Paltrabinet; Part 2

Well despite it being three weeks since my last post, it didn't take us that long to finish the thing - I'm so impressed with how quickly you can knock stuff up in pallet wood.

Day 3

After the base was finally constructed I had a bit of a chilled out day just sanding it down. I decided not to sand it all the way back because the wood looked amazing with all it's different colours...

 

After the sand down it was time to bring it in - and man, this thing is heavy! We lugged it inside only to find we'd made a fatal error...

When we were adding the trim around the sides, we didn't take into account that we'd already built the thing to fit snugly in the alcove. That kinda meant this happened;

...Which was a bit of an 'Oh S**t' moment! Luckily we had actually made the unit the right size, and it was just when we got carried away thinking that side trims would be a good idea that we put our foot in it.

So off the trims came with the help of a chisel and a claw hammer, and eventually we got her in.

You'll see as well that we ended up adding some handles after all. I had thought about cutting slits in the doors so that no handles were needed, but because of the inside positioning of the window box shelves, the slits would have had to go in an odd place, so we decided against it.

Instead we headed into the log store where I've been hoarding some fir trees that I axed down from my mum's garden, ready to burn in the winter. We chopped off some sections from the branches, sanded them down, stuck a screw in the back and came out with these beauties...

I'm so pleased we tried this - it worked out so well and it's so in keeping to use wood that would have otherwise been burnt, rather than buying new handles off the shelf.

Day 4

Day 4 was all about the top section. I'd done some scribbles that ended up in a lukewarm debate about bread bins, and eventually we were agreed.

So the next job was to turn my scribbles into scientific blueprints...

After the plans were finalised we headed outside with all the pallets I'd been deconstructing ready for Paltrabinet Day 4. It really helps with the speediness when you've already got the pallets broken down and ready to go.

And at this point we had so many of the big chunky bits that held the planks together, we actually had to start burning some because we had nowhere to store it all anymore. It would have been nice to keep it all until winter but the log store was already rammo, we had wood piling up everywhere! So we carried on the build with a summer chiminea session to keep us going...

So first for the top section came the sides. For these we used the thicker, smaller sections of wood that you find at the ends of the pallets. We screwed and glued these together because we needed them to be nice and sturdy.

It's pretty impossible when you're building something like this to not want to see what it looks like in situ as you're going along.

So after we had a couple of these built we went on to construct the shelves that would go between them.

Aaand again we bought it in to check it out...

One shelf became two shelves...

And then the spice rack went in...

And somewhere between that ^^^ and this vvv, the divider went in for the top cupboards. Oh, and we lugged it back inside for another cheeky ganders...

At this point we started nailing in the wood that was going to line the back of the unit. This was a nice little production line job that we got through pretty sharpish.

And sometime around here, after filling gaps with the PVA again, we decided to call it a night...

Day 5

Day 5 was all about the finishing off. By this point we knew it was the trims that gave it that professional looking finish, so we started fixing it up...

And after the trims came the doors (this bit was way too exciting)...

That's my bread bin there ^^^, at the bottom in the middle :) Unfortunately Daymans had ran out of the hinges we used on the bottom part of the Paltrabinet, so the doors were just for show at this point. We took them off and tried it out for size...

It is VAST! The great thing is as you walk into the room you'd have no idea the top section was even there, it's designed to be nice and slim so it fits behind the window. But even still, when you turn around and look at it after you've come in the room, it's a pretty amazing statement!

The guys at Daymans sorted out our hinges while we chopped some more fir tree branches so the whole thing could have matching handles... Little tip here - saw the handle off while the branch is still attached to the tree! Don't have a blonde moment like me, chop a tiny bit of branch off, and then spend 15 minutes trying to saw an even tinier bit off for a handle, it will only end in frustration and sawn fingers!

Day 6

A couple of days later and my hinges came, so we could finally put the doors on. This was a pretty momentous occasion and the bread bin did not disappoint!

After a final sand down and an oil over with some boiled linseed oil - which we also had in stock so no extra expense there - this was the final piece...

(And yeah, that's a cheeky little kitchen roll holder Jim made for me out of some pallet and an old broom handle, just for good measure!) 

The whole thing cost a grand total of about £20. We bought hinges, a box of screws, some panel pins and 5 door clasps for holding the cupboards closed (which are super satisfying by the way, sometimes I just stand there opening and closing the bread bin, just because I can). We already had PVA glue and boiled linseed oil. The only other material was the pallet wood, and that was free.