Queen Size Pallet Bed Headboard

I and my husband made this queen size pallet bed headboard. It’s 6′ tall with wood all the way to the floor. We used 4 regular size pallets to get enough good wood and the runners of the pallets for the frame.

We started out by sanding all the boards while still attached, with a belt sander. Then, we separated them and used a random orbital sander to get any slivers off the edges.

Next, I set out to stain/paint the board’s different shades of whitewash, grey-brown, and natural colors. Mix and match until you are happy with the layout then rearrange and move them here and there until it looks good. This arrangement step definitely took the longest. Ended up using a full board on every other row so the seams do not line up with the adjoining row, glue, and pin to the frame.

I have included the frame layout we came up with. We used a chop saw to cut the boards so they would fall on one of the supports of the frame.

The project took about 3 days to complete since we did not have any plans to follow we used the trial and error method. (A lot of errors) My husband suggested a sledgehammering the spiked connector plates on the corners of the frame for stability after pinning … great idea! The client wanted a natural-looking finish so we used a Matte water-based sealer. It looked fabulous.

This project turned out amazingly but IT WEIGHED A TON! The 2nd Queen size pallet bed headboard we made was NOT all the way to the floor, just to the mattress height and only took a day for sanding, painting/staining, and cutting. 1 hour to glue and pin.