The Easiest DIY Pallet Wall

Here’s how this pallet wall in our master bedroom came to be:

Wife: “Hey babe, I think I want to shiplap our entire bedroom.” #SHIPLAPALLTHETHINGS
Me: “Yeah, ok, maybe someday.” Darn you, Chip Gaines.
Wife: “OR we could do this pallet accent wall…?”
Me: “That would be infinitely easier and cheaper.”
Wife: Orders all the things.  Things show up on my doorstep next day.  —>

In all honesty, though, these boards made this project really easy to complete.  (Especially in comparison to shiplapping the entire bedroom.  Is shiplap a verb?)  We purchased these 1/2in. x 4in. x 4ft. Weathered Hardwood Boards from Home Depot for about $25/box.  Each box comes with 8 pieces and covers about 10 sq ft.

Tools required for this project: nail gun, level, (chop, miter, or skill) saw, Speed Square, tape measure

Step One: Paint the wall a dark color.  These boards are imperfect and will have some small gaps between where the wall will show through.  Emily chose this dark gray color, though it almost looks blue, and we liked it so much we ended up painting the entire bedroom this color.  (Correction: SHE liked it so much she somehow conned me into painting the entire bedroom.  She’s great about painting the walls, but is nowhere to be found when it’s time to cut in all the edges.)

Step Two: Find the studs.  I used a stud finder and then marked the wall with a permanent marker.

Step Three: Pick a random place to start.  You don’t want to start flush with the top or bottom because chances are your wall is not perfectly straight.  Ours was crooked as all get out, about a 2-3 inch difference from the left side to the right.  To have the wall look pleasing to the eye, pick a spot to start and then level each board in your row.  Yes, each board.  Again, these boards have imperfections and some may be thicker than others or not entirely straight.

The instructions with the boards suggest using wood glue behind each piece, but I didn’t find that necessary.

Tip: Be sure to stagger your boards as you go along so that they don’t all start at the same point (this way the cut lines don’t line up and you achieve a randomized pattern).

Step Four: Trim the top and bottom rows.  You will need to make horizontal cuts on the boards to make them fit in the space you have left.  I just held the board up again the wall and marked where I needed to cut.  The beauty about this wall is that you do want those slight imperfections and character, so I didn’t have to worry so much about exact cuts and 100% accuracy.

It took me about 5-6 hours to complete this wall, spread over two days.  My nail gun died one me about 2/3 of the way into the project and I had to borrow a replacement from a guy at the station.  I’m really happy with the way it turned out and even happier that it saved me from shiplap.

Get all the details about our new bedding here.

See the completed Master Bedroom Makeover here.