Pallet Obsession

If you haven't heard of or experienced the pure joy of Pinterest, get out from under your rock and go explore!!  One of the things I've become VERY interested in (read "obsessed with") is using pallet wood for various projects.  I've seen swings, chairs, frames, play houses, all kinds of furniture, decor, TONS of stuff - all out of pallets!!  I knew that I needed in on this, so I started scoping out dumpsters and curb sides for any of these wooden treasures.  I was able to find several, take them home, and start taking them apart.  Let me tell you, it's harder than you think.  Pallets are constructed to stay together, so everything from the wood - most pallets are made of oak, a very hard wood- to the nails, which are almost like half-screw, half-nail, are working together to make sure you CAN'T take them apart.  Lots of my boards split while  I was trying to deconstruct, but I was able to salvage most of them for my lumber collection. 
I knew that I needed to find a really neat idea for my first project, so I searched on my favorite website - Pinterest, of course! - until I found something that caught my eye.  It was plans for an outdoor loveseat, and it looked easy enough to construct.  Here is the blog tutorial for it. 
I decided to jump in head first and get started!  Any time you work with pallet wood, you need to sand, sand, sand!  I used 3 different grits of sandpaper: 60, 150, and 350.  The 60 grit got the initial rough surface down, the 150 grit smoothed it all out, and the 350 grit, which is a finishing grit, made the boards super smooth, like paper!  With all that sanding, two things happened: 1. I got covered in dust.  And I mean covered - head to toe! 2. My sander decided to stop working on my very last go-round with the 350 grit, so I had to finish sanding my boards by hand.  I wasn't too upset - it could have been worse!

I was able to finish the bottom portion of the loveseat in one night, and I can't wait to finish it!  I'll be sure and add updated pictures of the finished product.  This is going to look amazing on my back patio!!