Work Space Update + New Pallet Shelves

My work space is almost done. It’s been a long time coming since last year when we flip flopped the arrangement of our house; I can finally see the end of the tunnel. Since the last update on my work space, I painted the dresser, bulletin board, accordion doors and table legs, I added wainscoting and trim to the outside of my work table, I finally hemmed the curtains and I mounted a shelf bracket to hold six new shelves I made of wood from pallets. Gone is the pressed wood shelf I had there (I’m on a house-wide mission to get rid of or makeover other pressed wood pieces. They just gotta go.). The shelf had served its purpose for nine years and was falling apart. The new shelves are bigger, go higher and look so much better!

The ‘MAKE’ letters and clipboards are still in place from the last post. As a list person, the boards really help me stay organized. And ‘MAKE’ is what I do.

The shelves themselves are made of pallet wood. After pulling apart two with just a hammer, my dad helped me find a better tool for the rest. I used a reciprocating saw to separate the cross bars from the center pieces. It’s a very powerful tool and made the work very simple.

MJ and I then put the slats together into similar widths. With glue and screws, we secured shorter slats on the underside to keep them together. The shelf brackets make it simple to adjust the height of the shelves to the items I want to store on them. I didn’t do anything to the wood, I kept the rough, imperfect look because I liked it. I have plans for another pallet wood project and I will do a better job showing my steps then. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what I envisioned was going to work!

I love how high they go. The room seems taller with them now. It was amazing how quickly they were filled with stuff.

I finally have a lovely spot for my painted mugs and the paper garlands. Plus a spot for two new fishy faces. I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do with them yet.

There is even a red basket for my business cards. All of the baskets on these shelves were purchased on clearance in the past year from Target and used to be turquoise. I used my favorite color of spray paint – Colonial Red by Rustoleum –  and made them red. I liked them alright in turq but I adore them in red!

On the other side looks like this now. Repainted and fresh looking. Take note of the small bit of visible wainscoting on the work table.

My plants, barely living, give this room its necessary living items.  One of the palettes had a cool stamp on it so I cut it out and kept it.

The bulletin board is now white and covered in lots of bits from my life. I love looking at it.

Quotes, garlands, business cards, pictures, tiny art pieces, just lots of me. The football guy is MJ in college. Someday I’ll have to put together a tutorial on how I did it because it wasn’t freehand, it’s really easy and it totally looks hand-done.

I got the accordion doors painted too and wow, what a difference, right? Just look back at this post. Despite my complaining, I’m so happy I stuck it out.

This is my work spot though I hardly get to sit here. Love Bug and Sweet J climb on it constantly and it has been many different props. It too is painted in my favorite Colonial Red and I recently gave it a touch-up since the children are hard on it.

So that’s my space and I really, really love it. This room had the last bit of unpainted wood left in it ans now that it’s gone, it feels so good. While I worked on the other projects in the room, I also made it through all my things and cleaned out items I didn’t need anymore which is one of my favorite activities because it feels so good to get done. I still want to do something with the ceiling light fixture but I’m right now I have too many ideas. But I’m going to call it done. I’m so happy with it. I just wish there was a way to keep it as spotless like these photos portray. :)