Saturday, April 26, 2014

Living Room Project/Pallet Furniture

The Mini Reveal has been done. Now, the long awaited "secret project" has been completely revealed. 

Why did I decide to go this route? 

My couches were old and just not as comfy as they once were. Joey's cat used the legs of the couch & loveseat as a scratching post. We were in search of a sectional to replace the two but couldn't find one that fit our living room in colors we liked in our price range. I had seen pallet furniture on Pinterest & thought it was cool. One couch actually could double up as a full size bed (we tried that, but the extra pallet was WAAAAAY too big for our living room). So, after a lot of research, I decided that pallet furniture was definitely in our budget, fit our personality & would be comfy! And I dare Butterfinger to scratch at this couch!

Just so you know, it's a LOT of work. Figure out how long you think the project will take and quadruple that time. I thought we'd have it all together in one day.  Our neighbor graciously offered to drive to Lowe's and pick up the pallets that our friend Bob and my cousins husband Brian had saved for us. He & I unloaded the pallets and I went hunting for decor. 


Little did I know how long it'd take to sand everything. If I had known, I would've started sanding a WHOLE LOT SOONER!!! Best advice: GET AN ELECTRIC SANDER! Joey had one but I didn't know where it was & how to use it so I did 70% of it by hand. 




We started laying them out, trying to decide how this was going to work. At this point, Joey did not have "the vision" and was just going along with my crazy idea. After a long day and week in the office, we were tired so we decided to sleep on it and come up with a plan in the morning.

We moved the couch and loveseat into the carport & started working away. Many trips to Home Depot for supplies (make a list...it will save you a LOT of time & gas!) and we finally had the sectional put together. We put the twin mattress & toddler mattress in place & wah la! It was starting to come together. 

Next day was Easter Sunday so very little work was done on the project. The coffee table was put together tho (the pallets were already sanded & we had all the supplies). We decided that plexi glass was going to be a wise choice for the top (that way if a certain lil kitteh bebeh knocked something over, the glass wouldn't break). Throughout the week, Joey added pipes to the side & back of the sectional. 

We had to move the tv to a different wall (the wall that makes the most sense for the tv!) so we could have the sectional where I wanted it. However, that wall didn't have an outlet. Joey called up an old friend to come over & assess the situation and see if we could put an outlet where we wanted. Thankfully we could. He was even able to make an outlet for our digital antenna coax cable so we wouldn't have to drill another hole in the floor! Phew! 

This was the mini reveal...a week & a day later. Ironically, the sheets we picked out matched our couch & loveseat perfectly (and no, we didn't plan that & honestly didn't realize it until the next day). We saved 2 of the pillows that came with my old couch as momentos of my first set of furniture (yes, I'm a sappy hoarder). I had 2 pillow cases monogrammed in a rush for the reveal by a local company that I will NOT use again. Poor customer service! Love the pink & that it was a perfect match for our wedding colors tho! In the meantime, I asked my friend Caroline Wilson (the lady that does all the monograms at DandyLions) to find a design for the other pillowcases. You want great customer service, you need to call on her! She found the exact design I wanted!!! I'm glad she found it because I'm certain I'm not the only person that will love it! 







After the electrician came out & Joey moved the coax under the house, we were able to finalize the project! 


Why did I wait till it was semi-finished to reveal? It was purely out of fear. I didn't want everyone to give me the same look that Joey gave me the first few days. Especially since I wasn't completely confident it was going to work myself! I had the vision but I needed to see it before I was confident that it was gonna be awesome! 

These are a few of my favorite things...

A bike clock that can hang on the wall or sit on the table with it's kickstand.

Bike lamps


Homemade pallet coasters

Homemade pallet coaster