Old Style Pallet Desk

Some times ago, i decided that it was time for me to have my own "hand made" desk. I just moved into a bigger apartment so the place was big enough for a futur "grandpa desk". Ok i'm only 28 but ... my grand son will one day say "It was my grand father desk" ;).

Anyway here the story of the old sewing machine pallet desk ;)

You will need :

- A saw

- An electric saw

- A least 4 pallets

- An old sewing machine (you can find some in flee-market or on ebay - careful..could be expensive !)

- A cabinet with some drawer (a cheap one in metal will be fine)

- A sander (for the pallet wood and also for the metallic cabinet)

- Some glue (to fix the pallet wood)

- Some screws and a screwdriver

- A large board of plywood

- Some table legs (short ones)

- Some black spray paint

Well... as it is said.. the first step was to find some pallets. My oncle had 4 pallets... they were all blue ! Was a lil afraid of that color was not sure it was going to give me the old style i wanted. But anyway..pallet is pallet...and its free so here we go the hard work start here !

I had to disassemble them. Not the easiest part..

At first I used a regular saw... but then i though it will be faster with an electric saw. So I cut them. At the end only the basics of the pallet was left. See the photo. I did not used those part for the rest of the project... maybe some will say that i could have used them but disassemble those pallet without breaking them was really the hard part.

I was pretty happy with the result. I had many pieces of pallet wood that i can use to make the desk top.

I had an old sewing machine at my parents house that was my grand grand mother. She passed away 2 years ago and this sewing machine was in the garage since then. I decided that it was time to give it a second life.

I did not like the gold part so I : gave it a "coup" or in english... I sanded it and the metal part came back. The silver color look better with the metal desk !

That is not the hard part but you can expert it to take some times if you want to do it right.

As you can see i used the sander to bring back the metal color and to give it a more industrial look.

Here again... not hard... but long ! I had to used many different sandpapers before to find the right one and to finish all.

The I painted the drawers in black (was blue originally). Only a question of taste... and colors. But black fit with everything so... You can see it in the last step ;)

After I disassembled all of the pallets... it was time to transform them in an usable wood !

4 steps :

- As you can imagine.... the key word in this first step is : SANDING ;) you sand, you sand and you sand ! and then you can go to the next step ;)

- Then I chose the right parts of woods i wanted and where i wanted ! And i glue them on a plywood board. And then i screw the pallet wood underneath. So it wont move too much.

- Then.... I sanded it again to have a falt surface.

- Finally I gave it 2 a varnish layers to give this old wood hue.

And now we are ready for the last step !

Here we are... the finish lane ;)

I used some old table leg I had. I had to cut them a little to match the height of the sewing machine ! Careful... not an easy part ! If its too short.... you'll have to find some new ones ! So make the right measurement before to cut. I know....we all do before... but anyway... be careful ;) there is not second chance ;) !

After that i screw everything to the plywood board and .. here we are ! we have an old sewing machine pallet desk ;-) lets see in the last step the result !

And "Voilà" it's done ;)

Nothing more to say except that it was a fun project to do and that i love this desk !

Hope you will like it too !!

It was my first "how to" and I hope I did not kill you with my poor english but if you do the same please !! Share it here so i can see your work ! I'd love to see many desk like that ! Maybe with something different of the sewing machine ;).

Share, love, peace and take care ;)

Damien