DIY Pallet Feature Wall - AKA The LONGEST PIN PROJECT EVER!

Just imagine that last part of the title in a megaphone voice. It makes it much more amusing

When we purchased our first home almost 2 years ago we started compiling a list of renovations and updates. Not that the house was bad, it was just very outdated and needed a little love. And needed a lot of corrections from the previous owner who was a REALLY crappy DIY-er. Like baseboards that were just put there, no glue or nails, or gigantic nails running through electrical boxes. Oh the fun! On the list was to update our tiny two piece main floor bath. It's smaller then a closet and was painted a horrible dark brown colour. Ech.

So about 6 months after we moved in I finally got around to painting the bathroom a lovely light green and decided to add in a pallet feature wall from an  idea I found on Pinterest. It was perfect. My hubby has access to pallets galore from work, so it would only cost us time and nails.

18 MONTHS LATER IT'S FINALLY FINISHED!

Seriously. We just got distracted. We started the wall and it has been half finished for a long time. It got to the point where I started to dislike and question the feature wall, not because it was looking bad, just because I wanted it finished or taken down so I could move on. Recently we have had a fire lit under our butts to get our reno projects completed, so our bathroom is FINALLY DONE! YAY!

So this is actually now two Pinterest ideas. The pallet wall, plus my hubby (who is kind of a genius sometimes) had the idea to paint and distress the wood to tone it down a bit. So we he distressed the wood using the vaseline technique and it worked perfectly. Now I have a lovely feature wall in my tiny bathroom that works so well with the rest of the house.

My hubby working away

The Pallet Feature Wall idea is simple and I got the inspiration from here - collect pallets from wherever you can, clean them up if needed (watch for nails and staples), then attach them to your wall after you've cut them to size. My Hubby used a combination of nails and P90X which is a "I'm never coming off this wall" industrial glue, so we could maintain some of the look by keeping the older nails intact.
The Paint Distressing is also relatively simple and worked perfectly because with a baby we have vaseline in the house - Smear Vaseline on the wood where you want the distressed look to show up, mainly around the edges of the wood piece. Then paint over top. We used an antique white colour. When the paint is tacky but not dry, wipe the edges off with a damp cloth. This should wipe off the paint where the vaseline was applied. Now do note that paint dries relatively fast. My hubby was painting some of these in larger batches and by the time he got to the last one it had completely dried and the paint barely came off. So work with one or two boards at a time so you don't get behind.

All in all, even though it took 18 months for us to finish this project, it looks fantastic. We've added a large framed picture instead of the wreath shown in the original pin, but you could use anything really that fits the theme of your home. And really if you not me, you could easily finish this project in a weekend.

All done! And looking awesome with the big frame! Please excuse the mess

Good luck!