Rustic Pallet Frames

These rustic pallet frames hold two 4x6″ photos and are made from reclaimed pallet wood, burlap, and other miscellaneous metal, & paper supplies. Rustic pallet frames are great homemade addition to your rustic home decor. They can also be made in any size and shape and customized to any color.

Working with Pallets

This project is tough if you’ve never worked with pallets. And it’s probably going to make or break the deal for you. You need to pull the pallet apart. There are rusty nails and screws in there. They are stubborn. It is hard. Do you have a friend to cheer you on? If so, invite them over! Do you have a strong guy (or gal) that will do it for you? Yeah… take him or her up on that offer. This part is not the most fun if you don’t like to sweat and rip and tear and see your beautiful pallet get split apart. It takes patience and perseverance to get the pallets apart. Be prepared to lose some pieces of wood in the process.

Here’s a video that shows some ways to disassemble pallets using a reciprocating saw.

If you want to do it by hand, here are the tools I would suggest:

• Pry bar: Stanley 7-1/2-Inch Wonder Bar II Pry Bar*
• Hammer: Stanley 51-624 20-Ounce Rip Claw Fiberglass Hammer*
• Several types of pliers: 4-Piece Pliers Set*
• Heavy work gloves (so you don’t get splinters): Namtso Cut Resistant Gloves*
• Friends to cheer you on!
• Loud music to keep you happy
• Your favorite drink to also keep you happy 🙂
• Lots of water and snacks are always good and will make you less cranky (can you tell I don’t like ripping pallets apart very much?)
• Power sander for once the pieces are apart – I have a belt sander and an orbital sander. If you don’t have either and want to get into this kind of crafty thing I would suggest an orbital sander. You can get one pretty cheap and the orbital ones will have more uses and they are easier to handle. Try this one: Black & Decker BDERO100 Random Orbit Sander, 5-Inch*

Don’t know where to get pallets? Craigslist is a good resource to find them for cheap.

Prepare and Assemble the Wood

Decide on the rustic pallet frame size, and what you need to do from there. You may need to cut your pallet boards before you actually assemble your frame. Don’t forget to add extra room for your “layers” — for example, if you are making a frame for a 4x6″ you are probably going to layer some items behind that 4x6″ photo so it would have to be several inches larger.

Connect the boards together from the back. There are lots of ways to do this too!

Gather Supplies for your Rustic Pallet Frame

Here’s a look at some of my random supplies for my rustic pallet frames. Most of this stuff I already had – minus the burlap and some of the attachment items. This is a real opportunity to be creative and use what you have in the house. I’d say that anything goes. If you like to paint, paint. If you like to stencil — go for it. Use your own style to make something unique. Or make something for a friend or loved one. Christmas is around the corner (wink wink — ho ho ho! — etc etc)

Design your Rustic Pallet Frame

This is the fun part. Take your gathered supplies and put together your frame. You can use all types of accessories.

I used hot glue to secure the burlap

What do you think of these?

My nephew and niece 🙂

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