Dollar Store Decorative Pallet

I recently noticed that wood pallets are really popular for decorations right now. So I decided to do a wood pallet made of styrofoam from my local Dollar Tree. You can find the styrofoam board usually near the school and office supplies with the poster boards. 

You'll also need: 

Paint (acrylic from Walmart, 50 cents a bottle)

Hot Glue Gun

Paint brush 

An Exacto knife or very sharp knife 

Total cost: $2-5. (I had most things already on hand) 

I have used this board for a previous pallet project but this is pretty much what it looks like. 

First, decide your size and cut it out. I make mine 10x15. Next, cut your board into long strips. I only do four but you can do as many as you want. Then, cut two pieces that are about the height of your pallet. I think they look more wood like if they are a bit uneven but if you are OCD you can use a ruler to help you cut perfectly straight and even strips.

Then, peel off the paper layer on both sides of your board strips. 

Ok, at this point you have two options. You can be a little lazy and glue your board together right now. I have done this with two of my pallets and they still turned out great. But for this tutorial I am painting the boards first before gluing because I think it gives it more detail and looks more wood-like. I will give an example of each option though.  If you want to just glue it now, this is what it should look like. 

Arrange the boards into the shape of your pallet. I like to stagger my boards just a little bit.

The side you are going to paint needs to be facing down. Then run your glue gun vertically a few inches from the edge on both sides and put your two smaller boards on the glue. 

(This is what the BACK of your pallet should look like after gluing. The two back boards and glue hold your boards together.) 

Then you're ready to paint! Unless you're doing it very detailed like I am for this piece. Then you need to paint before gluing. 

For a more wood-like appearance, this is my secret weapon. A brush that has stiff bristles instead of soft. (No idea what it is called, so if you know leave it in the comments!)

Paint your first color going the same direction the whole way. 

You don't really need to paint the smaller pieces since they aren't seen but I did anyway. 

Next I highly recommend painting the edges. Preferably a color that compliments your base color. It makes the whole pieces look more professional. If you chose to glue your pallet before painting be sure to paint the outside edges of your pallet as well. I also like to do a small rough edging around my boards. 

Once it is dry, I always use a TINY amount of brown paint to to make it look like wood. Just random small and light strokes. Not too many. If it looks too harsh, take the original color and blend it in. I recommend blending a lot because it looks more natural. 

When I paint my whole pallets brown I use black and a little cream to make a more wood-like appearance like in my thanksgiving pallet. 

Once that fully dries you can glue it all together just like I showed above! 

(Back after glued together) 

(Front after glued together)

This next picture is to show you the difference when you glue the pallet together before painting and when you glue after painting. 

Top is painting first, bottom is gluing first. 

Next is the lettering and decorating! You can do this in a few different ways. You can use stencils and get it perfect, or you can hand write/draw what you want on a regular piece of paper and then arrange it on the board where you want them. Take a ball point pen and trace it onto the styrofoam pushing just hard enough to leave an imprint of where to paint. Take a thin paintbrush and follow the imprints. That's how I did my lemonade pallet. 

Or you can pick a font on your computer and print it out and trace it on to your pallet the same way. That is what I'm doing for this pallet. 

Then you can leave as is or decorate! 

I'm not much of an artist so I apologize for my funny snowflakes! But I hope this inspires you to make your own pallet and get your crafty on! Enjoy!