The Pallet Wall

front view, decorated with various paint and muraling

I saw a pallet wall on Pinterest.  You can check it out here:  http://ifiwerentsolazy.blogspot.com/2011/08/pallet-wall-update.html

front view

So, seeing as how my husband and I are in a bit of a pickle selling our house because of this dastardly housing market, we decided we needed to make the space we have work for us.  He is a musician and I am an artist.  We desperately needed a studio.  I suggested the pallet wall and he was game!

First, we acquired pallets.  This was free, and easier than you think.  Once I put it out there on facebook that I needed pallets, I ended up having four sources available to select pallets from, free of charge. 
Then, we stained each pallet we were using.  Honestly, I know you're supposed to sand-stain-sand again-stain again, but seriously, these are pallets here, I just slapped some stain on them, and called it quits.  Turned out fine.  Next, we added accent paint to certain slats to compliment our hippie/bohemian living room.  Then, we threw on a couple simple murals and that was that.

We assembled the wall laying down on our living room floor, then simply lifted it into position, and voila!  Pallet wall/new studio!

side view

behind the pallet wall, Under the Sun studio

The interior portion of  walls then became our half music/half art studio.

Finally!  All that super fun stuff could come out of our bedroom closet and all the other millions of inconvenient spots we had it stashed.  Finally!  My husband can use his limited time for recording again, instead of hooking up and unhooking and blowing all his time!  All my kids and my craft supplies are all in one spot, making our projects much less stressful and the cleanup and storage so much easier!

rear view, very functional

And the best part of using pallets for an art studio for me, is the functionality of the walls for housing supplies and safely storing art works.  With two little ones around, its really tough to find places to keep my artworks safe, especially while drying.  And I am preparing to open an Etsy store, so I definitely need a place to keep inventory and orders out of harm's way!

Additionally, the pallet wall is easily remove able if we would happen to get tired of it.  But, it works very well in the atmosphere of our home and we just love it.

~~~UPDATE~~~~ The Gatton family pallet wall has been alive and well for almost a year now.  We have been extremely happy with how it holds up, even with billions of kids in the house, some of whom have mistaken it for a ladder from time to time.  Still tickin'!  However, I would like to call your attention to an interesting post HERE that I saw since building the wall about using pallets for building inside homes.  It's good food for thought about selecting pallets for interior projects!!!