Reclaimed Wood Project

I'm very slowly starting everything back up as I get past the shock of actually finishing my degree and cleaning the house after two years of focusing on the degree. I've done a lot but haven't had time to blog about it. I hope to post pictures of the 2nd wedding dress, the amazing storage bench for the kitchen, and the hundred other projects later.

Today I will focus on the beginning of the 

Reclaimed Wood Project.  

I love Pinterest, who doesn't?!  Thanks to Pinterest, the fire pit has been viewed almost 600,000 times.  That blows my mind.  Some of my favorite pins are the pallet wood furniture photos.  What's not to like?  Free wood, kept out of the landfill, turned into rustic and functional home furnishings.    

I have a neighbor who runs a toy business, www.toontoy.com, who let me have all the pallets I wanted. After a few days of constant hammering at pallets earning nothing but a sore arm, I had a friend weld together a pallet pry-bar.  A good pallet could be torn apart in 20 minutes, the bad ones needed a saw.  

Most pallets have four 2X4's and twelve 1X4's.  I took apart at least 25 pallets. 

That should be over 400 pieces of wood. NOT!

I was able to salvage about 100 usable pieces of wood. 

Only 1/4 of the pallets were suitable for projects.
The rest either broke as they were pried apart or the nails wouldn't come out.  The non-painted pieces will end up in the fire pit over the next SEVERAL summers and the painted ones won't.
This pile is much smaller than it was. I only say this so you know what you are getting into if you undertake a similar project.

I took a few days off for spring break with my daughter and put together a few things.  The bench is for a patio area I put in last Fall, the table will go in the back yard with the bench.  The boxes and the shutters will be finished and sold at a craft fair my employer organizes for their employees twice a year.  I LOVE MY JOB!

I decided to finish one of the boxes as naturally as possible.  No stain or finish, just reclaimed fence posts turned into a box, wrapped with jute bailing twine finished with two herring bone braided handles.   It is beautifully rustic.  

I love it and hope others will too.