Repurposing pallets to shelving racks

 In the last 2-3 months, I've made seven shelving racks from pallet wood. These used pallets got a second life when we turned them into a shop counter and product display racks. They were planned, sanded, primed and painted in this process. 

These are the original pallets. I spent a lot of weekends planning and painting.

The shop counter in progress. I never took a photo of the finished counter. It came out very well.

Wall-mounted pallets for product display racks.

With the shop now closed and everything dismantled, I have turned the pallets into shelving racks for storage in my garage at home and also for a storage garage. The seventh rack was a smaller one for the inside of the hanging part of a cupboard. 

When I made the first rack, it took me ages to strip the pallets, especially if the wood was quite dry and brittle. It takes time to get your technique right and to know just how much pressure can be applied before a plank will split. I use a crowbar, hammer and a plank of wood. Where it initially took me an hour to strip a difficult pallet, I can now strip a pallet down in 15 minutes with few to no losses. (the one in the video was done in 15 mins with no losses - my best yet).

I didn't bother to do any additional painting or finishing on the planks - they serve their purpose as is and the patchy paint reminds me of their heritage.

Very chuffed with my first rack. It would be the first of seven.

I made a video of the process of making a shelving rack - from stripping down a pallet and removing the nails to assembling the rack. I properly assembled the racks on site. I transport the sides and shelves 'flat packed' and then attach the shelves on site (at the storage garage in this case). There, I can determine shelf height from the actual objects that I want to store on the shelves.

Over a period of a few weeks, I spent every weekend making these racks with some pallet stripping on evenings during the week to build up my plank stash. I think I've worked my way through at least 13 to 15 pallets. My drilling, measuring, jigsaw and assembly skills improved significantly through these repetitive actions and projects. It has been very rewarding.

In 2:30, here is the video of pallet to shelving rack.