Turn Your Pallets Into Holiday Decorations

I love to "shop with my eyes" and take that inspiration back to the workshop. I recently saw some simple yet beautiful holiday decorations at one of the local markets and will attempt to recreate them at home. This DIY project only took me a weekend (mostly drying time) and now we can use these for many holidays to come!

Pallet slats, or any scrap wood planks

Saw (I used a bandsaw)

Nylon bristle brush or similar hard bristle brush

Files and/or sandpaper

Chisel and/or rotary tool

Staple gun

Wood glue

Clamps

Super glue AKA cyanoacrylate adhesive

Paint, I used a bunch of different types

Paint brushes

Yard scraps, like stick / twigs, to add a pop of decorations (this will make more sense in a later step)

blowtorch / wood stain (optional)

Here is a video of me making these festive figures.

I sketched a quick trio for a rough outline (pic 1). I didn't think this would be template-worthy since these can be adapted to fit your imagination. These will come with essentially two layers: the first main body and the second being little accent pieces (pic 2).

The first was a Santa with the accents being his mustache, the brim of the hat, and the star buttons.

Second was the Snowman with the accents being the scarf and the carrot nose.

Third was the tree with no accents (so I went heavier on the additional decorations you will see later).

I only used one plank of pallet wood (pic 3) which I cut into my three pieces of equal length, ~12-inches (pic 4). I did not have any intention of planing these pallet boards down since the texture is what I think makes is look really rustic (pic 2). If I milled a finer quality wood, I would (personally) leave the re-saw marks. Up to you, just my opinion but thought that should be mentioned prior to the cutting.

I marked the outline of the figures on the three pieces of pallet wood with a pencil and was ready to cut.

I used my bandsaw with a 1/4-inch blade to help with curves. You could use a scroll saw or even go by hand with a coping saw, but it will take a little longer, needless to say. I go around and remove the bulk of the excess, but be sure to save them to make your second layer accents later.

Remember to make relief cuts when going around really tough curves. I thought the star on the Santa head was going to the be the hardest part but that proved surprisingly easy actually (pic 5). My toughest culprit was the Snowman! Take your time be safe. Watch those phalanges, people.

Once I had the rough outlines completed, I fine tuned the shapes the best I could with the back of the bandsaw blade. If you are a fan of Jimmy Diresta, you know what I am talking about. However, I didn't go too crazy since I will be sanding the rough spots and getting into the sharp corners with various files to clean it up (pics 10-13. I also used a hard bristle brush to remove any grit / dust from the crevices in the wood.

I used the excess pieces of wood to cut the accents mentioned earlier. The only difference being that my pallet wood is a little over 1/4-inch thick and that seemed excessively large for, say, a slender carrot nose. With that being said, carefully, I cut the pallet down to ~1/8-inch thick. I did so by "sandwiching" in the pallet to protect my hands and cut it length-wise. Afterwards I cut all the accent pieces I needed (pics 1-4). Here, the star buttons were definitely the most time consuming. But, making them all back to back, I think you can see which one was my last and most "proficient" attempt, haha.

In hindsight, I probably should have made the really small parts like the carrot nose and the brim of the hat with some files and hand sanding since the power of the blade cut large portions with the grain of the pallet. They aren't the most durable, ya know?!

I used some chisels to cut some accents out as well (pics 5-7). For example, I cut around the legs (pic 5)and beard of the Santa and around the brim of the Snowman hat.

Lastly, I cut some bases of suitable length/width for the figures to mount on (pic 8).

Cutting complete, I was ready to paint. I just used some painters tape to protect different areas like the difference in the Santa beard area and the hat (pic 5). Making several passes and allowing for dry time I got the color scheme I wanted and filled in the any gaps by spraying excess paint on my poster board and used a fine tipped brush.

I used small amounts of wood glue to secure my accents in place and carefully added some clamps. I also used some CA glue to give me a quick dry for pieces like the carrot and brim. This way, I didn't risk destroying them with the clamping action. I went sparing on the amount of wood glue to minimize any potential squeeze out. When there was some, I used a spare brush to remove it. I didn't want any surface that may not take paint very well. It may be a moot point for wood glue but I wasn't sure and didn't want to take any chances. I have come this far!

I let the glue dry and filled in any additional paint for areas like the snow on the branches of the tree, the Santa beard, and eyes. For the Santa, I used some glitter paint to give it a little extra pizazz and I am happy with that decision.

With all the pieces in place, I took a torch to the bases in the yakisugi / sugi ban approach. I attached the base to the figure with a bit of wood glue and 3/4-inch brad nails. Making your snowman completely round on the bottom isn't the best approach when mounting to the base. I had to slice a flat base to attach it more efficiently, haha...oops (pics 1 & 2).

For the final step, I took a branch from the yard and cut it into various lengths to act as "firewood." I attached these to the bases for a little extra pop (see pic 5 tree base). Additionally, I took some finer twigs and bundled them together with twine and some dabs of CA glue to really hold it (see snowman pics 6 - 11). I placed that and some pine cone looking buds on the Snowman (pics 12-13) . For the tree, I stapled some longer twigs up the length of it (pic 5 & 14, and in my haste I added them plain where I think I would have liked it better had I painted them white like snow...oh well).

And that just about does it! Display your little figure for the holidays or make them as gifts!

I hope this inspires you to make your own or adapt them to suit yourself. For example, I made my snowman with four "snowballs," but you could make it 3 like I see a lot of actual snowmen. Make all trees for a festive forest or make them for a different holiday. Make some animals for Easter or a spooky collection for Halloween.