Diving In: Our DIY Pallet Bar Creation

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After successfully soaring through my bartending adventures to land the most rewarding craft beer bar position, my success was demolished. You might know why.

so when I mentioned wanting a to build one, my boyfriend Devin was right on top of it- all about the idea of pallet projects. Once we started collecting pallets, everything was in full swing!

Collecting the supplies were simple, Devin had experience with wood design so I followed his lead, eagerly taking it all in. After picking out the perfect wood, stain, and shelf I was still having trouble picturing the pallet inspiration we built upon. So when he casually threw together the skeleton of our first project, my eyes were astonished! I had seen pictures on my Pinterest but having the pallet bar in front of my eyes felt so much better.

Our weekend was in for a busy ride, especially when we decided to spice things up and stain World Maps into the shelf so that it would become one, look unique and last for a very long time. So we picked our favorite maps and put them in place after burning the edges to look like treasure maps. We started with a layer of Poly Shades Wood Stain over the wood, and then repeated once the maps were on. Staining directly over them; and repeating the processs until its tones are even.

After drying and working the map thoroughly into the wood with clear polyacrylic to conserve the paper, we set it to dry. The next day, we poured polyurethane over the first piece, letting it drip down and dry over the edges overnight to see what would happen since we were low on professional supplies.

When checked the next morning, you couldn’t lift the edges of the map one bit.

Fantastic for a first layer. So we are going to test a second layer and repeat with the other two pieces! Once that’s done, we move on to the bar assembly and drilling. Can't wait to set it in the perfect spot and begin serving delicious smoothies and drinks.