The pallet hutch made from old pallets – shipping crates, an old wooden desk top and a piece of an old piano
What to do with a bunch of left over pallet wood and shipping crate panels? Well – for us – it became the materials to build our buffet hutch in our dining room. It’s a large piece – measuring 6′ wide x 5′ high x 32″ deep. But it gives us a great place to display and store our dishes, bowls and glasses – while giving us a lot of storage room underneath. Storage room that we use to store our crock pots, electric skillet, roaster, and our canning pots and pressure cooker.
We created the framework for the piece by screwing and glueing together some old 2 x 3′ scrap lumber. Next up – we added two panels from a shipping crate to form the two sides of the hutch (The same crate panels we used to build the canning cabinet – they work great to provide walls for any cabinet project). We then covered the rest of the frame with pallet boards and also used pallet boards to create the base of the display shelf
The left and right sides of the buffet hutch are made from a shipping crate panel
For the top – we used the top of an old wooden work desk that I had salvaged and saved from an old decrepit office desk. Once we had it all together – we gave it a quick coat of black paint – and then followed up with a single coat of off-white paint to give the piece a worn look.
For some finishing touches – we added the top Italian ristorante sign and some lighting. For the sign we used the flip top piece of an old upright piano that was headed for the trash. The panel was the perfect length and a perfect fit for the top of the piece. After that, a little black paint and some white stenciled letters – and the sign was finished
A simple cabinet light mounted inside of the cabinet provides some nice light for display.
For lighting – we drilled a small hole in the back to allow for a cord – and then hung a small under counter light to illuminate the display shelf – and a small spotlight on top to light up the sign.
The best part – with the dings of the old recycled wood – it looks like it has been around forever. If we do manage to ding a door or nick the wood – it just serves to add a little more “character” to the piece. 🙂 To receive our DIY and Gardening Tip Posts each Tuesday – sign up to follow the blog via email or hit the “Like” button on the Facebook tab on the left side of the page. – Jim and Mary
An old piano lid became a sign after a little paint and some stenciled letters
Full size picture of the hutch