMAZING! I think you have just changed my mind. We are planning on doing this on our kitchen ceiling & this product just seems soooo much easier than the pallets. Love the varying stains too!

Kristin @ The Hunted Interior
www.thehuntedinterior.blogspot.com

[Sharon @ Elizabeth & Co.]

This wall is amazing! Thank you for the details!

[StephanieD]

I love this so much....can you tell me approximately how much it cost to do?

[Autum]

Hi Stephanie,

Thank you. The packages of g-groove are around $16 a piece and cover 14 square feet.  Our room is 11 wide with the ceiling being 8 feet at the tallest section. I think we purchased 6 packs at around $100 plus the cost of stain. Id say we spent around $125-130 for the wall.

From another blog post I read about the planks, I expected the packages to be around $10, so I was a bit surprised when I got to the store. I had to give some thought about whether I wanted to spend that much, but in the end, I think it was well worth it.

xo Autum