Sharing is caring!

Faux Pallet Walls using Adhesive Vinyl

I keep seeing all the amazing pallet walls but cringe at the work involved.  Who has time for all the cutting and staining that’s involved?  We just moved into a place that has lots of plain white walls.  We live on a little more than 5 acres and we have tons of trees.  Most of the trees we want to keep but the trees we want to cut down are Cedar.  Cedar can be absolutely beautiful in furniture so my first thought was to cut out circles of Cedar and put it on one wall behind our tv area.  It’s a small wall that measures about 8 feet wide and 10 feet tall.  It’s the main wall you look at when you walk into this room.  After cutting a few circles of Cedar I immediately became overwhelmed by the smell.  I liked the smell but I thought it could be overwhelming in the house.  Maybe if I sealed it, it might not be so bad.

Decisions, decisions…

A few weeks went by and I still can’t decide what to do with that plain white wall.  It’s almost driving me nuts.  Do I start a hunt for pallets?  They are not as easily found as you might think.  Do I just purchase some 1 x 4 wood strips at the local hardware store and stain them to make them look like wood?  Maybe.

The decisions are getting tougher and tougher.

One Sunday afternoon I spent about 2 hours at the local hardware store just trying to decide all my options for this wall.  I know I didn’t want paint.  Although, I could paint a mural.  Nah.  Too much effort and this was in our tv room.  It would be too busy behind the tv.  I wanted something unique and cozy feeling.  We live in the country.  I want that country feeling.  I stopped at the metal roofing isle and almost grabbed some sheets of metal.  They were too “new” looking.  I thought they would look great with some wood mixed in with metal.  Honestly,  I was a little worried about the sun reflection against the metal around the tv.  Could you imagine?  Do all that work cutting the metal to fit and it blinded you when watching tv?  If I did this idea it would have to be some weather metal for it to look the way I wanted it to look.

I opted to the vinyl adhesive plank strips.  I’m certain I looked like a crazy women as I laid different colors against each other on the floor of that isle.  I know my husband thought I was nuts.  He just couldn’t understand why I would grab different colors. Oh my gosh, they are only 98¢!  Seriously!  I have a low texture on the walls so I am certain I want to try it.  I’m also certain the hubster was behind me rolling his eyes and shaking his head.  I loaded up on the peel and stick vinyl and headed home.  I already had everything else I needed for my wall project.

TIP:  If you get bored with this look, you can always paint over these vinyls too.

Here’s the before picture of our wall.  Yuck.  Ewww.  Boring!

Items you need for Faux Pallet Walls using adhesive vinyl:

• 4 different shades of Vinyl Wood Adhesive Planks (measure your area to find out how many you need)
• Utility knife (with new, sharp blades)
• Square Layout tool
• 3M Adhesive spray (very important! I used this exact kind here on found on Amazon)
• Ladder
• Goo Gone (trust me)
• Screw driver (if you need to remove light switchers or power outlet covers)

 

It will be extremely important to have all your tools and supplies before you start this project.  There’s nothing more frustrating than realizing you don’t have what you need when you begin.

Directions for apply faux pallet walls using adhesive vinyl:

Start by wiping down the walls with soap and water.  I use Dawn because it cuts done on grease and grime that may have built up.  Make sure the wall is completely dry before you start.  I should also mention that I have a very light texture on my wall so I did a test run to make sure one vinyl would stick before I even attempted this project.

Next, remove any nails, screws, wall light switches or outlets from the wall.  It will need to be completely flat before you start.  If you leave a nail in the wall it will create a bump on the vinyl or even goes straight through the vinyl  The vinyl is not hard.  It’s bendable.

Start thinking about your design.  Do you want it to be random or a pattern.  I chose to go random in my design but I made sure not to overlap colors too close to another one of the same color.

I worked from the top down because I wanted all of my final cuts to be at the bottom where it was less noticeable if I didn’t cut the last row straight.

Start by spraying the 3M Adhesive spray where you plan to lay the vinyl.  I would spray one row at a time.  This is the part that will get sticky and that’s the importance of having Goo Gone.  I had to wash my hands about four times between layers.  I found my hands were sticking to everything.  Regular soap just does not take the glue off at all.  Not like you want it to anyway.

When you get to a vinyl you need to cut there are a few things to note about cutting a vinyl.  It’s extremely important to use a new, sharp blade so it’s easier to cut.  You absolute need the Square layout tool too.  You won’t be able to cut a straight line with out it.  You need the line to be perfectly straight because you are matching it to another straight line on the wall.  If you are off ever so slightly, it will show.  You don’t need to press down hard at all to cut a vinyl either because you will just score it and bend it to actually cut it.  The bending part will actually cut the piece in two.  Here’s a visual to help:

Now start laying each layer one by one until you finish.  It took me about 1 1/2 hours to finish our wall.  I calculated that I used 53 pieces of vinyl to complete my project.  Everything else I already had on hand.  My project came out to just under $50 to transform that ugly white wall into something beautiful!  I might need to add that my husband was quite impressed.  He admitted that he couldn’t see the project I saw while in the store but not that it’s up, he loves it.  What a compliment!  Dudes.  Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em.  I’m pretty lucky though because he always helps me with my projects.  😀

Project complete!   I’m very happy with the results!

Here are some of our process photos:

Here’s a Pinterest friendly photo in case you want to “pin it” for later: