A while ago I got the brilliant idea to create a bookshelf out of wood from pallets. I saw some hipster post about ‘reuse and recycle’ with tons of pretty pictures of all the creative things you can make out of pallets. And, don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s a wonderful idea and one day I may still embark on this adventure. However, due to my current situation there were some fatal flaws in this master plan, which are: 1) I live in a studio apartment, 2) I own a ford focus, 3) I don’t really have any tools, 5) I suck at hammering and 4) (did I mention) I live in a studio apartment! You may be asking yourself - Weren’t these things you considered before you decided to start this project? Why yes, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me! That’s what I thought. Let’s start with bringing the pallets home, shall we? So, finding the pallets weren’t a problem, but finding ones that fit into the trunk of my car was. After searching all over town I was lucky if I found one that would fit. OK no problem, one pallet every few days, that’s fine. I wasn’t in a hurry. Once I got one home I then had to take it apart. I watched a YouTube video on how to do this using boards to pry the pieces apart. No hammering, sounded good to me (remember I live in an apartment complex – too much noise is not a good thing). I successfully reduced the most beautiful pallet I’ve ever seen down to just 3 pieces of usable wood. I wasn’t in a hurry but at that rate I’d be dead before I had enough wood for a nightstand let alone the massive array of bookshelves my heart desired. So, hammering it was. Once I got a few pallets taken apart I realized that they were all different sizes. Which would have been fine if I had had the space to store them and then jigsaw puzzle them together but I didn’t. My plan relied on me building as I went along, so I started cutting them down to size…. with the weakest handsaw in the world. My life was passing me by right before my eyes. After weeks of struggling, bound and determined to win, the realization of my unrealistic expectations set in and I admitted defeat. I gathered the small amount of wood I had been able to collect, nailed it together, sanded and stained it. And voila!! My consolation bench to match my re-holstered chair. I don’t like admitting defeat but this time I was bested by my unrealistic expectations.
