DIY Pallet Bookcase Tutorial

Do you love pallets? I love the rough texture of the wood, the variations in color and the knicks and nail holes make me swoon. I’ve been known to pull off the side of the road and load up the car when I find a nice, weathered pallet just abandoned, crying out to come home with me!

Decorating with pallets has become one of the hottest fads in the past few years.
Here’s how we used pallets to update our 10 year old bookcase.

We purchased this bookcase from Ikea. It was so long ago, that I can’t remember the name of it

It’s a wonderfully sturdy wooden bookcase that has survived our gypsy blood days. It has moved with us from Los Angeles to Tennessee, Tennessee to Vegas, and from Vegas now back to Tennessee in our Almost Farmhouse.

It has seen it’s wear and tear, but we thought if it survived that many moves, then it deserves some TLC.

It used to be finished in natural pine, but we painted it off white a few years ago.

I took all those pallets I had been collecting and broke them down,
well…not me exactly.

There are tons of tips and tutorials online on how to break down pallets if you search for them.

I just sweet talked my strong man, ooh’d and aah’d over his muscles, and stood by ready to wipe his brow while he went to work disassembling. That’s a chore, lemme tell ya! And some of the pieces crumbled apart.

We measured them to fit the back of the bookcase and then had Trent cut them to size.

Next came the assembly.

We simply turned the bookcase over and screwed the cut pallet pieces onto the frame.

But, not without a bit of tom foolery!

Those boys are peas in a pod!

We staggered the pattern to give a variegated effect.

Here’s the finished product!

OH, I love it!!

*swoon*

We noticed that we had a band going across the middle where the boards laid against the pallet frame. It wasn’t planned and was pure happenstance, but it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the finished project.

This only took us a few hours to cut and assemble and now we have a new piece to feature in our home. There are so many fun things you can do with pallets. Be sure to check out how we created a Kitchen Island with pallet wood, or a unique Pallet Sign {here} and {here} and here’s a whole post filled with lots of pallet yumminess!