"Relax" Wood Pallet Headboard

A few months ago I promised a tutorial on how I did our guest room headboard, so here goes! House Tweaking has the tutorial that inspired our headboard. Although I just saw the photo prior to my headboard, now that I have read their tutorial I learned they used fence wood. So you could use whatever kind of wood you can get your hands on. :)

Step 1: Find some pallets! There is all sorts of info out that you should not use wood pallets or you should  use them… Since you are reading this I am going to assume you are ok with them and have done your own due diligence. {I found mine at a landscaping place. Just asked real nice!}

Step 2: Break the boards off now pending on how old your pallets are makes this a different process. We tried whacking the heck out of it with a hammer which resulted in a LOT of noise, boards breaking and very little action! In the end Kurt wisely suggested a splitter/wedge/bar device. It took me less time to split the nails between the boards for both pallets than it did to try out the hammer approach!

Step 3: Choose which pieces you want to use. Play with this part. All of mine were different so I went to town mixing and moving to decide my layout. 

Step 4: Cut the pieces to the length you want. 

Step 5: Sand smooth. I like the natural look, so he kindly did not sand it away.

Step 6: Use two additional pieces (I did one and its a bit wobbly so do two!) to mount the boards to. I wanted to use the original nail holes as much as possible, but did have to make a few of mine own.

Step 7: Add a wood conditioner and follow that up with a stain of your choosing. I wanted the original colors and knots to show through, so I used a lighter stain.

Step 8: Decide on a word or phrase and paint it on!  You could make a stencil I suppose, but I went freestyle for ours! 

{On choosing what to write…. I didn't want to copy the exact headboard from House Tweaking, so Kurt and I brainstormed together. After much debate I decided on "Relax". Kurt's awesome suggestion, which I will throw out for you to use: the Latitude and Longitude of a special place. If we were married already or had a destination we always travelled to I would have pounced on this idea! I guess we will save it for another project!}

I hope our guests feel relaxed in their home away from home when they visit us!

<3 Melissa Delight