Upcycle Old Wooden Pallets Into A Garage Storage Solution With A Genius DIY

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The cost of shelving units can add up when you're creating storage to organize a garage. Even if you build your own shelves, the wood is no small expense. It usually costs a couple hundred dollars in lumber to make a large unit, assuming you already have the tools. A cheaper wood source? The humble pallet. Sometimes found for free, other times bought for cheap on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, pallet wood can drive down your DIY shelving costs. Once the pallet is cleaned up and deconstructed, you can use the pieces to create your own custom garage shelving. A Youtube video from NatürlichErtragreich shows a surprisingly straightforward way to do so. 

If it's your first time building with recycled pallets, look into how to source and take them apart safely. Due to its original shipping purpose, pallet wood can be of inferior appearance compared to store-bought planks. But that makes it ideal and budget-friendly for functional storage projects like a DIY garage shelf. NatürlichErtragreich only partially deconstructs the pallet, keeping the top deck whole. Then sections of the deck boards are cut apart to be used as slatted shelves.

You can choose to go smaller or larger for your shelves: two boards deep for more shallow shelves, and four or five for deeper ones. You'll first want to build the frame according to your space and what depth you plan to make the shelves. It's also prudent to sand down the pallet wood shelves before installing them to smooth them out and reduce the chance of splinters.

Standard pallets are usually about 48 inches long, so they're too short to create a frame for a floor-to-ceiling garage shelf like this one. For this project, NatürlichErtragreich uses new wood pieces for the framing and shelf supports. Similar 8-foot, 2-by-3-inch Dimensional Lumber costs about $3 at Home Depot. This is a small extra cost that ensures you have straight and long-enough planks for support. 

The first step is to cut the lumber to create a frame for your intended shelf height. Then, mount the back pieces directly into the wall studs. From there, create the rest of the rectangular frame for each side of the shelf. Add horizontal boards for shelf supports and place the pallet wood shelves on top. You can choose how to vertically space the shelves based on your storage needs. For example, create taller shelves for tote bins or shorter ones for garage shoe storage.

To dress up the finished project, paint or stain the wood. If you don't want the slats on some (or all) of the shelves, place a piece of plywood over them. If you have extra pallets left over, even partial ones, you can consider other ways to use wood pallets for extra home storage.